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Rumour control: Windows XP Service Pack 3 this month
Final add-on for classic operating system could be out this month, but it won’t add much that you won’t have already
Windows Vista may have been out for almost a year and a half, but a surprising amount of people are still clinging to their beloved copy of Windows XP, and are hoping for some new goodies in the next service pack. The good news is that the next XP service pack could be out this month.
Neowin claims to have got hold of an internal Microsoft memo detailing the release schedule, with OEMs getting the service pack on 21 April, while it will be made available to Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center on 29 April. Finally, the service pack is apparently scheduled to be made available via Automatic Updates on 10 June.
The bad news, however, is that Microsoft isn’t planning to add much that you can’t already get from Windows Update. Microsoft describes the service pack as ‘a small number of new enhancements, which do not significantly change customers’ experience with the operating system.’ It also says that it’s ‘not adding significant Windows Vista functionality to Windows XP through SP3,’ and that the new service pack won’t include Internet Explorer 7.
One Vista feature that will be included is Network Access Protection (NAP), which is also available in Windows Server 2008. This basically allows you to create a computer ‘health’ profile for your network, which ensures that computers not meeting those requirements won’t be allowed to share assets over the network. As well as this, the service pack will include all of the hundreds of updates, such as support for WPA2 on Wi-Fi networks, which have been issued since Service Pack 2 was released back in 2004.
Microsoft says that one of the service pack’s main purposes is to ‘fill gaps in the updates users might have missed by declining individual updates when using Automatic Updates, and to deliver updates not made available through Windows Update.’ The company also said that the Windows XP was now ‘nearing its end-of-sales period.’
For more details on Windows XP Service Pack 3, checkout Microsoft’s whitepaper.
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i do agree it seems slightly soon but all that windows 7 seems to be is, vista without the bugs
Comment by NikoBellic at 8:21am 17th April 2008
Yeah that site looks like it knows what it's on about, but 09 still seem's a little soon, but maybe that's just me.
Comment by WoodSpoon at 12:34am 17th April 2008
im not saying your wrong at all but if you wish to understand where i get this idea from then go and visit 'http://windows7news.com'
Comment by NikoBellic at 12:19am 17th April 2008
Windows 7 Q2/3 2009? I seriously doubt that, If they are looking at starting testing at the end of 2008 then there's at least a years worth of work doing that so it will be 2010 at least
Comment by WoodSpoon at 10:47pm 16th April 2008
it seems as though from now on Service Packs are just going to contain all of the previous updates, but no new enhanced features added to the OS's, Just look at Vista SP1 and now XP SP3. maybe this is just because they are saving all of the fancy new features for windows 7, which seems to be planned for release in Q2/Q3 2009 although M$ dont want to admit it because they wanna make as much money as possible out of previous OS's such as Vista and XP, Hence the reason for the new Service Packs.
Comment by NikoBellic at 10:07pm 16th April 2008
I understand now, I've got RC2 on three PC's without any problems encountered....
Comment by Varkanoid at 6:14pm 16th April 2008
Numerous issues were reported with Release Candidate 2 of SP3 hence this article is about the "final" version and not a "beta" in that sense. I did have RC2 on my system and slipstreamed it which worked a dream (no more sitting around for an hour installing hundreds of updates!) but had a few issues that were also reported by other users on the MS feedback forums so rolled back to SP2.
Comment by combatus at 5:50pm 16th April 2008
Numerous issues were reported with Release Candidate 2 of SP3 hence this article is about the "final" version and not a "beta" in that sense. I did have RC2 on my system and slipstreamed it which worked a dream (no more sitting around for an hour installing hundreds of updates!) but had a few issues that were also reported by other users on the MS feedback forums so rolled back to SP2.
Comment by combatus at 5:50pm 16th April 2008
who the hell uses IE anyway? Firefox beats IE hands down.
Comment by CPC_RedDawn at 5:53pm 16th April 2008
RC 2 (release candidate 2) is not the official release, but a stage after BETA before the final release.
Comment by hardwidge at 5:51pm 16th April 2008
Windows XP SP3 RC2 is available to download on the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=114f3599-12af-42b2-aab1-b969a62c68a7&displaylang=en its easy to find if you do a search, I read that this is Sp3, it even says so when you look at System properties. It was also available via Windows Update too. I've installed it on 3 PC's what gives ?
Comment by Varkanoid at 5:44pm 16th April 2008
...for most people that I know, including myself. I didn't realise that Vista even had a coffin made for it yet? I think its XP that needs to be buried for once!
Comment by jinja_ninja84 at 4:16pm 16th April 2008
...the final nail in Vistas coffin? Keep on truckin'!
Comment by conholster at 3:25pm 16th April 2008
Nope, we mean IE7. IE 8 is currently in BETA stage, and although you can download IE7 for XP, for some reason Microsoft isn't including it as a part of SP3.
Comment by hardwidge at 3:16pm 16th April 2008
Guessing you mean IE8. Hopefully with the end of XPs lifecycle developers will sort out the issues their software is having with Vista and we can get on with using single boot systems again.
Comment by reashlin at 3:10pm 16th April 2008
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