winxplogo.jpgThe third service pack for Windows XP has finally arrived. As we mentioned last week, the 300 MB+ standalone installer will be available from the Microsoft Download Center later today. XP SP3 is also available through Windows Update, where it’s just a 70 MB download.

The third service pack for XP gives you all the Windows XP performance updates, security updates and hotfixes that have been released since Service Pack 2 came out way back in August 2004. While Service Pack 3 may not be as big of a change as Service Pack 2
was, there are some noteworthy features from Vista that have been
included in this release. Namely, NAP, a policy enforcement platform
for limiting network access to secure machines, “Black Hole” Router
Detection, a cryptographic module for the kernel and a new Product
Activation module allows you to install XP without a product key.

If you want to give it a try, here’s a direct link to the English download (300+ MB, EXE).

Microsoft is reporting that over 1,000 fixes have been packed into in SP3 along with some performance improvements as well. Interestingly, Internet Explorer 7 is not included as part of SP3 (could be fallout from the antitrust settlement); you’ll have to grab that separately from the Microsoft Download Center if you haven’t already.

For now, the release is just the x32 version. The release of Windows XP SP3 x64 will coincide with the release of the Windows Server 2003 update, due to arrive in early June 2008.

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