Windows Service Pack 3

Yes, I know, a techie post. Those with a real life, normal service will be resumed tomorrow...

Service Pack 3 has been around for a few months now, and I was already installing it before it was officially released because it stopped the common problem with wireless of "Limited or no connectivity." Being Microstuffed though, it knackers other (previously working) parts of Windows, and I wanted to outline and point you in the direction of what I've found so far.

Internet Explorer 6 crashes a lot. Even this webpage causes a crash, and even turning off all add-ons and running it in safe mode still crashes. At the moment I can see the only way to fix it is either download Firefox (something my father will curse me for saying), or download the spawn of the devil that is Internet Explorer 7.

The other thing I'm finding more and more often is Automatic Update becomes a pain in the posterior. The little yellow shield will appear in the bottom right corner, and yet when you right click and do an install, you'll get the message "Windows update failed to install." Then, the yellow shield will reappear, letting you know that the same updates are available, but once again you'll not be able to download them. There are literally hundreds of websites on how to fix this, just try googling it and you'll see what I mean. I sat there going through all these fixes, which look like they have good intentions, whereas in reality they do bugger all. Eventually I found the solution though, and it's actually on the Microsoft website.

Finally, the quickest fix. Back in October 2006 I posted about Outlook Express losing the ability to save blank emails and reopen them. The solution has (almost) been implemented into the newest service pack, but still doesn't work. The solution now is to run step 3 of the original, which is here.

I agree it's all a pain in the bum, but these solutions seem to get XP pointing in the right direction again.

In other news...

A decision has been made on the car, and the Tino has been chosen. Yay for car gadgets.