Microsoft Windows XP users must be well aware of the fact that Microsoft released Service Pack 3 (SP3) Final a couple of weeks ago. XP SP3 fixes a range of bugs and adds new features to Windows XP. The update can be applied to any version of Windows XP Home, Professional, TabletPC or Media Center(32 bit only). So, whats special or a "MUST" install in SP3?

It doesn’t matter what XP patches you have previously applied to your system, SP3 will update any unpatched version you have, partially patched or completely updated system to version SP3. It includes all features of Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, plus all patches, updates and fixes released up to and including April 2008’s monthly security bulletin. So, if you didn’t update to Service Pack 2 earlier, you can just install Service Pack 3.

PS: Keep in mind that new patches made available after Service Pack 3 was released (mid April 2008) will still need to be applied.

Click here to download from Microsoft.com

Apart from enhancements and new features that were included with Windows XP SP1 and Windows XP SP2 , from Mircosoft Release Notes we can see that,

# Only two new features have been added: Black Hole Router Detection Windows and Network Access Protection (NAP).

# The following are already available for Windows XP in stand-alone updates. Windows XP SP3 includes them by default (System administrators must choose to install each of these updates): MMC 3.0, MSXML6, Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 v2, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.5, IPsec Simple Policy Update for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, Digital Identity, Management Service (DIMS), Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) 2.1, Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2).

# From the Release Notes: "Microsoft is not adding significant functionality from newer versions of Windows, such as Windows Vista, to Windows XP through XP SP3. For instance, Windows XP SP3 does not include Windows Internet Explorer 7, although Windows XP SP3 does include updates to both Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, and it will update whichever version is installed on the computer. One notable exception is that, SP3 does include Network Access Protection (NAP)."

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