Introducing - Unofficial Windows XP SP4

[Dibya]

SP4 v3 is now available.

 

Download available at the usual location.

awesome

[Dave-H]

Thanks very much for this @harkaz.

It must have been a lot of work, and it's much appreciated.

I hope what I've got already is as up to date as it can be, but I'll certainly use your SP4 if I ever have to make a new installation of XP.

Cheers, Dave.

[submix8c]

Boo-boo (the year) in the Components PDF.

 

Microsoft.NET Framework 1.1 SP1 Updated until June 2016 (from Server 2003)
Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 family (December 2016 integrated)
Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 v4.0.30319.1040 (December 2016 integrated)

Back To The Future!

 

Am I understanding correctly the Legacy v2 "false positive" is fixed? Also does it include everything *except* POSReady? (That's a bit unclear.)

Edited January 20, 2016 by submix8c

[harkaz]

The year number... haha I'll fix it. UPDATE: Fixed it.

 

Well, SP4v3 includes all POSready updates as well with the exception of the buggy shlwapi.dll (this won't be ever fixed unfortunately..). The NOPOS flavor is deprecated, it won't be updated any more.

 

Check the special "POSReady updates" section to see what's included.

 

@Dave-H Thank you so much, it's really been a huge number of hours working on this project, especially in Q4 2013 and August-November 2014. I remember doing nothing else but working on the SP4. But it's my privilege to build the final SP for the best OS probably ever made. There are so many machines out there -including medical devices and ATMs- still running XP so it is very important to try and keep it as secure, fast and reliable as possible. I did my best to contribute to the community of XP users, other experts out there will contribute even further. I feel I've done my part.

Edited January 20, 2016 by harkaz

[Dave-H]

No problem @harkaz, your praise is much deserved!

I agree with you that in the future XP will I'm sure be considered the pinnacle of Microsoft's achievement in operating systems, before over-emphasis on eye candy looks and over-obsession with security restrictions took over.

I assume there'll be another update to fix the dates problem in the documentation?

[harkaz]

The PDF is not in the EXE package, and has been already fixed. So, no need to wait for another package.

[Dave-H]

Ah, silly me, of course it's a separate thing!

[harkaz]

XP SP4 wouldn't be that good without the help of excellent testers. GH0st at ryanvm.net found a new regression issue which I'm about to fix in a v3.1 release (it's coming really soon).

[submix8c]

o_O So... good thing I didn't go ahead and download yet? (Rats!)

 

Thanks for the heads up, harkaz!

 

edit - But *will* (as soon as time permits) get the last v2 packages.

Edited January 22, 2016 by submix8c

[harkaz]

@submix8c v2 EXEs will never be removed, but they are not current any more. There will be an INF file with the latest registry fixes for these builds.

 

Also, this dx bug was also present in v2, it's part of the SP4 security enhancements.

Edited January 22, 2016 by harkaz

[Kelsenellenelvian]

What dx bug?

Edited January 22, 2016 by Kelsenellenelvian

[harkaz]

Some registry entries are not found by dxdiag, because they are registered using full paths and not just the file name + extension.

 

All keys that are dpnet.dll-related and two others: Key 'HKCR\CLSID\{4516EC43-8F20-11d0-9B6D-0000C0781BC3}\InprocServer32', Value '', Value ''Key 'HKCR\CLSID\{4516EC41-8F20-11d0-9B6D-0000C0781BC3}\InprocServer32', Value '', Value ''
 

[harkaz]

I am testing the new 3.1 build right now and will start uploading soon.

[dencorso]

J@harkaz: Please, just to make it crystal clear and dispel any and all doubt:

SP4 installs KB892130 (WGA Validation), but does *NOT* actually install KB905474 (WGA Notifications)... instead, it adds just a registry tweak to make WU/MU stop offering KB905474. Is that right?

I did download and read the COMPONENTS_REFERENCE.PDF, but it is too terse, and not clear at all, about this matter.



 

[harkaz]

That's exactly right. You can still enable WGA Notifications from Add/Remove Components in Control Panel (it is disabled by default).

 

I mention imply it in the "Windows XP SP4 Default Components Set": Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications – Disabled by default, Live installer will disable it.

Edited January 23, 2016 by harkaz