On Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:08:44 -0500, "Daddy" <daddy@news.invalid>
wrote:
> When XP Service Pack 3 is released...which I know
> won't happen for a while...
It is expected to be fairly early next year.
I see that Andrew E., in his indefatigable fashion, has mistakenly
told you it's already released. That's completely wrong. The latest
version to be released is Release Candidate 1, which is *not* SP3
itself, but just the latest test version of it. Do *not* install that.
> will I be able to use it to do a clean install?
What you get is the collection of fixes and changes, not an
installation CD. However if you already have an earlier CD, you will
be able to slipstream SP3 into it to make an installation CD including
SP3. See
http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=7262
> My copy of XP is now almost 6 years old, and it's held up very
> well even though I've committed my share of mistakes. I'm thinking
> what the heck, lets have a fresh start with a clean install.
> I'm well-prepared for it.
If you are well-prepared for it, good, but I am almost always against
doing clean installations, unless there is a problem so serious that
all other attempts to fix it have failed. I'm *always* against doing
it for prophylactic reasons.
If you are not having problems, I strongly recommend against doing
this. It is more likely to cause problems than to solve any. You have
to restore all your data backups, you have to reinstall all your
programs, you have to reinstall all the Windows and application
updates,you have to locate and install all the needed drivers for your
system, you have to recustomize Windows and all your apps to work the
way you're comfortable with.
Besides all those things being time-consuming and troublesome, you may
have trouble with some of them: can you find all your application CDs?
Can you find all the needed installation keys? Can you find all the
needed drivers? Do you have data backups to restore? Do you even
remember all the customizations and tweaks you may have installed to
make everything work the way you like?
The idea that Windows needs to be reinstalled periodically is just
false. I've run every version of Windows from 3.0 to Vista (except for
Me and NT), each from the time it was first released until it was
superseded, without ever reinstalling any of them, and never had more
than an occasional minor problem that I was able to fix.
> My copy of XP came with my Dell computer, and I still have all
> the CDs that came with the computer (including the XP install CD.)
Then you will be able to slipstream SP3 into it. See above.
Slipstreaming is fine, so you have the CD when you need it. But I urge
you not to reinstall unless you need to.
--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
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