I found the ICD3 very unreliable and had to use the IPE to control it, which was not the easiest thing to do.

Anyway, now I use Pickit3, very much better, good power capabilities and not forced to use the Microchip IPE. Instead the standalone Pickit3 (or Pickit2, is the same) works great, developed by Evan at Pickitplus.co.uk saving me time and effort.

Ioannis