Problem installing windows XP sp3?

After some hours of download, I was greeted with the following message while installing Windows XP SP3.

Windows has detected that one or more protected core system files (kernel) on your computer have been modified. The Service Pack contains updated versions of those files, which work to provide a stable environment for your programs. Due to this modification, the Service Pack will not be installed. For more information, see Knowledge Base article Q327101 at http://support.microsoft.com.

I tried twice but still no luck…. As you all know Microsoft always have a nice way of explaining things to us I thought I would post the solution for the above problem here.

This error occurs mainly due to changed kernel file. This is possible if you have installed any XP Tune up softwares like Tuneup Utilities, Autopatcher etc

So the first solution for the above problem is

1. Uninstall any such softwares
2. Restart windows and try installing Service pack 3

If the above does not work for you (in my case : No ) then try the following steps

1. Right Click My Computer and select Properties
2. In the Advanced tab, Click Settings under Start up and Recovery
3. Click Edit button under Startup : This will open boot.ini in notepad
4. Search for /KERNEL={anyfile} and delete it.
5. Save, Close and restart the computer
6. Try installing SP3

Source : Microsoft Knowledge Base
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