Guys,
I think many of you would have already updated to SP3.
Can anyone post a short review if its any good or should i stick with SP2. I want to update to SP3 but just want to know your views before that
Have just installed many games, would be a real paint to re-format if Sp3 screws up.. have to redo it all over again
Umm…I don’t think the final has been released yet so there wont be any reviews inless the final is out.
errr..the final IS out 
Nope… it’s not. It has been delayed. In fact, according to this report here even Vista Service Pack 1 has been pulled off automatic updates :devil2:
Despite reports, Microsoft postpones official WinXP SP3 rollout - The Tech Report
nope…read it properly, they stopped pushin it through automatic updates, cos of an issue with a microsoft product used by SMEs, separate fix will be issued for that.
Unless ur using that 
ur ok downloading it. its available in final form from MS, just not on auto updates for now till they issue the fix
EDIT: ok, the link from download.MS is removed for SP3 till they put in a filter in place 
me thinks theres probably till availability from other MS sites. just not from windows update, YET.
I found RC2 Refresh. Not Final maybe a little more Googleing.
dont use this sp3 , its waste. and it hangs a lot. stick on to sp2
Ever since I went to SP3, I have been facing slowdowns and hangups on my old computer. Perhaps because I am hardware inclined, and compounded with the fact that I own one of the early buggy Asus A7N8x Deluxe boards, I thought it was a hardware problem initially.
Then noticed that on shut down, ZA was one program that would “stop responding,” Not all the time, but just once in a while.
The culprit seemed to be svchost.exe on Windows Task Manager taking up 98% of the CPU resources.
Uninstalled Zone Alarm Free fully, including all hidden files, log files, everything associated with ZA. Then did a reinstall, and since then things have been better (not the best still). I still feel the PC is a tad slow at times. However, svchost.exe is not eating up resources now. Another premature and buggy release from Microsoft.
^^ I am on SP3 since 2 weeks, never faced such problems. Even the performance is better now
Like mentioned in Another thread about Win XP SP3
well here is a gaming perfomance comparison & difference b/w xp sp3 & vista sp1.
Gaming Performance: Windows Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 - Reviews by ExtremeTech
If you were expecting a huge drop in performance as your eyes scanned from the XP to the Vista results, well, surprise! As many a tech analyst predicted, Windows Vista’s gaming performance conundrum has largely been solved, and it was mainly due to early graphics drivers.
In fact, I’d been planning to run a few other gaming tests, but the results from these were so uninteresting that further work didn’t seem merited. Love it or hate it, Vista is performing far better than it used to.
Game performance, it seems, has been exorcised from your concern when choosing a Microsoft operating system. That leaves a few other factors, of course: stability, responsiveness, eye candy, price, DirectX version, and a few other odds and ends.
It took about a year and a half, but the performance gap between Vista and its forerunner has finally evaporated
I downloaded mine from windows update so it should be out. No issues whatsoever.
Drat! Problem has recurred! :@ Not sure what is going on. Read on some sites it could have something to do with windows updates.
Hey. with auto update my notebook has updated with vista sp1, pls let me any problem
none no issues at at with vista sp1 atleast in my case none as i am using its from last 20 days
i had installed SP3 before…but then ever since i installed it, like a few others, i faced problems, especially network related.my download speeds were affected.my connectivity was affected.hence i rolled back to sp 2.
I disabled automatic updates and problem has not reoccurred today. Keeping my fingers crossed. I guess we have to wait for another “update” to fix this bug.
Updated to Vista SP1 bout a 45 days back via windows update.. haven faced any problem till today..systems faster.. reboot’s faster.. and also the speed of copying files has increased.. Overall SP1’s good.. and a must for all vista users
Updated to Vista SP1 bout a 45 days back via windows update.. haven faced any problem till today..systems faster.. reboot’s faster.. and also the speed of copying files has increased.. Overall SP1’s good.. and a must for all vista users
Nice to know that, but this thread’s about us poor, ancient XP users… looking to upgrade to SP3 and haul that XP’s ass for couple more years.