xp sp3 update differences question

[hartford]

Can anyone explain this.

Downloaded xp sp3 on two different occasions.

Same file versions, exactly same file size, different hashes.

One is dated 8/1/2013, the other is 5/31/2013.

What's different between the two? Both downloaded from MS.

TIA.

[filler56789]

The installers are different, even though there may be zero differences between their relevant contents.
Just as an example, the first installers for the latest DirectX9 update can be opened by 7-Zip, but the most recent installers for the same package apparently cannot.

[therube]

I would suspect the digital certificate was updated in the latter.
Or perhaps not?
My WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe, dated 04/13/2008 is unsigned.


(Oh, & it bugs me too when they do stuff like that, make changes, & while perhaps inconsequential, don't document it, so "you never know".)

[Video Dude]

Unfortunately XP only has a few months of official support left. It would be nice if Microsoft bundled all of the updates and fixes since SP3 and released it as a SP4 pack.



Can anyone explain this.

Downloaded xp sp3 on two different occasions.

Same file versions, exactly same file size, different hashes.

One is dated 8/1/2013, the other is 5/31/2013.

What's different between the two? Both downloaded from MS.

TIA.

You could try to extract the files and do a manual comparison to see if anything changed or was added.

[Groucho2004]

It would be nice if Microsoft bundled all of the updates and fixes since SP3 and released it as a SP4 pack.
Highly unlikely. However, there is this (http://xdot.tk/updates.html) excellent site...