If, like me, you have put off upgrading to Windows Vista and have remained with XP then you may be interested in Service Pack 3 for Windows XP which is due for release soon having achieved Release Candidate status within Microsoft.

Release Candidate is part of the software lifecycle and usually indicates that, barring any major problems, the product is pretty much in a state where it could be made available for public download.

The  product lifecycle prior to release are usually:

• Development – the product is designed and tested by internal developers
• Alpha testing – the product is tested by internal testing teams
• Beta testing – the product is sent to a broader base of testers including external testers
• Release Candidate – coding is pretty much complete and in final wider testing
• Gold – the product is made available for public access

You can obtain information regarding the Release notes for the Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate from the Microsoft support site at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936929. You can also get the Release notes direct from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=68C48DAD-BC34-40BE-8D85-6BB4F56F5110&displaylang=en.

Service Pack 3 includes important security roll-up updates and hot fixes that have been available from Microsoft Update but Internet Explorer 7 is not included in the update – although patches for IE7 are included if you have it installed. A few additional functional items are included (NAP is one of them) but this is more of a behind the scenes Service Pack.

ComputerWorld have an overview of SP3 in their post Windows XP SP3: The improvements are under the hood

Paul Thurrott’s Supersite also has a Windows XP Service Pack 3 FAQ