Microsoft delays XP Service Pack 3 to 2008, or never?

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Microsoft delays XP Service Pack 3 to 2008, or never?

by Jordan Running Oct 26th 2006

January 2008... that's 14 months away, and it's the soonest, says Microsoft, that we can expect Service Pack 3 for Windows. Redmond has pushed back the Big Patch to the first half of '08, which means, some analysts say, we may never see it at all. They remember how Microsoft totally dropped SP5 for Windows 2000 in favor of an "update rollup," which some say wasn't as thoroughly tested as a full-fledged Service Pack would have been. With the imminent release of Windows Vista, you might be wondering why any of this matters, but keep in mind that there are still millions of computers out there running Windows 98, and likewise XP is going to be hanging out on corporate networks for a long time to come. While Microsoft may eschew a third Service Pack, the hackers won't stop finding vulnerabilities and turning them into zombies. Some analysts see a bigger Vista connection: They say Microsoft is pushing back SP3 to give consumers and businesses a bigger incentive to buy their latest product.

Tags: 2008, delay, microsoft, service pack 3, ServicePack3, sp3, vista, windows vista, windows xp, WindowsVista, WindowsXp, winxp, xp

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Peter said 4:23PM on 10-26-2006

How about never? Is never good for you?

By 1Q2008 Vista will have been out for a year. What possible incentive would they have to release an XP service pack at that point?
In some respects I'd rather they work on Vista SP1 than XP SP3.

Elias said 7:43PM on 10-26-2006

Might as well release it after Vista has had a whole year to sell. As I see it now, there's not much of an incentive to upgrade from XP to Vista for corporate networks.

Shunnabunich said 4:55AM on 10-27-2006

Windows Vista *is* Windows XP Service Pack 3. Who are they kidding?

Peter said 7:19AM on 10-27-2006

"there's not much of an incentive to upgrade from XP to Vista for corporate networks"

I think you are wrong about that. Corporate users may have the most to gain.
You get UAC which allows you to stop making users local admins on their machines, stopping viruses and malware. You get full drive encryption to protect laptop data, no more relying on the user to protect the data. You get a bidirectional firewall, no need to buy a separate app. And all these things are controllable with group policy.
The security and management aspects are what is most interesting and useful to businesses.

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