After many starts and stops it appears that Microsoft is now officially pushing Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to its customers via Automatic Updates. Early reports indicate, however, that installation of SP3 is a highly risky proposition, with many users reporting problems ranging from browser troubles to complete corruption of their system. Here are some interesting links to read regarding this:
http://www.wservernews.com/YGN8EJ/080512-AMD-CPU
http://www.wservernews.com/YGN8EJ/080512-XP-SP3-FAQ
And this and this are just plain ugly. My advice is to stay away from SP3 until it's stable -- whenever that may be. Go to "Automatic Updates" in your control panel and turn them off (switch to "Classic View" if you're having trouble finding it). If you're worried about being fully patched, you can go to through Microsoft's website and manually (choose custom install) receive the latest SP2 updates (via "Start -> All Programs -> Windows Update").
I will post an update to this entry when SP3 has been fully vetted and is truly ready for mass dissemination. Finally, if you feel you must update now at least take the precaution of backing your system up, preferrably with a disk imaging program such as Acronis True Image.
