Windows XP SP3 is released for download

Microsoft, in their wisdom, have made Service Pack 3 (SP3) available for download for Windows XP. Many will see this as the last SP for XP, with the eventual removal of retail packs of XP expected at the end of June 2008.

There is no real need to worry though, as the majority of our users buy an OEM version of XP pre-loaded onto their PC, and these will be available for quite a while to come yet.

SP3 includes all previously released XP updates, including security updates and hotfixes. It also includes a small number of new enhancements which will not affect the way most users work at all. These additional updates are really to permit those who have Windows Server 2008 to have some of the new capabilities on their legacy machines (things like Network Access Protection, etc).

Microsoft ensure that they mention that this SP3 will not be bringing new versions of Windows functionality to XP (eg Vista), but they will provide updates for things like IE6 and IE7 according to which you have installed on your PC.

You can easily install SP3 by downloading and installing from:

• Microsoft Download Centre
• Windows Update

Please note:

• SP3 is cumulative, so will deploy on top of SP1 and SP2
• XP SP3 supports the same languages as XP currently does

Normal deployment/installation has been maintained, so just a matter of download & install really.