Still using Windows Xp ? Update to SP3

[knguyen]

Windows XP still running strong, though officially unavailability as of June 30, 2008 and to system builders license holders no later then January 31, 2009. More info at Windows Life-Cycle Policy Support Life Cycle for xp seems a little grey, Since there are dates of 4/14/2009, another at 4/8/2014 for extended support. Though at least you can expect service pack support up to 24 months after windows service pack has been released or end of product lifecycle(whatever comes first). Which for SP3 release date 04/21/2008 will be 4/14/2009 or 04/21/2010 for extended support. To see for yourself at Microsoft Product Lifecycle Search.

Updates to windows are all the usual routine and upgrading the latest service pack ensures your up to the latest and greatest in security, stability, perfomance and functionality. Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system, and a small number of new updates to ensure that Windows XP customers have the latest updates for their system. Windows XP SP3 will not significantly change the Windows XP experience.

Windows Vista provides the most advanced security and management capability, but for PCs that cannot be upgraded to Windows Vista right now, Windows XP SP3 ensures these PCs have all available updates and allows these PCs to leverage some new Windows Server 2008 capabilities, such as Network Access
Protection (NAP).

This knowledge base article list what SP3 covers.
List of fixes that are included in Windows XP Service Pack 3

Note: You can run the SP3 update package on any edition of Windows XP SP1 or SP2. For example, you can
run the SP3 update package on a computer running the Windows XP Media Center Edition with SP1. The
exceptions are Embedded editions for XP.

Need help getting SP3 on your system?
How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack