Windows XP Service Pack 3
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) was the third and finalservice pack forWindows XP, succeedingService Pack 2. It was released through different channels between April 21 and June 10, 2008, about a year after the release ofWindows Vista, and about a year before the release ofWindows 7. SP3 was not available for Windows XP x64 Edition, which was based on theWindows Server 2003 kernel and, as a result, used its service packs rather than the ones for other editions.
It began being automatically pushed out toAutomatic Updates users on July 10, 2008. A feature set overview that detailed new features available separately as standalone updates to Windows XP, as well as backported features from Windows Vista, was posted by Microsoft. A total of 1,174 fixes are included in SP3. Service Pack 3 could be installed on systems withInternet Explorer up to and includingversion 8;Internet Explorer 7 was not included as part of SP3. It also did not include Internet Explorer 8, which was included inWindows 7, released one year after XP SP3.
Windows XP Service Pack 3 was later included with Windows Embedded Standard 2009 and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009.
Features[]
Service Pack 3 included security enhancements from those of SP2, including allowing developers to enable Data Execution Prevention for their code, independent of system-wide compatibility enforcement settings, theSecurity Support Provider Interface, improvements toWPA2 security, and an updated version of the Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider Module that isFIPS 140-2 ceritified.
In incorporating all previously released updates not included in SP2, Service Pack 3 included many other key features.Windows Imaging Component allowed camera vendors to integrate their own proprietary image codecs with the operating system's features, such as thumbnails and slideshows. In enterprise features,Remote Desktop Protocol 6.1 included support for ClearType and 32-bit color depth over RDP, while improvements made toWindows Management Instrumentation in Windows Vista to reduce the possibility of corruption of the WMI repository were backported to XP SP3.
In addition, SP3 contains updates to the operating system components of Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, and security updates for.NET Framework 1.0, which is included in these editions. However, it does not include update rollups for theWindows Media Center application in Windows XP MCE 2005. SP3 also omits security updates forWindows Media Player 10, although the player is included in Windows XP MCE 2005. The Address Bar DeskBand on the Taskbar is no longer included because of antitrust violation concerns.
Unofficial download packages[]
Unofficial SP3 ZIP download packages were released on a now-defunct website called The Hotfix from 2005 to 2007. The owner of the website, Ethan C. Allen, was a former Microsoft employee in Software Quality Assurance and would comb through theMicrosoft Knowledge Base articles daily and download new hotfixes Microsoft would put online within the articles. The articles would have a "kbwinxppresp3fix" and/or "kbwinxpsp3fix" tag, thus allowing Allen to easily find and determine which fixes were planned for the official SP3 release to come. Microsoft publicly stated at the time that the SP3 pack was unofficial and advised users not to install it. Allen also released a Vista SP1 package in 2007, for which Allen received a cease-and-desist email from Microsoft.
References[]
External links[]
- Windows XP Service Pack 3 at Microsoft Update Catalog
- Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3 at Microsoft Support
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