Hi all can someone tell me how to save Windows XP service packs to a DVD?
I heard that Microsoft will not be supporting XP.
Not sure myself, but I would just like to say this. Stay away from Windows 8!!! Windows 7 is actually pretty decent though/
Never tried windows 8 but why is it bad ?
You can download it here Win XP SP3 Exe and burn to a CD or DVD
windows 8 sucks. might be alright if its a touch screen device, but not a laptop or pc. my fiance has it on her laptop. for starters, you dont have a start menu unless you download a 3rd party app.
Dump windows and install linux Mint its free and is not a resource hog like windblows. I have windows 7 & Linux both on this desktop im using now. I can load win 7 or Linux at startup.
what he said. i havent looked back on my home pc. i do dual boot, but thats just for certain programs my girl needs for her collage classes.
i have tried other distros in the past 7 years or so, but always something turned me off. linux mint was just a perfect fit.
+1
On Saturday I had a hard drive power connector come loose. As a result when I powered the system up, it tried to boot from another drive that had Windows 7 on it. Seeing the problem, I reconnected the drive that had Windows 8 and tried to reboot. It told me that I needed to fix Windows 8 by reverting to a previous restore point. I said, ‘OK, go ahead’. Problem was, the act of the computer trying to boot into Windows 7 deleted all the restore points from Windows 8 and there was no way I could save my Win 8 configuration. I had to start all over again, and as Windows 8 refused to run a bunch of my legacy USB drivers after I had upgraded, and I got numerous BSOD’s, I went back to Win 7. I wish I had never upgraded to Windows 8, and I wish I was not so dependent on some Windows programs that I could just use Linux Mint full time.
This sp3 for XP does not include the hundreds of updates since. (Date published: 5/6/2008)
There are ways to get all of them easily, i like a plugin called “downloadthemall” You would use that after you go to the web pages that have them all.
Then do as didge suggested, slipstream them onto an installation disk.
I know my dad bought a laptop with windows 8, What the hell are they thinking of? I thought this was to make it easy.
I’ve been surprised to find that Win8 can be quite acceptable - it has been even more stable than Win7, which was pretty good itself. Win8 adds some features. But it isn’t yet great for touch apps. Took a little effort to learn and set up the way I like it, but with Classic Start shell program emulating Win7 I quite enjoy Win8.
Got a laptop with Win7 and then bought the Win8 upgrade for $15 (ends tomorrow). My desktop with Win7 crashed hard so I used a different drive to get 8 working quickly as my new primary desktop. I also restored 7 on the original drive and set it up as dual boot. However, I’ve not used it once since I got it set up and working as the backup for Win8. Give the comments above, I’m going to unplug the 7 drive - and might put it in a different computer.
Using Classic Start’s 7 interface, I can use desktop apps normally and Win8 apps when I want. And I can run touch using Splashtop Remote with my wife’s iPad for touch input. It’s not compelling for most of the programs I use, but it’s nice for movies and some of the Win8 games.
GottaZoom, I assume there’s probably a way you can make a copy of some of the restore points and put them somewhere they won’t get deleted. There are a few different theories on the Web about why this happens, one notes a disk defragmenter will delete them (which I did not have), another one, posted here, says enabling Bitlocker is a solution to the problem. Anyway, too late for me, I’m still installing programs as I rebuild my system. Also BTW, I found that Classic start interface really slowed things down on my system for some reason, so I then tried Stardoc. Also, you don’t need to pay the $15.00, you can install Win 8 and then get the free upgrade to Media Center, which then licenses your Win 8 core for free as well, but not sure if that free upgrade option also expires at the same time.
“Windows 8 more reliable than windows 7” - my home server that gets a lot of use has been running solidly since I got it 4 months ago without any issues. I applied all service packs on day one and it now has had 121 days uptime. That will only increase as I don’t plan on rebooting any time soon.
A friends win7 home server has had over 2 years solid uptime. I don’t think win7 is unstable/unreliable
Actually, you can get XP with SP3 and all other stuff by bittorrent or whatever 
If not, take your CD, use this prog and make your own: nLite: http://www.nliteos.com/ 
There will be always haters, lovers, etc. I’d recommend you to try any soft by yourself. I really love linux live versions, but no prob if you create a small partition for Win, install it and then decide if you wanna buy the full version or not
If you need a service pack 3 for Windows with all updates. Download the SP3 at Microsoft and something like the Winfuture Update pack that contains almost all updates since SP3. Windows 8 isn't as bad as it's reputation... you can install the classic shell if you want a traditional start menu. And both might be replaced soon with Windows blue
Thanks for the info on the new Windows due this summer, ironic, I noticed on the interesting link you posted:
That site is not straight from MicroSoft, there’s no telling what is really in those files
since most of the concern regarding end of support (for home users) is security patches, you could consider a (security) workaround
microsoft steadystate is free, and works like deepfreeze - it gives you an easy way to revert the entire build to a known state
for example, when my machine was xp, I got it all set and turned on steadystate. after a reboot, it would be reset to exactly the same as it was when I turned it on. so, if I was going to do some shopping online, or visit my bank website, I reboot first - no spyware. When it is time for a software version update, turn steadystate off (reboot), install, turn it back on.
you will of course still want a disk with all the final updates slipstreamed, in the event you need to rebuild the machine from ground zero…