Even as Microsoft tries to shove Windows Vista down the collective and unwilling throat of computer users worldwide, the company is still perfecting the well-aged and well-loved Windows XP. The latter of the two operating systems just received its third (and evidently last) service pack. The collection of fixes and improvements includes the vast majority of security and performance updates, patches, and other stuff released in the two plus years SP2 was released. It also includes a few new improvements. There's little in SP3 that the user will actually see; pretty much everything the service pack packs is background stuff.
Of course, with the release of a new service pack comes a huge, pressing question: How does it compare to Windows Vista and its own recent update, Service Pack 1, in the game performance department? Vista, of course, has been plagued by criticism that games run on it don't perform as well as they do in Windows XP, even though most of the problems were due to early graphics drivers and have gradually been worked out.
Come with us as we install XP SP3 and take it for a test drive, and more importantly compare it to Vista SP1 with a batch of performance tests. Though DirectX 10 is Vista-only, many a gamer has sworn not to upgrade; will XP SP3 cement their decision, or has Vista and its drivers matured enough to change a few minds?
XP SP3 in Detail
As stated, the alterations that Windows XP's third service pack brings to the game are background improvements. While some of them are more noticeable than others, the user won't actually see or "feel" any changes in the graphical user interface (GUI). The experience largely remains unchanged, and Vista-phobic users will probably appreciate that.
That doesn't mean SP3 is without merit, though; its improvements are useful. Besides scores of security improvements, bug fixes, and other stuff that's already been released through Windows Update in the past two and a half years or so, it also includes:
- "Black hole" router detection helps your PC detect and avoid routers that drop packets. This feature is part of Vista, but is only now being introduced to XP.
- Network Access Protection (NAP) allows you to create a customized "health" policy to scope out another computer's condition before your PC is allowed to communicate with it; you can even drop computers lacking compliance into a restricted network until they become compliant.
- Keyless installation allows you to install a copy of Windows XP without immediately entering a product key; you can punch in the key later. This is another feature of Windows Vista that XP users covet.
- A more descriptive security options user interface actually makes attempts to explain security settings things in plain language.
- A more advanced cryptographic module bumps Windows XP's compliance of the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) from the 140-1 standard to FIPS 140-2, and the modules are fully certified; more detailed information is available at TechNet.
You can find out more about the service pack at Microsoft's release notes page dedicated to it. Note that Windows Update isn't the only method of grabbing the service pack; you can download it as a file, or even grab a CD ISO to which you can use to create disc containing the pack.
Check out Paul Thurrott's tutorial on slipstreaming the new service pack into a customized Windows XP CD. Armed with this, you won't have to install SP3 after dropping a fresh Windows XP installation onto a hard drive.
From Extrem Tech
www.vista123.net, easily tweak and customize your Windows Vista.
