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Block Installation of Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1

Block Installation of Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1
Filed under: Deployment Solution Automation, Configuration, Scripting
riva11's picture
Submitted by riva11 on 20 May, 2008 - 15:14.

Many companies are waiting to deploy the Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 on their computers. In case you have the same target and use the Microsoft Windows Update or WSUS for the patch management, you will have to block these Service Packs on your computers otherwise will be automatically downloaded.

Some helpful information is in the Ghacks article, at the following link: Block installation of Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1.

An intersting tip is to create a script with the reg modification and using DS server run on the target client where you need to block this update:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate]
"DoNotAllowSP"=dword:00000001

Remember that you can re-enable the Service Pack deployment on the Windows Update, simply by deleting the registry key. The next reboot will start the SP deployment.

Paolo

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Average: 3.8 (50 votes)

Great article

craze's picture
Submitted by craze on 20 May, 2008 - 16:36.

I am definitely going to recommend this article to the network administrator and computer science supervisor on campus. The new service packs can open up alot of vulnerabilities that our school is not yet prepared for. Thanks!
PS: Helping the professor out is always a good, grade-wise :P

Vista servicepack 1 is stopping SVS capturing

erikw's picture
Submitted by erikw on 21 May, 2008 - 08:42.

Also remember that Vista SP1 is getti g you in troubles when you wish to capture apps in SVS.
It simply will not work?

Regards
Erik
www.dvs4sbc.nl

Well that's really not

Jordan's picture
Submitted by Jordan on 21 May, 2008 - 09:58.

Well that's really not true, I've yet to hit something I can capture in Vista pre SP1 that I cannot capture in SP1 and I've actually been using SP1 since December.

There may be things that don't install that use to, but that's not an SVS issue.

Disable SymProtect before XP SP3

riva11's picture
Submitted by riva11 on 28 May, 2008 - 12:31.

Some IT admins after Windows XP SP3 upgrade discovered a surprise, in the device manager there where missing network connections and the registry was full of thousands of bogus entries.

In case you have to deploy this Service Pack and use the Symantec products as reported below, you should disable SymProtect prior to installing the Windows XP SP3 upgrade.

An interesting article is published on gHacks.net.

Quote:
If you are running the Symantec products Norton Internet Security 2008, Norton SystemWorks 2008, Norton 360 or Norton AntiVirus 2008 on a machine with Windows XP Service Pack 2 and want to upgrade to Service Pack 3 you should disable the SymProtect feature before doing so or your operating system could go kaboom. More precisely users would be left with an empty device manager and network connections window. This is apparently caused by a large number of bogus Registry keys starting with special characters that have been added to the Registry during the update.

Link : http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/28/symantec-disable-...

Win XP SP3 Windows Update blocked

riva11's picture
Submitted by riva11 on 9 July, 2008 - 06:28.

Update: please note that this tip prevents the Win XP SP3 update to be delivered over Windows Update.
In other words, you are allowed to install Windos XP SP3 a CD or downloading the package from Microsoft.