XP SP3 rollout begins in earnest

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 07 May 2008 04:40

Business IT - Technology

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now available via Windows Update.

XP SP3 was meant to appear last week, but the last-minute discovery of an incompatibility with one of the company's own products (Dynamics RMS) led to a delay.

Microsoft has not fixed that issue yet, rather it has configured Windows Update to avoid offering SP3 to systems that have the retail management software installed. The update will be delivered automatically to appropriately configured systems.

SP3 is essentially a roll-up of the many patches and other updates that have been released since SP2, but it does also deliver some new functionality.

These new functions are black hole router detection (the detection of routers that are silently discarding packets) and Network Access Protection policy enforcement.

The latter is also found in Vista and Server 2008, and provides administrators with a mechanism for controlling network access from computers that are out of compliance with policies regarding items such as operating system patches, antivirus updates, firewall settings and open or closed ports.

Microsoft has warned that if Internet Explorer 7 is installed prior to SP3, it will not be possible to subsequently downgrade the browser to version 6. More importantly, the company strongly recommends uninstalling Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 before upgrading to SP3. The beta can be reinstalled after the service pack.