Microsoft springs XP SP3 surprise
By Stuart Turton
Posted on 19 Dec 2007 at 11:09
Microsoft has unveiled a Christmas surprise by posting the release candidate of XP SP3 on its download site.
The software giant has been trialling an invitation-only beta since October, but the release candidate represents the first time the Service Pack had been made widely available to the public. Despite that, Microsoft was keen to warn off casual users from the preview.
"While the SP3 update is available for anyone, we want to remind you that it is pre-release software and is intended for IT professionals, developers, and other technically-inclined individuals that are comfortable using pre-release software," the company says on its support forum.
The release candidate version of XP SP3 weighs in at about 336MB from the download center, however the white paper that accompanies it suggests the final version available through the Windows Update will be a much trimmer 70MB.
The final version of Windows XP SP3 is slated for delivery sometime in the first half of 2008.
This week's top 5 Windows stories:
1. Vista SP1 bringing back door exploit?
2. Patch Tuesday paralyses Internet Explorer
3. Microsoft up for sale on Ebay
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