Yesterday may have been Vista’s turn but don’t count out older brother Windows XP just yet: staying true to its word, Microsoft has released a beta of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to a select few testers, signaling that SP3 is on track for an early 2008 release as well. Apparently, the final service pack for XP compiles more than a thousand patches and hotfixes (yes, you read that right), many of which also appear in Vista SP1. Folks already familiar with XP will find a lot to love in SP3, including a new Windows Product Activation mode (no product key required during setup), a new, Vista-inspired network access protection module and improved support for advanced data encryption. With SP3 on the way and XP sales extended until next summer, it looks like now is as good a time as any to be a Windows XP user in the enterprise.

For more on the SP3 beta:
– see this InformationWeek article