Windows XP SP3: More than a simple Service Pack

Update: It appears that Microsoft is continuing to play games with the SP3 release schedule. First they make it available via MSDN, then they tease everyone with general availability (via Windows Update and direct download) only to pull the release hours later due to an obscure bug involving Microsoft Dynamics RMS. If I were a cynical man I might see this latest delay as a deliberate attempt to sabotage their own Service Pack release (and thus give Vista another reprieve) – sort of like “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” I mean, delaying the most anticipated XP Service Pack ever just to fix a minor bug with an accounting application? One that affects a miniscule percentage of the installed base? Come on! This is getting ridiculous!

It’s here! No more false alarms. No more pre-beta/release candidate/pre-release nonsense. Microsoft has finally released the finished version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to manufacturing, which means that we can finally write about it in earnest.

Of course, we’ve been doing just that (writing about SP3 in earnest) for nearly six months now. In fact, we’ve spent so much time speculating and pontificating — about its impact, how it would affect Vista sales, why Microsoft seemed to be artificially delaying its release — that the actual arrival of SP3 seems almost anticlimactic. It’s a story that’s been done to death. However, if network traffic to SP3-related Web content is any indicator, it’s also a story that absolutely refuses to die.

[ Windows Vista and Office 2007 take more than twice as long as Windows XP and Office 2003 to complete the same set of Office tasks, while consuming more than eight times the memory. See the results of Randall Kennedy’s cross-generation Windows-Office performance tests, “Fat, fatter, fattest: Microsoft’s kings of bloat.” Read Kennedy’s 10-point comparison of Windows XP and Windows Vista, “Windows Death Match.” ]

The truth is that enterprise IT is fascinated with SP3. Here we have what can most generously be described as a mundane collection of bug fixes and minor enhancements (the traditional definition of a Windows Service Pack) essentially captivating the very audience that was supposed to have already moved on to Vista. I can only imagine the frustration inside One Microsoft Way. Microsoft has been putting on the full court press with Vista SP1, yet all they hear from their customers is, “That’s nice. So when will we see Service Pack 3 for XP?”

Well, the answer to that question is (thankfully) right now. You can grab SP3 from MSDN today, and public availability is expected in a week or so. As for what to expect from SP3, the laundry list remains unchanged from the myriad pre-releases: Network Access Protection (NAP); Black Hole Router detection; Wireless Access Protection (WAP) 2 support; new cryptographic APIs; and so on. (See my March 20 guide to the Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 service packs.)

One of the more controversial SP3 features — a minor (roughly 10 percent) performance boost over XP SP2 — seems to have survived the RTM process. My informal testing on a Core 2 Duo notebook (T7200, 2GB of RAM, 7,200-rpm hard drive) showed a little better than a 9 percent improvement when I updated the system from SP2 to SP3. Again, nothing earth shattering, but still a lot more compelling than the ghastly performance loss (roughly two times, hardware for hardware) of moving to Vista.

Note: All testing was conducted using Office 2003 and the OfficeBench test script, which is part of the DMS Clarity Studio solution from Devil Mountain Software. You can grab a free copy of the suite by visiting the exo.performance.network site.

Chances are if you’re reading this you’ve already experimented with the pre-release builds of XP SP3. In a way, SP3 has come to symbolize the fight to preserve Windows XP availability. What would the Save XP campaign be without the promise of a potential longevity booster just around the corner?

The bottom line: Windows XP isn’t dead yet. And as IT continues to voice its opinion, both through campaigns like Save XP and Web traffic to articles such as this one, Microsoft is finally beginning to take notice. It’s about time.