Windows XP Service Pack 4

These are my random thoughts on what I would essentially call a Fan Made Service Pack 4 for Windows XP. Some hail it as epic, some slant it as untrustworthy... Let me know what you think of it in the comments and i shall give you my opinions on it as follows....

First off, it's a great idea and im sure it took a lot of work but it lacks a lot of legalities, the permission to use the reg tweaks is great but the implementation of them and the PosReady fix along with microsoft stuff released After April 2014 makes the pack illegal.

It would of been nice to have a semi legal release that just caps off the official life cycle of the OS. The removal of the need to validate media player 11 also causes legal issues with using it.

The reg tweaks should be a Folder under Admin tools with a Reg key for ON and OFF regarding each feature. The packs not sterile because it wont suit all users or network environments unless the user is pc savi to change these settings.

The fact its had the PosReady patch slipped in & yet it hasn't had the Download ActiveX stuff put in for "Microsoft Update" seams also really stupid to only have Windows Update included. If your going to try and integrate .Net 3.5 then clearly windows should be using Microsoft Update (update windows AND OTHER microsoft products) Such as Microsoft .NET

.Net 3.5 included but yet no PowerToys Included ?
why no TweakUI or even AutoRuns placed within the Program Files dir?
IE 8 and yet no Silverlight ?

I see 37 updates on windows update as of today (for PosReady) You realise a system will automatically break the law if auto updates are enabled. It's such a shame because this pack could of truly been an SP4 and then an optional version. Its a lot easier to End a Pack than make one that still essentially needs more. It also should of blocked out MSE and hid it on windows update to avoid offering users to install an AV that actually no longer works.. (win update offers the newer MSE which is clearly dead and an older version is needed) It doesn't even hide the update for the End of support notice, were was the imagination once this pack began?

Microsoft .NET 4.0 is offered on windows update (not .NET 4.5.2) this in turn (after installing 4.0) will bring an unleash a mass of 40+ updates relating to .Net 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 when a merged reg key for 4.0 could of had it offer 4.5.2 and cut down on a stack of the follow on updates.

I have tested the SP4 on Xp Home OEM, XP Professional (Corporate VLK) both harddrive tower based and i have tested it on a Windows 7 Professional running the Virtual XP-MODE with the XP Professional OEM, same results on all 3, it works. XPS Viewer, yet no taskkill.exe added to home. I clocked qefcheck is in and yet no permanent copy of qchain.

I mean if a packs going to break laws and step over the line, step off the kerb to do that bit more, why just tip toe, why that iddy didy bit after what must of been masses of work? to overlook the small easy tasks ? DirectX isn't anywhere near what it should be neither.  What about the patched UX theme dll, why was it not included?

This SP4.. It's such a cool idea and yet a waste of time using it. Even for offline gamers, the Dx Online updater tool is going to offer more DX components (once certain games are installed) at some stage it wont be safe at all to hook XP to the web to download something. Things change over the years.

It just leaves a lot to be desired really in what it could have been capable of. I will be sticking to my own BAT scripts to update a pre-installed XP environment offline and my own bat scripts when slipstreaming separate updates into a custom OEM replacement image for servicing systems.

A fantastic idea with to many ideas above its station and not enough imagination.
frankly this comes across more like a "Roll Up" than a XP farewell finale, frankly he fkd this up.

You can download it from MajorGeeks, just google search  WindowsXP-USP4-v3.1b-x86-ENU.exe

If your looking to keep your XP legal (but having problems browsing microsoft servers with IE 8.0) the check  out the little archive were making here
ber in mind that Microsoft Update and Windows Update (the ActiveX Control certificate is Signed & Dated) that Root Certificate will expire one day.. so the page here will be important one day im sure.