Yeap, you heard correct. Literally hot off the press, the release candidate is available as a 336Mb download (which I’m downloading as I write this) and includes potential speed increases, bugfixes & enhancements to current features – much earlier than expected. The Windows Vista SP1 RC can be downloaded now, but is not widely available to the public. The full list of the changes and enhancements in XP SP3 can be found [here]. One of those, NAP or Network Access Protection, is a feature linked to the new Windows Server 2008 OS. NAP makes sure a computer is protected properly before giving access to valuable network resources. There also less corporate-based updates, such as to the wireless protocols, adding the much more secure WPA2. Changes to existing parts of the OS, explaining security a little more, for instance are also present. You now also have the ability to install Windows XP, with SP3 without a product key – allowing you to enter it at a later date when it’s more convenient.

Please remember though that this is a Release Candidate which means, although this version of the service pack will most likely be exactly the same as the released version, there are no guarantees that your system won’t be screwed over by the install. Backup important data first, and if possible, take an image of your hard drive just to be safe. I’m also sure that if you don’t have, how shall we say, a “valid” copy of Windows this update will probably break your installation. Look for follow-ups to this article (just in case things go horribly wrong for me in a minute!!) [SHOW ME]

Update: If you have previously used UX Theme Multi-patcher to skin windows XP, you would have noticed you will lose the ability to use custom skins. This can easily be fixed by checking the ‘Update’ section at the end of the original post.