New Windows XP SP3 Release Date: April 29th

April 15th, 2008

13 Comments Written by Ryan

I know that many of you are anxiously awaiting the release of XP SP3, but it’s almost as if Microsoft has kept it out of the public’s hands to put all eyes on Vista SP1. After a mirage of release dates it looks like we may have some more that bare consistency with what we’ve heard thus far. Neowin managed to get their hands on the internal schedule for Windows XP SP3, and it goes something like this:

April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers
April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center
June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates

The key dates that you’ll want to remember are April 21st and April 29th. It won’t officially be available to the public until April 29th, but if MSDN and TechNet subscribers get it on April 21st you can bet the bank that it will be “leaked” all over the Internet the same day. These dates all match the “late April” release date that we previously heard for XP SP3.

And as expected it will be about a month and a half after the release for it to be pushed out via Windows Update.

Enjoyed the post? Subscribe to our feed to get a daily dose of CyberNet!

Tags: Software, Windows, Downloads, Release Date, Windows XP

Related Posts:

April 15th, 2008 at 1:17 pm Omar Upegui R.

Thanks for the scoop. Will be waiting patiently for April 21st.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:51 pm Mohan

So far looks like we are gonna get it this month…lets have our fingers crossed!
April 15th, 2008 at 2:16 pm leland (All-Star)

I am looking forward to this. Then I will finally be able to have SP3 rolled up into my XP installation discs. Not only that but there is a specific hot fix for USB flash drives that will help with an issue I am seeing with my flash drive changing drive letter every time I plug it in. Thanks for the heads up!
April 15th, 2008 at 4:25 pm Michael

I actually moved back to Windows XP a few weeks ago and am happy I did, for what I need to do on my PC Windows XP just works better (I use a lot of old software that is not supported under Vista).

I’m glad to hear that Service Pack 3 is coming soon, April 29th will be a great day.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:33 pm Ryan (Author)

Mohan wrote:

So far looks like we are gonna get it this month…lets have our fingers crossed!

I’m definitely crossing my fingers still. It’s obvious that Microsoft wants to push this back as much as they can without causing too much of a riot.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:02 pm Michael Dobrofsky (All-Star)

I don’t get how XP is so popular….I mean, it suffers from Windows rot something terrible. You know, it ends up disintegrating after a few months use and you have to reinstall. Is everyone happy to re-install? Or do others not have the same issues.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:28 pm Vincent Clement

I’ve been using XP on my laptop for well over 3 years and have not had to re-install it once. XP SP2 has been rock solid. Any issues I encountered were resolved by upgrading third-party drivers and/or downloading updates.
April 16th, 2008 at 4:13 am Richard

Michael Dobrofsky wrote:

I don’t get how XP is so popular….I mean, it suffers from Windows rot something terrible. You know, it ends up disintegrating after a few months use and you have to reinstall.

Not at all, unless the user constantly keeps installing garbage on it. My install was two years ago and it’s still running just fine.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:41 am Ryan (Author)

Michael Dobrofsky wrote:

I don’t get how XP is so popular….I mean, it suffers from Windows rot something terrible. You know, it ends up disintegrating after a few months use and you have to reinstall. Is everyone happy to re-install? Or do others not have the same issues.

I actually had that issue all of the time, and found myself reinstalling every few months. Vista is much better in that regard.

Vincent Clement wrote:

I’ve been using XP on my laptop for well over 3 years and have not had to re-install it once. XP SP2 has been rock solid. Any issues I encountered were resolved by upgrading third-party drivers and/or downloading updates.

Wow… I’ve never had a computer for 3 years without reinstalling the operating system. That is nuts!
April 20th, 2008 at 10:52 am Anonymous

I’ve had my computer running XP SP2 for about 1½ years without reformating or reinstalling Windows. I do think however that I will reformat and install a slipstreamed SP3 when it gets released, hopefully nLite won’t take too long releasing an update for the SP3 support
Is it safe to say that the release on the 21st will be the same as the release on the 29th? Or is it plausible that they’ll release a newer release on the 29th?
April 20th, 2008 at 11:13 am Omar Upegui (All-Star)

@Michael Dobrofsky:

I’m very happy with my Windows XP’s performance. Have been using it since March 2005 and have not reinstalled nor reformat it once. It has been working like a Swiss watch since day one. As far as I’m concerned, Vista can stay on the shelf.

Hasta la Vista, Vista!
April 21st, 2008 at 3:54 pm Ryan (Author)

Anonymous wrote:

I’ve had my computer running XP SP2 for about 1½ years without reformating or reinstalling Windows. I do think however that I will reformat and install a slipstreamed SP3 when it gets released, hopefully nLite won’t take too long releasing an update for the SP3 support
Is it safe to say that the release on the 21st will be the same as the release on the 29th? Or is it plausible that they’ll release a newer release on the 29th?

It will definitely be the same. Microsoft announced today that it has RTM’d, which means it won’t be changing now.