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Microsoft denies XP SP3 set for 2007
Windows upgrade announcement a 'mistake'
By Gregg Keizer, Computerworld | Computerworld UK
Published: 10:37 GMT, 25 May 07
Windows XP users will have to wait until next year for Service Pack 3, despite a "mistaken" press release which suggested otherwise.
Windows XP SP3, the next major roll-up of security patches and bug fixes for the still-popular operating system, was mentioned twice in a Microsoft statement posted from Interop on Monday. The release, which touted interoperable protocol efforts between Juniper Networks and Microsoft, said at one point that "Windows Vista supports this protocol today and Windows Server 2008 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) will support it as well later this year."
Several bloggers and some news outlets took this to mean that Microsoft had changed the launch date for SP3 from its official timetable of the first half of 2008.
Not so, said Microsoft Thursday. "While we're still not talking specifics, I do want to point you to the following link as an accurate timeline for our preliminary plans for SP3," a spokeswoman said. "Again, these are just preliminary and we will share more at a later date. Please do reference this link for current timing and disregard the release from Interop, which is inaccurate."
The wrong date for SP3 gained credibility through the impatience of Windows XP users, who first faced a gap of nearly four years between Service Packs when Microsoft announced a delay of SP3 last October. By Microsoft's official schedule, Windows XP SP3 will appear more than a year after the retail release of Vista.
Before this week's snafu, the most buzz a Microsoft service pack attracted was when the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to a Web site owner who had posted a collection of hot fixes he touted as part of Windows Vista Service Pack 1.
Add your commentComments
rie3 | Published: 22:57 GMT, 28 May 2007
Although I have recently updated my laptop to an Advent running Vista Ultimate and recycled my 4yr old HP. I am still running my desktop XP computer which I also love and will keep for a very long time as not only do I need it as lots of software and hardware are incompatable with Vista. I also run it as a server for my laptop. It's highly unlikely I will give up on XP within the next 5yrs. My desktop a Pentium 3.6 is extremely capable or playing my type of games, photo & video editing and being a very secure server. Microsoft will not have things all it's own way. I, like many others have been tinkering with the OS's they keep ploughing out. Even on an old operating system it is still poss to be safe and secure with a bit of effort. Long live XP.