windows-xp-sp3 posts

While its only been a few months since Valve added support for Mac games in its Steam game download service, the latest results from Steam's voluntary hardware survey still show that Mac gamers comprise only a fraction of Steam's total audience. The July survey results show that only 5.07 percent of Steam users have Mac-based operating systems.

However the latest Microsoft operation system, Windows 7, is gaining in market share with just over 40 percent of Steam users recorded as having the OS installed on their systems (both 32-bit and 64-bit versions). Windows XP users, while losing market share, is still installed in a large fraction of Steam players' PCs with a total of over 33 percent (again with both 32-bit and 64-bit users).

Many gamers have opted out of upgrading to Microsoft's latest Windows operating system, Vista, due to a myriad of complaints. In spite of supporting DirectX 10 exclusively, gamers were dismayed by the strange drop in performance when switching over to Vista. Gaming performance dropped down about 10 percent when run on Vista environments, as opposed to XP. Now that SP1 is becoming readily available for download, benchmarking is finally possible.

The folks at Extreme Tech tried out Vista SP1 and XP SP3. There are improvements for both platforms, but Vista easily gains the most in this first patch. Whereas before, games on Vista produced lower framerates, they now perform identically to XP games. With driver issues finally being resolved on the maturing Vista product, gamers may finally make the leap to Vista ... provided they aren't waiting for the next Windows OS.

A few days ago we reported that Microsoft had finally allowed folks to download the final service pack update (SP 3) for the Windows XP operating system. The release was delayed due to SP 3's incompatibilities with the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System program. Well, according to a News.com story some PC owners with AMD based chips are reporting that installing SP 3 is causing their systems to be put into an endless reboot cycle.

A Microsoft rep states that the reason for this issue is because of " . . . OEMs improperly placing a Windows XP image created for an for Intel-based computer onto machines with non-Intel chipsets." If this unfortunate issue happens to you it looks like your only recourse is to contact Microsoft's support line. Hopefully no more bugs will be found in this final update to Windows XP; the formal support for the operating system is suppose to end in June although some PC makers are finding loopholes to continuing selling XP based PCs.

A few weeks ago Microsoft announced that their final service pack update for their Windows XP operating system was ready to be made available to download. Then Microsoft announced they had not only delayed the release of Windows XP service pack 3, they had also halted automatic updates for Windows Vista SP1. Now News.com reports that both XP SP 3 and Vista SP 1 are now available to download yet again.

According to the report, Microsoft cheated a bit in making the updates to their two operating systems available again to their customers. Instead of actually fixing the issue that caused them to be pulled in the first place (incompatibilities with the Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System program) they simply released the updates with a filter that prevents the updates from being installed on any PCs that have the Dynamics RMS program. This shouldn't affect most PC gamers who presumably don't have that program installed on their system. Microsoft said a true fix for both OS updates is in the works but didn't reveal a release date.

Remember how we reported that Microsoft had gotten their final Windows XP service pack completed and ready to be released? Well, there's been a little snag. Microsoft has decided to suspend the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 indefinitely. Why? According to an official statement, the company discovered a last minute glitch that prevents SP3 from working on Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.

Not only that but this glitch was also discovered on the first service pack for Windows Vista as well. That means Microsoft has decided to suspend the automatic updates for Vista SP 1 as well. Microsoft just begun to allow Vista users to download SP 1 via their automatic download feature earlier in April. So far there's no word on when either service pack for XP or Vista will be made available for customers.

Microsoft may be retiring their Windows XP operating system from new PCs at the end of June but it finally looks like PC users who still use XP (that means most of you reading this) will finally get one last service pack update to the OS. In a post on Microsoft's TechNet message board, it was revealed that Windows XP Service Pack 3 has "gone gold" meaning that it has been completed and has been sent out to be replicated.

So what is new in XP Service Pack 3 that is of use to PC gamers? Well, not a lot, actually. According to News.com SP 3 will be made available for download to the general public on April 29 and shouldn't take a lot of effort to get up and running (the article states that it took News.com 30 minutes to download and just 10 minutes to install). The updates include a new version of Windows Installer, new wireless security standards and some more technical upgrades. However it's usually good to have the latest version of any software installed on your PC so it's best to grab this when it's released. Besides it will be the last major software update for XP; besides general security patches and updates there will likely be no new features added to XP from now on.