The new service pack 3 for Windows XP edition is now available for download. This SP3 includes all previously released updates for the operating system and a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change your experience with the operating system. The XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) is compatible with the Network Access Protection functionality of Windows Server 2008 and includes improvements to black hole router detection (detecting routers that are silently discarding packets), turning it on by default. Another interesting change is in the activation procedure. Now you won’t need to enter your product key while installing Windows XP SP3 as the checking process is a part of Windows Genuine Advantage. Also the performance boost that is highlighted before.

As this is a Release Candidate version for testing purposes only, Microsoft does not recommend installing this software on primary or mission critical systems. Microsoft also recommends that you have a backup of your data prior to installing any pre-release software.

Download the Windows XP SP3 package of 336.1MB here.

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