XP SP3 is still not available. Vista SP1 is, and there's free Microsoft support. You can tweak your XP or Vista for free, too, and there's an easy way to see what file belongs to which program. Read on.

XP Service Pack 3 Still Not Released

I was hoping to report that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP had been released this week. The rumours were really flying! Well, no such luck. Instead, Microsoft sent another "almost ready" version out to beta testers. That means further delays and Microsoft isn't saying how long those delays will be.

Speaking of rumours, there are reports that XP's life will be extended, again. XP is supposed to be unavailable for sale as of June this year, although system manufacturers can continue to sell it until the end of the year. But several tech blogs are reporting that Microsoft will announce a reprieve. We'll see how that goes. Have you seen the online petition to "Save XP"? Read about it here:

Save XP petition

Vista SP1 Follow up

Did you install Vista Service Pack 1? How did that go for you?

If you're satisfied with SP1 and you want to recover a big whack of space on your hard drive, you can run a simple tool that will delete the uninstall files for the service pack. Be aware that this will make SP1 permanent. You won't be able to uninstall it after you delete the files.

To remove the uninstall files for Vista SP1:

Open the Run window by pressing the Windows key and the R key at the same time (Win+R)

Type "vsp1cln.exe" without the quotation marks

Press Enter

Press "Y"

That's it. You'll see a message about "...performing file cleanup..." and then you're done.

If, on the other hand, you're having some Vista SP1 issues, you'll be glad to know Microsoft is offering free support for those issues until March of next year. Visit this page for more information:

Microsoft support

If you have Vista, and you haven't been offered SP1 in your Microsoft Updates, you might want to check this column from a couple of weeks ago to find out why:

Column 138

Tweak your XP or Vista

Former XP users who made the jump to Vista long for a simple way to tweak Vista. The best tool for tweaking XP is TweakUI, available from Microsoft, here:

TweakUI

A highly touted Vista alternative is the strangely named WinBubble, which is also free but which is not from Microsoft. You can read more about WinBubble and find the download link here:

WinBubble

FILExt matches file types to programs

When Windows doesn't know what program to use to open a certain file, it won't open it. If you know what program should open the file, you can set the file association. (See here: http://rlis.com/columns/column133.htm.) But what if you don't know?

The FILExt site, here:

Filext

will probably find the answer for you. Just navigate to that page, type the file extension into the search box, and FILExt will list all the programs it knows that owns that type of file. What if you don't own that program? Check for free Open Source alternatives, here:

Open Source

Thank you to everyone who sent along comments, questions, suggestions, tips, and words of encouragement. I appreciate all that! Send email to cate@rlis.com. You can also browse the column archives at any time. Point your browser here:

Archives

See you next week!