Chris Keroack, Release Manager at Microsoft announced the release via a TechNet posting. In company parlance RTM means, “it’s finally done, and we’re sending it to the CD factory.”
But even before it was made available to anybody, XP SP3 had already drawn some controversy.
Microsoft had initially decided to withhold the final version of XP SP3 from subscribers to TechNet and MSDN until after it was released to the public. Previously, the company did not release of Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) earlier to TechNet subscribers either.
To recap, these subscribers pay Microsoft hundreds of dollars a year for, among other things, the privilege of downloading beta software and service packs for testing and development.
Indeed, up until earlier this week, there was still no indication whether XP SP3 would be available on MSDN earlier than it would be released to the general public.
It seems that someone at Microsoft, or the CD factory, decided take matters into their own hands by leaking the final release of XP SP3 a few days ago. This leak may have forced Microsoft’s hand, and led to its decision to release XP SP3 on MSDN ahead of its schedule.
Popular download sites like Major Geeks and Softpedia have already posted the full XP SP3 download, pre-empting Microsoft’s announcement. The service pack can also be found on BitTorrent networks.
These are not official downloads though, so if you don’t have access to TechNet or MSDN, then you could just wait till Tuesday, April 29 when XP SP3 will be officially available via Microsoft Update, Windows Update, and the Microsoft Download Center.
No matter how you get your copy of XP SP3, be prepared for a hefty download, because it weighs in at 316MB. All download sources (including Microsoft’s) are currently slow. So you might want fire up a download manager program, or let it dribble in overnight.
By Lee Meng Chan
Form : http://tech.blorge.com/
