FAQ: Windows XP SP3 ships -- finally

Do I need to prep my PC for the final of SP3 if I've installed one of the early versions?

Yes, you need to uninstall any now-superseded release candidate or beta of SP3 that you've stuck on the system.

Here's how:

Click on the Start menu, choose Settings, then Control Panels. Launch the Add or Remove Programs applet by double-clicking. Make sure the Show Updates box is checked, then scroll down -- all the way to the bottom, most likely -- until you find the Windows XP Service Pack 3 item. Select it, and click Remove.

From there, it's more or less automatic, although you have to click the Next button in the ensuing dialog box. Windows will restart automatically at the end of the uninstall.

You're now ready to update to the RTM version of XP SP3, assuming it's available to you.

I'm running Windows XP Professional 64-bit. What do I do?

Nothing. There is no SP3 for you.

Instead, hotfixes, updates and enhancements for your OS were delivered last month as part of Windows Server 2003 SP2. You can download a 351MB installer from here.

I'm leery of XP SP3 because I don't want Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) on my PC. What do I do?

Stop worrying, for one. Microsoft's not including the newer browser -- which is run by just 30 per cent of business users more than a year after its debut -- with the service pack.

Instead, it includes fixes for IE6 and IE7, but doesn't disturb whichever version is currently installed on the PC.

Will Microsoft give in and extend Windows XP availability?

Although we're tempted to say "Only Steve Ballmer knows," we're not even sure of that.

This is what the company's CEO said last week during a talk at the company's annual MVP -- Most Valuable Professional -- confab at Redmond HQ. "We have a lot of customers that are choosing to stay with Windows XP, and as long as those are both important options, we will be sensitive, and we will listen, and we will hear that," Ballmer said.