Windows XP Service Pack 3 Upgrade Coming April 29
At long last Microsoft has released the third Windows XP service pack to manufacturing and the update will be available to the public on April 29. The rather quiet announcement came Monday after repeated delays caused Microsoft to push back the release of XP SP3.
Unlike Windows XP SP2, which was for all intents and purposes a completely new operating system, SP3 is more of an incremental upgrade. As for what you get with SP3, Microsoft says the update provides all previously released Windows XP updates — in case you haven’t been using Windows Update —as well as a few new OS enhancements.
The list of new features doesn’t offer much to get excited about, but beta testers who’ve been using XP SP3 report that the unspecified “stability improvements” do indeed make SP3 more stable.
We’ve also seen reports of some people claiming a minor speed boost, but naturally that will depend on your hardware setup.
Windows XP SP3 has been floating around in the various forms for some time, from public betas to leaked copies on torrent sites, but Microsoft delayed the official release and declined to offer a timeline. Many suspect that the company didn’t want to give reluctant upgraders yet another reason to put of making the jump to Windows Vista.
But regardless of the reasoning, the wait is nearly over. The link isn’t live yet, but this Knowledge Base page will have all the details of XP SP3.
[via ZDNet]
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