Topic: Inside Windows XP Service Pack 3

[Amker]

Getting inside the third service pack for Windows XP is a task accessible to all Windows XP users currently due to the fact that Microsoft's private, select and hush-hush refresh was leaked to torrent trackers 
worldwide. Such a simple move obviously managed  to ruin the entire translucent Windows Omerta that
Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group set up once he took the lead of the Windows projects. Sinofsky is responsible for Windows Seven, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1 and comes from building the Office System with an intact reputation of not letting the product slip from its development path.
Unlike Vista SP1 delivered as a 3.2 GB ISO file, containing the operating system with the service pack already packed in, Windows XP SP3 is a standalone installer, according to APC's inside look into the refresh. Testers received a .exe file weighing in at just 330MB. This comes only to offer further proof that the version claiming to be XP SP3 available as a torrent download is in fact the genuine release from the Redmond company. The full build tad is 5.1.2600.3180 (xpsp.070718-2058) and the operating system's refresh even comes with its own knowledge base article: KB936929 (windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu). Unfortunately the additional resource is not available at this time.
Microsoft delivered Windows XP SP2 back in 2004, succeeding to throw the development of the then Longhorn project off track. SP3 was initially planned for 2006, then pushed back to 2007 and further postponed to 2008. Currently the only detail that Microsoft will officially confirm about Windows XP SP3 is that it's scheduled for launch sometime in the first half of 2008. There are however indications from independent sources that the Redmond company is actually getting ready for a release by the end of 2007. One thing is clear however from the leaked XP SP3: the refresh will not deliver any new features to the operating system and in this sense it will fail to be a repeat of XP SP2.
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