Windows XP Service Pack 3 released

Windows XP Service Pack 3 was released to manufacturing on April 21st. An overview of the contents of this service pack is available here:

https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=68c48dad-bc34-40be-8d85-6bb4f56f5110&displaylang=en. The service pack includes all the previously released updates for the operating system in addition to some new functionality. This also means that the support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 is now slated to end on July 13, 2010.

This release brings Network Access Protection (NAP) to Windows XP. NAP lets administrators protect their networks by enforcing health requirements on devices wanting to join a network. Administrators can run customized health policies on computers before allowing them access to the network. In fact, they can even choose to place non-compliant computers in a restricted network until they comply.