Microsoft ships new XP SP3 code to testers
Following the announcement that Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) had been shipped to manufacturing, Microsoft confirmed over the weekend that it seeded another build of Windows XP SP3 to a closed-set group of testers.
"Yesterday, we released Windows XP SP3 RC 2 to private beta testers," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in an email. "This release catches the build up on previously released hotfixes and responds to critical feedback from previous betas."
The last time Microsoft sent XP SP3 to the invite-only group of some 15,000 testers was two weeks ago, when it issued what it dubbed RC Refresh 2. The general public has seen only one version of XP's final service pack; Microsoft released that in December 2007.