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Get Your Hands on Firefox 3 RC2 - Now! (Updated)

Mark Soper — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:00:55 -0500

As reported by MacObserver and ZDNet's Andrian Kingsley-Hughes, Mozilla is rolling out Firefox 3's Release Candidate 2.

Update 2: 6-4-2008, 2:14PM PDT

Firefox 3 RC2 is now available using the shortcuts on the Firefox RC page. No "surgery" is necessary. Enjoy!

Although the Firefox RC page doesn't yet provide shortcuts to RC2, it's easy to edit the shortcuts provided on the RC1 page to get your hands on RC2 right now:

1. Navigate to the Mozilla Firefox RC release page.

2. Right-click on the link for RC1 and select Copy Shortcut.

3. Paste the shortcut into a text editor (like Notepad).

4. Change the reference to RC1 to RC2.

5. Copy the changed shortcut.

6. Paste it into your web browser and you're downloading RC2!

RC2 is designed to make sure that any lingering bugs found in RC1 are thoroughly exterminated by the time Firefox 3 rolls out in mid-June.

Enjoy!

Updated 6-4-2008 1:31PM PDT

If you're more comfortable with drilling down manually into the FTP folder, start here: ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/3.0rc2/.

Just keep in mind that you must make sure you choose the correct language folder after you choose the correct operating system folder. For example, choose the en-US folder for US English.

Pour Yourself a Refresh of XP SP3 RC2

Mark Soper — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:18:21 -0500

Tuesday, Microsoft rolled out Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh (no wonder we love abbreviating it!) for public trial.

Why Refresh RC2?

According to the TechNet announcement,

The purpose of RC2 Refresh is to validate improvements to the Windows Update experience with Service Pack 3. Therefore, this beta release will be available only on Windows Update, in English, German and Japanese. Beyond fixes for common Windows Update issues and the inclusion of support for HD Audio, there are no substantial differences between this beta release (build 5508) and XP SP3 RC2 (build 3311).

XP SP3 RC2 Refresh includes all previously released updates for the operating system, similar to earlier service packs. It also includes previously released updates to the latest versions of some system components, as well as functionality that make it easier for enterprises to co-manage both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista PCs within same corporate environment.

[emphasis added]

RC2 Refresh - Available via Windows Update Only!

If you want RC2 Refresh, be sure to download and run the 38KB install script after removing previous builds of SP3 RC, RC2 or betas. The script will enable Windows Update to deliver SP3 RC2 Refresh to your PC.

Note that the SP3 full install versions offered are the original RC2 release, not RC2 Refresh.

RC2 Refresh Needs SP2 First

Remember, just in case you're wanting to do a fresh install of XP before installing SP3 RC2 Refresh, make sure you bring any older XP installation up to SP2 level before installing SP3 RC2 Refresh. You can grab a full installer for XP SP2 here, or use Windows Update to bring XP RTM or SP1 to SP2 status.

Feedback Wanted!

The TechNet gang in Redmond's looking for feedback, so in addition to telling us here at Maximum PC how you liked (or hated) SP3 RC2 Refresh, be sure to post feedback at TechNet.

More About SP3 RC2

For links to other resources, see our original RC2 story.

Get Over 300MB of Digital Goodness(?) with XP SP3 RC2 Full Version

Mark Soper — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 07:39:10 -0600

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Browsers!

Don't want to mess around with using Windows Update to get your hands on Windows XP SP3 RC2? Now, you don't need to.

Microsoft has now rolled out full downloadable versions of SP3 RC2 in English (316.2 MB), German (312 MB), and Japanese (324.5MB). The 38KB script for persuading Windows Update to push it to your Windows XP SP2 machine is also available from the same link.

Some Added Notes on SP3

The release notes for SP3 RC2 are mostly unchanged from the original RC, but there's one big exception: how to ditch the pre-release version of Remote Desktop Client 6.1 before you install RC2. Those of you who hate having your desktops tatooed with "For testing purposes only..." will want to read the Remote desktop connection section of the release notes to learn how to avoid this problem.

The SP3 Overview is available in your choice of PDF or XPS (the latter's mainly for Vista users). However, XP users can grab the XPS Viewer (opens XPS documents in IE 6 or higher) or the XPS Esssentials Pack (opens XPS documents in a stanadalone viewer) from Microsoft's View and Generate XPS website. If you're running the x64 version of Windows XP Professional, be sure to choose the 64-bit version of the XPS Essentials Pack.

Before You Install, Check Out the SP3 Forum

Be sure to visit the TechNet XP SP3 forum before you install SP3, or if you have problems after installing SP3. Some recent threads of interest include:

- How to fix an "Access is Denied" error when trying to install SP3
- How to solve other problems
- How to install IE7 after installing SP3

For Extra Refreshment, Get XP SP3 RC2 Now!

Mark Soper — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:09:23 -0600

Yesterday, Microsoft rolled out a script for Windows XP SP2 users that enables Release Candidate 2 (RC2) of the forthcoming Service Pack 3 release to be downloaded via Windows Update. Get the script here.

Preparations

If you've been waiting to try SP3 until now, you're ready to run the script. However, if you installed a previous release candidate, uninstall it first. Windows Update will not offer RC2 to systems running other release candidates.

Before you install SP3 RC2, be sure to take a look at the Release Notes. Some highlights include:

- How to install SP3 RC2 on Macs with Intel processors running Windows XP
- Why European versions of XP ('N' versions) can't slipstream SP3 RC2 with their current XP discs
- Which font families might not print properly on PCL printers
- New features and functionality in SP3

You might also want to take a look at the white papers available at the Windows XP Service Pack 3 Resources for IT Professionals website. Enjoy!