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As I recall, XP SP3 was simply finishing off all the anti-malware updates that you already had from periodic Windows updates. It introduced no new problems, as people already "had" it, pretty much.



I think that's basically correct but most usually the 'holes' they're plugging are sloppy memory recovery and sloppy error catching. That would mean their fixes often change how the algo assigns memory and how it handles errors. I know in my case, I was running sp3 with dozens of programs working just fine. Then a few months back I tried to install a program for my new Fender amp, and ran into lots of problems. As it turns out, I wasn't running the final version of sp3, and after installing it all the problems with my new program went away.