Ok so i made myself a slipstreamed XP Service Pack 3 beta CD, it was all customised with Nlite but works great and after a day or so of tinkering ive got it running a treat with every piece of pain in the arse software installed. (.NET Framework etc)

Also its pretty tailored for gaming, it runs idle with about 26 processes (less without zonealarm and anti virus) so its taken a lot of work, but still has all the functionality you will notice and need.

But now i have a problem, i went to download the RC1 version and i notice that you have to uninstall any previous SP3 Beta to do this.

So how can i go about removing enough of SP3 BETA for windows to let me get the new one loaded on.

i expect more people will come across this problem soon, any speculation would be good or if anybodys found a way it would be really helpful if they could share!

thanks in advance

add remove check show updates
seeming you slapped the bitch that may not work
you should have known better
xpsp3 runs better than sp2
I noticed in xpsp3 a new security feature is added for install, better policy handling for the user, nice update
lastly netframeworks is not crap it is needed in most .net applications and eventually will be needed

nope theres nothing in the add remove list at all concerning sp3.

its properly integrated. ive extracted the sp3 standalone install file into an i386 folder but no ideas about how to install it over the current set up.

it seems the answer at the moment is to install sp2 and just install sp3 the non-slipstreamed way if they are going to be updating it, until final version is out anyways.

any more ideas?

No more ideas, create a new slipstream disc of the RC1 and wipe clean, there's a reason why it's a beta version....I know it's annoying to get all the software installed then have to do it again, you could always leave it the way it is until sp3 is public and wipe and reinstall

If Windows XP was installed with Slipstreamed version then I would think there's no way you'll see SP3 in add or remove programs, The only way/maybe is to check the show updates and unistall the updates manually. but the problem rely on the OS when it Slipstreamed some files were replace by a newer ones. So you need to uninstall the programs manually and make sure you know what programs that are included on the SP3. and not uninstall the programs/files that the OS required to work properly.

Try using CCleaner and use the Tools menu to uninstall the updates the run the registry to fix the issue. Keep unistalling the updates 'till you can install the SP2 or any updates that you want.

The worst part of all of this is that you might endup reinstalling the OS from scratch without the Slipstreamed SP3 if unstalling the updates doesn't work.

How do you know that 'xpsp3 runs better than sp2'?

Found the solution to installing SP3 over a slipstreamed install containing an earlier SP3 Beta build........

1. Open Regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

2. Delete the registry keys CSDBuildNumber and CSDVersion.

3. WITHOUT restarting, install SP3. If you restart, the registry keys will simply be recreated.