After installing SP2 there were not that much of hotfixes and patches that would complete a SP3.So i guess that we're far from it yet.I would say around late april or may.

I know it's in beta testing currently, but not much else. I haven't really been paying attention to Win2k as much since I went to XP.

i was just checking them out yesterday..didn't book mark the page.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.asp...Fhotfixes%2Easp
 
here is every fix for windows 2000 that will be in sp3
 
this gets updated reguraly
 
so far i have every fix on that page
 
windows 2000 pro sp2 + srp1 + 16 pre-sp3 fixes

Non-b0rked link (hopefully)

Red Star-
What precisely is it that you are hoping SP3 will fix ?
 
Or will you just have a richer life when SP3 is there ?
 
H.

not one i actually thought about.
 
I was just hoping sp3 would usher in a new age of computing like sp2 did.
 
more compatibility and stability...plus a whole lot of magic!
 
 
i just want sp3! )
 
edit: Also, i actually enquired about it because of a comment not too long before christmas...where someone said isn't it wonderful MS was going to release a SP for win2k even though XP was now their dominant concern. So i have become kinda worried that MS might be letting win2k slide afterall.

SP3 for Win2k will be released when, well when it's ready.
When we saw some beta builds of it before Christmas most of us expected to see it end of January.
This hasn't happened.
Win2k is primarily a business OS from MS's point of view.
They are not going to roll out a Service Pack that isn't ready.
They learn't the hard way with WinNT SP5 - the fact that SP took down system after system and had to be withdrawn from the website in a mater of days.
 
As another post said, quite what you are expecting from SP3 I really don't know.
As always it's a collection of fixes.
If you were having a problem with the way Win2k currently stands then you would have already contacted MS support who would have given you all the details required to go get the pre-SP Hotfix.

I hear what some of you are saying, but doesn't having the latest service pack give you a kinda 'nice warm feeling inside' !
 
You know, that w2k is getting better and better (more solid and complete) thanks to the latest fixes.
 
I run tons of apps, and don't really have any issues that I can think of (apart from that pesky webscan.exe error), so I don't know what I'm expecting sp3 to do for me.
 
But......
 
.....could it not make my computer that bit more stable and run that bit more efficiently/faster/smoother ??
 
Maybe I might get less messages appearing in the event viewer as a result ??
 
Who knows !!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok. i have an actual example of why i need sp3 now.
 
all this time i have thought that one of my apps (access 97) was screwing up with win2k vs win98. SO i finally broke down and got office 2k.
 
But my problem of not being able to cut and paste pics
turns out to be a fault of 3 win2k system files (ole32.dll for one).
So i click on the hotfix from the article only to be dumped at the main support page; and thus lost amongst the billions of options.
 
I download the 3 updated system files but can't replace the old ones 'cause they are in use and under WFP.
 
SO, it would be much easier just to have one nice place to fix all those billions of problems since sp2 (well 640+) in the form of SP 3.
 
and..can some1 tell me please how i can update my windows protected system files?
 
edit: well after an accident and remembering that one of the files referenced com + when i was trying to manually update them...i stumbled on to a com + hotfix that actually did what it said it would.
 
So my problem is fixed post SP2 --but i have wasted months due to my ignorance.
 
I would rather just have SP3!! ))

LOL
I'll just go and have another look down the list and find something new I need......
All you do is call MS - Even if your product is OEM.
You say "Hello, I'm referencing a Knowledge Base article, the number is xxxxxxx and it says to contact you for a hotfix".
 
They then give you the file location & password via e-mail and you then install the hotfix.

If it includes IE 6 I won't install it after reading about what IE 6 is suppose to be doing regarding spyware (at least M$'s version of it)
If I can find the link on this I will post it here.

Yes, IE6 will also eat your children.

And no, SP3 will not include IE6

Bladerunner, NTGameman, and others:
 
Yes, I'm ALSO interested in when SP3 will arive but, frankly, I can't even get SP2 to work properly. I installed it straight after Win2K Pro itself but it's not updated crucial drivers and is exhibiting the cache write-back problem, which causes hard disk corruption on reboots. Microsoft know about this problem (seeQ281672).
 
A lot of Win2K users are ignorant of it, primarily because after a few days, the errors in Event Viewer tail off. However, by then, the damage has been done.
 
Microsoft invite affected users to contact them for a downloadable fix but I've tried this and, as ever, they simply don't reply. I've yet to find a separate fix for it anywhere.
 
The SP2 I applied was off a freebie CD (not an official Microsoft CD). Was THAT my mistake? Is the downloadable SP2 from Microsoft's site any better, in fully up[censored] everything, especially those two cache files - classpnp.sys and disk.sys? I see that the download version - and here I'm talking about a standalone PC, not a networked machine - uses an SP2Express exec file to install it.
 
I've seen the pre-SP3 list that everyone here seems familiar with and the cache fix is definitely on that list (no.99 in the list). However, before I reformat my main partition again, just to experiment with the downloadable version of SP2, I'd like some cool advice on SP2 - whether it does fix the cache problem and whether FOR A STANDALONE MACHINE.

Hiya,
I'm a little bit confused as to why you haven't been able to get the hotfix listed in Q281672.
You say they don't reply, so I'm assuming you are trying e-mail contact with them?
Trust me on this one, Microsoft are a lot more receptive to phone calls than they are e-mail.
Don't worry if your copy of Win2k is OEM or came with your PC.
When you call them you will first be chatting to somebody before the support people, their job is to stop calls from people who don't have free support from getting through without first paying the per-incident fee.
My conversations with MS usually go along the lines of:
 
MS - Hello Microsoft corporation, please can I take your product code.
Me - Certainly, it is xxxxxx-xxxxxx-OEM-xxxxx-xxxxx
MS - I'm sorry sir, we cannot offer any kinf od support on OEM products, you'll have to speak to your PC manufacturer.
Me - I do appreciate you offer no support for OEM products, however I'm calling in reference to a Knowledge Base article that tells me to contact you for the hotfix.
MS - Ah, in that case no problem, what is the KB number?
 
This is followed by a short conversation, you give them the KB number, they look it up, ask if you are experiencing the problem listed.
You of course say yes, eventually you'll speak to a tech who'll confirm things, take your e-mail address and be told that the fix will be e-mailed to you.
What you actually get is an e-mail with a URL to the file and a password.
You use that password (That lasts for about two weeks I think) to get the hotfix.
 
There is no difference between SP2 found on a cover CD than the version you download from MS.
File size should be around 103MB if I remember correctly.
I've never experienced the problem listed in this article and I'd be interested to see what combination of HD controller & HD actually causes this issue.
For the record I use IBM disks on Promise controllers.
I didn't experience the issue under Win2k and I've not experienced it since migrating to WinXP either.

We tried lowering our password failure level to 3 bad attempts before the account locks out. Untfortunately there is a bug as far as SP2 where the locked account gets synced off to our remote DCs and then marks the account locked again after unlocking it locally. I even went so far as deleting a test account, waiting a day and adding it back in again. You'd think the used SID would have been different enough, but nope. MS has a fix but it is written in the Q-doc that is it "strongly suggested" to wait for SP3. So we bumped up again and wait wait wait. While I don't have a problem with up[censored], my boss is the "sky is falling" type and prefers to wait wait wait. There are so other WINS issues we ope will clear up as well.

i went to windows xp pro corp now.. its much better then win2k
 
but in the end i got the w***z version so you people out their buy stuff

"but in the end i got the w***z version so you people out their buy stuff "
 
Don't worry, you will grown out of it.
In my experience the thrill children get from stealing things does become boring after a while.
Then, once you realise that the world runs on something called an economy and all money doesn't come from your parents pockets, you'll probably decide to actually spend some money.
At the moment you just feel that the world owes you a living and you should be able to use whatever you like for free but it wont always be like that.

i'm 18 years old i know about the world
and it's hard to me to w***z because i'm on a modem