Windows XP Service Pack 3

Windows Vista's Service Pack 1 has been quite a buzz during the past few months, but Microsoft is quiet about its Service Pack 3 for Windows XP


Microsoft Quietly Readies XP SP3
Just days after Microsoft delivered the release candidate of Windows Vista's Service Pack 1, Microsoft issued a quiet release of the Windows XP SP3 beta, to about 15,000 testers, the company said.

The next major service pack, a critical fix to the six-year old operating system, will be scheduled to be released in the first half of 2008. Microsoft, however, reminded everyone that this is not definite rather an estimate. "We are targeting [the first half of] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM, though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority," a company spokesperson said. RTM means release to manufacturing, and when a software is given to a publisher to be boxed and shipped to consumers.

Like Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft will at some point offer the beta version to anyone who wants to test it, the spokesman said.

Microsoft has been quiet about what will be in Windows XP SP3, and in general has been reluctant to even mention the update as it publicizes the progress of Vista SP1 in company blogs and regular communications with the press. Analysts have speculated that Microsoft, which has already made several XP-related concessions, including extending support for the aged OS and pushing the end of retail and OEM sales out five more months, wants to downplay SP3 to make sure it doesn't steal any more thunder from Windows Vista.

According to accounts published last month, XP SP3 will feature more than 1,000 hot fixes and patches that have been issued in the past three years, as well as at least four new features, some of which will be ports of Vista tools.