I have a home-built system running Win XP Home. I have the retail XP disc
with SP2. I’m wired to DSL and use Google Chrome. I’ve reinstalled the OS many
times, but not in the last year or so. Can I still do it and get it all the
updates? I’m confused about the end of support issue. On the Windows site, I
read that “support ended on July 13, 2010. To continue to support, install
SP3.” Has support ended or not?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #15, I look at the end of support for XP with Service Pack 2 and
look at continuing support for SP3.
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Windows XP with Service Pack 2
Well, actually, I believe that was pretty clear. Support has ended for SP2.
Actually, as you point out, it ended quite a while ago.
My strong recommendation is that you install SP3 to take advantage of not
only everything that SP3 fixes, but also the extended support that’s offered for
SP3. I don’t have the date in front of me, but I know it’s still going out for a
little ways.
Using your install disk
Now, having said that, when you install XP with SP2, you will most likely
not get individual updates. But you should be offered SP3.
After you install using your XP with SP2 disc, you should be able to almost
immediately install SP3. From there, carry on with whatever updates
Microsoft offers for XP SP3 users.
SP3 support continues
Realize that the support that they are talking about here isn’t customer
support; it’s not technical support. The only support that’s currently being
offered for Windows XP SP3 are critical security vulnerabilities: fixes for
critical security vulnerabilities. That’s one of the reasons I strongly
recommend that you move yourself to SP3.
If you do install periodically, it might be worth creating a slipstream
disc. I do have an article on that:”How
do I create a Windows XP SP3 slipstream disc?“
Regardless, even if you don’t, install from that SP2 disc. Then, when you
go to Windows Update, automatically install SP3 and from there, you will be at
the currently supported level.
Leo, when I restore my XP PC to a prior period using a full system image, it is an image that contains a very early version of SP3. When Microsoft discontinues support for Windows XP in April 2014, will they, nevertheless, continue to make available — for an extended period of time — all of the SP3 updates that will have been offered up to April 2014? Thanks…
10-May-2012
“Now, having said that, when you install XP with SP2, you will most likely not get individual updates. But you should be offered SP3.”
__
The last time I did a fresh XP install from an SP2 disc was in 2011
when I set windows update to DL & notify, it downloaded 80+ post SP2 updates
and it didn’t offer SP3 until the last individual update was installed
then after SP3 was installed
if offered me the post SP3 versions of at least half of those same updates and thus I ended up installing over 130 updates
I don’t know if they’ve changed the pattern yet to start with SP3
but I do know that if I start with SP2 and immediately drop the network / offline SP3 install over top of SP2 I only get the Post SP3 updates and the few Pre SP3 that aren’t included because they’re for Media Player, dot net framework, etc.
14-May-2012
I was afraid of something very similar happening. I have XP Home SP3 on my computer but my XP installation disk is SP2. I could see many downloads to come up to date so I bought an SP3 image disk from Microsoft for about $10/15. I haven’t had to use it yet but, the problem is the disk I received is the PRO version. I can see a different set of problems with using this to restore. Registration etc.