• It seems that the video about Windows 7 I showed in my post on Tuesday is a fake. http://snurl.com/28×7k #
• There is an updated version of sysprep for XP SP3. Does anyone know why it is needed? http://snurl.com/28xcu #

Some days ago, I was rumbling against the confusion regarding the availability of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. After that, the confusion continued. One of our admins mailed me an article about Microsoft’s decision to pull SP3. He wanted to tell me that this service pack might not be ready for prime time and that we’d better wait some time before we start deploying it. What I found interesting is that he didn’t notice the reason why Microsoft stopped delivering XP SP3. There is an incompatibility with Microsoft Dynamics RMS. Well, we don’t use this software and that certainly also applies to 99.99% of all Windows XP customers.

I think, my colleague was not the only one who perceived Microsoft’s back-and-forth behavior this way. It just makes an unprofessional impression if a company has to withdraw a new product because of technical issues. Some commentators wondered if Microsoft doesn’t test Windows service packs with their own products.

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A few days ago, I blogged about a Neowin article that published a “secret” time table for the release of Windows XP SP3. I was a bit skeptical because I learned from the past that such information is usually not very reliable. On Monday, many news sites reported that XP SP3 indeed RTMed. I was quite surprised to read that volume licensing customers have access to the pack, but Technet and MSDN subscribers don’t. So I logged on to Microsoft’s volume licensing site to see if SP3 is really there.

Well, it wasn’t. Then I read that Microsoft’s release date acrobats changed their mind again and published XP SP3 for Technet and MSDN customers. So I logged on with our MSDN account. Guess what? No Windows XP SP3 far and wide. And now I read in this Computerworld article that it will only be available in June for volume licensing customers. So what now? Please, let me know if you were able to spot SP3 on MSDN or Technet.

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Neowin.net claims to “have managed to get hands on the internal schedule for the release” of Windows XP SP3. According to their information, Service Pack 3 will be available for volume license customers and on TechNet and MSDN on April 21. After the usual respectful time gap of a week, SP3 will show up at the Download Center and Windows Update so ordinary people can get it, too.

Neowin doesn’t say anything about its source. Usually, such information comes from employees who don’t belong to the HRDC (Holy Release Date Circle). I didn’t count the number of release dates that were published for Vistas SP1 this way. So I am not yet convinced that this information about XP SP3 is really correct.

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Windows XP SP3 RC2 is now available as a public download via Windows Update. Even though I know that this SP isn’t really exciting I was curious enough to install it today. As before one has to run a little exe which changes some registry keys. The difference this time was that SP showed up in Windows Update shortly afterwards. Last time, I had to wait a day or so. Download was pretty fast, too. Perhaps that is a sign that nobody is really interested in it?

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Major news sites (ActiveWin, Bink.nu, WinBeta) are spreading new rumors about the release date of Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1. According to a French site, XP SP3 is supposed to be released on March 24 and Vista SP1 on Feb. 18. The latter is obviously false or outdated information. I have no clue if the one about XP SP3 is correct.

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Some days ago, I mentioned that there are rumors that Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1 might come out on January 16^th. Well, as it turned out now, those were nothing other than rumors, even though they were spread by usually well-informed sources. InfoWeek reports that the original time schedule is still valid. That is, Windows Server 2008 will probably be released at the end of February.

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SP3 RC for Windows XP is now publicly available at Microsoft Download. I linked to another build (3244) at BetaNews a couple of days ago. This new build is the official Release Candidate. If you plan to run tests, then I suggest using this one. The download was pretty fast. I downloaded the 336 MB file in 2:36 minutes. I don’t remember how long it took me to get SP1 for Vista, but it was much longer. It is obvious that the interest in this XP service pack is much smaller. Aaron Tiensivu reported that he has been working with SP3 already for some months without problems. According to Jonathan Schlaffer Vista SP1 is a bit more problematic.

You can now download an installation package of Service Pack 3 RC1 for Windows XP. It is a bit strange that it is only available thru download sites. Microsoft also released a white paper discussing the new features of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. If you compare this document with the information that Microsoft just released about Service Pack 1 for Vista, then it becomes more than obvious that Windows XP is a dying operating system from Microsoft’s perspective.

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Can’t wait to try the performance boost that Service Pack 3 brings for Windows XP? Then you can download XP SP1 right now with this little hack.

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