Slipstream? Why would someone pay for a product that doesn't work right or is severely out of date straight out of the box? Microsoft commands top dollar for their software, and I would demand top dollar support, except I'm running nothing more than a free trial of XP x64 through VMWare. I don't know how to slipstream from Linux and don't care to learn hot to slipstream at all. If I'm gonna pay ~$100/yr for software, Microsoft better take care of such things for me.

Oh well, Microsoft can degrade XP to extended support in January '09, and maybe people will start waking up to alternatives.

installed a fresh windows xp, installed sp3, could not install acrobat reader 8 .. removed sp3 .. acrobat installed ..

Works the same way as SP2 slipstreaming luckily.

I have found one very sticky point for techies using Vista to do the slipstreaming.

If your using a VLK version of XP and slipstream it with SP3 it will not accept your VLK whether its entered from a winnt.sif file or manually. 

It must be done from an XP SP2 machine. I don't know if this affects retail or oem versions as I have only tried it with volume media.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=3256636&SiteID=17

I just created and installed a Slipstreamed copy of my Win XP Pro with SP3. After installing IE7 and scanning for updates I had none to install now them 197 updates I had to disc backed up for future SP2 slipstreams can be deleted lol.

File: donotinstallSPs.adm

Put this into your GPO.


CLASS MACHINE

CATEGORY "DO NOT INSTALL SERVICE PACK"

POLICY "Do not auto-install SPs"
KEYNAME Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate

PART "DoNotAllowSP" CHECKBOX
DEFCHECKED
VALUENAME "DoNotAllowSP"
VALUEOFF NUMERIC 0
VALUEON NUMERIC 1
END PART
END POLICY

END CATEGORY

I SP3-ed an extra PC of mine (new install), and it nuked my 3rd party themes. 
I can only pick Luna. 
Not even classic works. 

I downloaded the Standalone Installer for Network Admins/Developers and installed it on my laptop just now. No complaints so far. Not sure how long it took as I had other jobs to do and just left it.

It is NOT available on Windows Update (as of 5:30 PM CDT).

Just got the friendly little yellow shield from M$ in my tray, decided i should update, o what's this "explorer.exe has generated errors...."

Good ol microsoft! :D

Yeah, so I was foolish enough to attemp an install of SP3 on my home PC. It failed during installation, had some strange errors, I rebooted and Windows will not come up (not even in safe mode). Just trying to warn you guys. XP repair install is underway!

Now on my third attempt to get SP3 on my laptop. The update service keeps giving me an error.

Still got the same problem with SP1 on Vista. This stuff used to work all the time. What are they doing??