Slipstreaming XP SP3 onto a Gold Original XP

[Max Dread]

Hi there

I remember looking into this issue several months ago - back when SP3 was still in its final beta stages, and around the time the RTM was first released...

At the time I wanted to know what I had to do seeing as I only have an original "gold" XP Pro disc (i.e. no service packs). My googling led me to a lot of confusion and heated debate! Some were sure that you could use nLite to slipstream SP3 directly onto a "Gold" XP, whilst others were adamant that you had to use nLite to slipstream SP2 onto the "Gold" XP before slipstreaming SP3 otherwise it would lead to problems. A lot of the debate centred around MS's acknowledgement that unlike other SP's, SP3 was not cumulative.

Now that a few months have passed, I wondered what the consensus is. Is there still disagreement about this? Or is there a definitive answer?

Would appreciate any views or comments.

Cheers

Max

[jmbattle]

I believe the reason for this confusion is because SP3 can only be slipstreamed - into any XP distribution, regardless of whether it is XP 'Gold', SP1, or SP2 - when running an XP OS with SP2 installed. However, please don't quote me on that!

Regardless, why not just give it a try on your system and see what happens - you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain!

Cheers,

James

x

[Ponch]

From what I read...

-to install SP3 on a running XP system, you must have at least SP1 running (so first install an intermediate SP if needed).

-to make a sliptstream disc, you can start from any SP level (0-1-2) so yes, it is cumulative in some way. The OS you are running has no impact.

[johnhc]

Max Dread,

See here for this quote:

I went from gold to sp3 right when it came out.

Enjoy, John.