Just when we all thought Microsoft was retiring XP in favour of Vista, they managed to leak out news of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. SP2 was released almost 3 years ago.

It is rumoured that  Windows XP SP3, build 3205 has been released to beta testers, containing more than 1000 patches and hot-fixes.

 The enhancements include a simplified activation system, a network access protection module that borrows from technology used in Windows Vista, and improved support for cryptographic algorithms. According to Microsoft the patch would be released in early 2008.

This comes soon after Microsoft allowed its business hardware partners like Dell to allow its customer to downgrade from Vista to WinXP. Lets wait and watch what Microsoft has in store for us.