Like many IT professionals, I’m still heavily involved in deploying and supporting Windows XP. While most of the compatibility and performance problems with Vista have been addressed in SP1, there is still a clear case for a lot of businesses to run XP for a variety of reasons, mainly revolving around compatibility with third-party applications.

I’d like to share one caveat I’ve recently discovered while setting up an editing workstation on XP to run Avid Xpress Pro.

The system had already been set up with a Vista Ultimate in line with the company’s migration policy, however it had to dual-boot into XP Pro 32-bit in order to run Avid, which relies on kernel-mode drivers that remain incompatible with Vista. It is my normal practice to slipstream all available service packs onto the install disc to cut down on install time, however during the process of the install I discovered that there is no way to install the Realtek HD Audio drivers after SP3 has been installed. So the procedure can best be summed up as:

1. Install XP SP2
2. Install all hardware drivers
3. Patch to SP3 using a separate disc
4. Install updates post-SP3.

Apparently Microsoft is aware of the issue, but given their retirement of XP to OEM channels on 30th June, I very much doubt that they will devote much effort to resolving it.