Win2k SP3 live tomorrow, but downloadable today By John Lettice Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 is out, available now to the company's major customers, and to everybody else from Thursday. It currently being Wednesday, and Microsoft's record on dispensing service packs in an orderly and controlled manner being what it is, you will be entirely unsurprised that you can currently download it anyway, here.

Jan 8, 2009 - Windows 2000 SP3 includes the updates contained in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2).

There does seem some trace of a front page for the service pack at microsoft.com, and this presumably will be operational tomorrow, but right now it's not. The link above is currently leaking across the web, so you can expect it to slow down pretty soon. Neowin, bless 'em, have unearthed a link to the German version, so our BundesBuddies may have a route round download hell. Or you could always wait until the crush dies down and it's official, of course. Windows 2000 SP3 FINAL is out by Julio @ 2:29 AM Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) provides the latest updates to the Windows 2000 family of operating systems. These updates are a collection of fixes in the following areas: application compatibility, operating system reliability, security, and setup.

Windows 2000 SP3 includes the updates contained in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows 2000 SP2 (SP2). Windows 2000 SP3 is not considered a required upgrade. To determine whether to install Windows 2000 SP3, Microsoft recommends that customers review the Windows 2000 SP3 documentation. 282062 IIS Does Not Authenticate for the /_AuthChangeUrl URL 282062 IIS Does Not Authenticate for the /_AuthChangeUrl URL 282126 Redirecting LPT1 and then printing to PRN: from a TS Client session does not work. Thank you for posting the fixes. Though I must admit I didn't read all of them.

As for if it's just fixes after SP2, no. That list contains all fixes in the three SP's. Why can I say this? Because it lists support for ATA/100 fixed.

This was originally a hotfix created after SP1, but before SP2. (It won't even install in sp2.) And since it was fixed in SP2, it stands to reason the fix list contains every change incorporated into SP1, SP2, and SP3. (I'd hazard a guess that the fixes in SP3 is listed as 30xxxx) Now just to find out if I should download and install it.02$. Win2k SP3 - how to uninstall MS apps, or not.

By John Lettice Microsoft yesterday began spinning the proposed MS-DoJ antitrust settlement, telling reporters it introduced new, uniform licensing terms for its top 20 OEMs on August 1st (the day Licensing 6 kicked in), and that it would be disclosing details of 272 APIs (so there's an official API counter somewhere in Redmond) and offering 113 proprietary protocols for license. The effects of these actions won't be clear for some time yet, but given that Microsoft has been insisting its own programmers don't get preferential access to APIs for years, one suspects. With the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 3, however, it's been possible to see how at least one part of the proposed settlement, the hiding of Microsoft middleware and its replacement by alternative applications, works - or not. The Register applied SP3 to the ancestral Thinkpad as part of the annual OS hosing, which generally takes place during the vacation. Yes, we take the Thinkpad on vacation with us, along with two PDAs, three other computers, a hub, a wireless access point and a giant pile of software - possibly more of this deep sadness anon. SP3 applied onto a fresh installation of Windows 2000 provides you with a couple of capabilities relevant to the settlement, and something very similar, judges permitting, should ship with WinXP SP1.