Officially, Microsoft has been saying "the first half of 2008" whenever the company is asked to put a date for the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). However, various sources have been expecting the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build to become available in the second half of April. Now, according to tech site Neowin, Microsoft's release schedule for XP SP3 is as follows:
- April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
- April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers
- April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center
- June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates
Nothing has been posted on Microsoft Technet as of yet and the latest releases notes for XP SP3 are still pointing to a release candidate. Nevertheless, Neowin has gotten its dates right before, so all there is to do now is cross our fingers and wait. If anything can be learned from the last build, we can expect that there will be at least three languages available, each flavor at just over 300MB.
XP SP3 contains all previously-released Windows XP updates; every service pack Microsoft releases is cumulative, meaning it is possible to install just SP3 on a clean install of XP. Although Microsoft is not including many Vista-specific features in SP3, it is adding Network Access Protection (NAP) "to help organizations that use Windows XP to take advantage of new features in the Windows Server 2008 operating system." Windows Internet Explorer 7 is not included as part of SP3 and still must be downloaded and installed separately.
Windows XP is a six-year-old operating system but there has only one been one consumer OS released since. Although Vista's adoption rate has been faster than XP's, XP still holds the majority of the market. Therefore, Microsoft is continuing to keep it updated. It is unclear whether there will be an SP4, but considering Windows 7 is on the horizon, and Microsoft plans to stop selling XP to most manufacturers and system builders on June 30, 2008, it doesn't look good. Microsoft, has, however, extended the life of XP Home until at least June 2010 for budget laptops.
Further reading
- Neowin: Windows XP SP3 Release Dates
- Microsoft: Windows XP Service Pack 3 Overview
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