Microsoft have released SP3 for XP which, in the main, has changes that improves XP's capabilities in communicating with PCs running Vista.
It also includes all security updates released so far for XP. I had read on various tekkie forums that after installing the pack, many people had noticed a significant increase in speed. Many described it as what you would expect by adding a load more RAM. Now I'm always up for a free speed increase, so downloaded the pack. Being very cautious, I decided to set a system restore point and frankly, was very glad I did.
The install went fine, taking about 10 minutes. I rebooted and all seemed well. Now I use my PC for many things as I sometimes work from home but I also play games. We're not talking Solitaire here. Mainly, I play Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 4 and Battlefield 2142 all online. None of them worked. After firing them up, all I got was the games splash screen and then a blank screen. Nothing moved after that. I couldn't break out from this and had to cold reboot. Office programs worked fine, as did uTorrent and various other non-Microsoft applications.
I restored back (which was quite painless!-first time I've had cause to use it) and all was back to normal.
Now I'm not saying this will happen to you, there are a lot of variables involved and what may not work one one PC can work on another. But! I suggest you do as I did and set a restore point just in case.
Oh, and was my PC quicker with SP3 installed? Not that I noticed..
