Second Look at "Official" XP SP3

Last post I detailed how I installed Windows XP Home SP3 on my long-distended Windows installation, only to find a couple rather major issues. Here's the follow-up.

I successfully removed SP3 (after clearing yet more space - it needs 376MB just to uninstall!). Upon the mandatory reboot, I first attempted to login to my limited user account, only to find that it had the same problem initiating explorer.exe, so I assume that that problem was present before I installed SP3 in the first place.

I logged into my Root account (still SP2, mind you) and found that I could use my themes as I wished. So far, so good.

I then went to the Microsoft Update website, planning to download the update through that. As the "download" progressed, however, I decided it was going too slow and did some searching for alternative means of installation. I found the Network Installation, roughly 316MB. Click the download link, select "run", and wait. When the download was completed, I went through the steps of installing SP3 and rebooted.

At this point, I didn't even worry about my virtually lost Limited User account; best to just copy it to a new account and get rid of it. Logging back into my Root account, I was pleasantly greeted with the Silver Luna theme (I had switched to the default Luna theme and changed colors to silver before installing). I located and downloaded a UXTheme patch for SP3, applied it, rebooted (again!!), logged in, and checked out my theming capabilities. I was greeted with full theming glory.

So, one of the most common Windows Troubleshooting Tips fixed my issues: "If it's messed up, reinstall."

Now that that issue's fixed -- back to linux!!! :)