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Last Updated
October 18, 2007 |
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Product Rating
Beta Product, Not Rated |
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- Update rollup for updates not installed since SP2
- A few kernel-level security enhancements
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- Issues with certain versions of XP, especially XP Media Center and XP Starter Edition
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Ever since Service Pack 2, Windows XP has been one of Microsoft's most stable and secure operating systems they have ever made. When SP2 came out in August 2004, it made Windows XP dramatically better in terms of security. It added the Windows Firewall and Windows Defender, along with other options to protect your computer from the big bad things on the Internet. Ever since then, Microsoft has continued to support Windows XP SP2 via updates and enhancements via Microsoft Update (formerly Windows Update). Unlike SP2, Service Pack 3 doesn't really add anything in terms of functionality to XP, but there are a few things. However, SP3 is pretty much just an update rollup containing all the fixes that have come out since SP2. The current version of SP3 is in beta testing and is only available to beta testers through Microsoft, but you can find it floating around online if you really want to install it on a test machine.
It does sound like this will be the last service pack for Windows XP because Microsoft wants to put all of its focus on Windows Vista and the next version of Windows after Vista, but technical support for XP runs until 2009 and extended support in 2014.
SP3's new updates should already be installed on most people's computers as long as they have been updating their computer regularly using Microsoft Update. SP3 will be huge for anyone who hasn't installed SP2, but that won't be many people. There are, however, new versions of Windows Media Player (version 11) and Internet Explorer (version 7.0) included in the service pack, but once again, these are already available for download from Microsoft. There are also some updates to the Control Panel applets in terms of their written descriptions to help clarify them a little bit.
There are some "under the hood" changes to XP via SP3 though. In a Vista install, you do not have to enter a product key during installation to install Vista, but in XP, you always had to, but now you don't. As in Vista, you can now do a fresh installation of Windows XP SP3 sans product key. If you don't enter one, however, you will be prompted to enter one to activate Windows XP after you install.
SP3 does add some support for FIPS 140-1 Level 1 cryptography in the kernel, which allows software and hardware developers to use cryptographic algorithms to heighten the security of their drivers. There is also support for Network Access Protection, which allows network administrators to setup security policies to make sure that every networked XP machine passes several security tests or it won't be allowed to connect to the network. There is also support for WPA2 wireless encryption and version 3.1 of Microsoft Management Console (MMC), but these both have been already available via Microsoft Update for a while now.
There are a few compatibility issues with the current beta version of SP3. One bug actually stops Windows XP Starter Edition PCs from being able to log in. Another one affects Windows XP Media Center machines. That one stops XP from receiving Media Center updates and prevents connections to and from Media Center Extender devices, such as Xbox 360's. These should all be taken care of by the time SP3 is released to the public.
