XP SP3

[nihil]

Hi there vanman I hope that you and yours are all well.

Yes, I can see a certain logic in that. I guess the point would be that if you just download and force an install or use a magazine cover CD there is no checking for compatibility.

Using the automatic update does let MS check your system first.

EDIT:

My experience was the exact opposite but I put that down to internet connectivity problems. It is very large (324Mb) whilst the auto installer only downloads about 60Mb and keeps going back for the rest.

Normally I use the autoinstaller or the manual one from the MS Updates site.

[Cider]

Checking an office of like 30 computers and having them all DL the service pack individually or first see if it is windows update and then do the standalone install - is this the logic.

[nihil]

Hi there Cider,

This is actually a bit of a strange one. XP SP3 and Vista SP1 didn't play nice with machines that were running the MS Retail Management System. If you went to the MS site for an online update or enabled autoupdate it would check your system, see RMS and wouldn't let you apply the update.

In the case of an office of 30 machines I would expect them to have similar builds. You should have a "reference machine" (labrat, crash test dummy or whatever ) which has all your software on it. You run your updates (OS and applications) on this one first and check that everything still works before using your normal remote/unattended updates of all the production machines.

I am not aware of MS ever checking for other people's software...... that is down to you. However, you might use the MS update on the reference machine before downloading the administrator's update pack. That is what I normally do, but in the case of SP3 it didn't work for me, whilst the administrator's pack went perfectly. That is unusual, but I think that my ISP/Telco was having a few problems. The MS install was 60Mb and it kept going back for more. The administrator's pack was about 320Mb.

I always get the administrator's pack so that I can create a slipstreamed image and do unattended installs

If you are in an environment where every machine is significantly different then you have no choice other than to deal with them individually.

[Cider]

Thanks for that Nihil.

Can you explain this RMS for me, too be honest never heard of it

Maybe I have but just in a different context.

[nihil]

Hi Cider,

I know of it but have never had to work with it. It is a retail management system, which is basically an applications suite for retail stores. As far as I am aware it is aimed at small to medium retailers. I believe that the big chains still use their own bespoke software.

It is sort of like a front office applications suite for retail stores and can handle both instore and online transactions. You can read about it here:

http://www.cts-retail.com/Microsoft%...FRSb1QodWyeNnQ

Its full name is MS Dynamics RMS, and should not be confused with the RMS (Rights Management Service) in Windows Server

[Cider]

Thanks Nihil,

Ill take a look at it.

[fourdc]

Following a point that Nihil made....

With Service Packs I never download to individual machines. On the first machine I use Administrator options and download an image of the SP cd.

With my connection it takes about 2 hours to download for one machine, I have 3 desktops with XP on them.

And as he said, you can slipstream a XP SP3 copy so on the rare chance you have to rebuild XP (I know that never happens right?) you have all the media on hand and not have to do an incremental load of a hard drive.

[nihil]

Yeah, for whatever reason trying to update an individual machine ran like a dog.

The actual executable installer is 324,030KB and I get around 5.2Mbps. So I reckon that is 5.2 / 8 = .65MBps and then 324.03 / 0.65 / 60 which is around 8 minutes, which is what happened. The ISO image is 557,932KB which took a little longer, but I thought: "what the hell?"

And I can clearly remember using 14.4 and 28.8 dial up voiceline connections

[Cider]

5.2 mb/s. OMW.

I get around 40 kb/s max. Im so jealous.

[JPnyc]

Been reading horror stories about AMD users with this update. Endless boot cycles and can't even boot into safe mode.