Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate Public Notes

Release Notes for this Release Candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 3

These release notes address late-breaking issues and information about this release candidate of Service Pack 3 for Windows® XP. Unless otherwise specified, these notes apply to all editions of Windows XP SP3.

New functionality included in this service pack
Technical Area Functionality or Feature Details

Networking
Black hole router detection
Improves black hole router detection (detecting routers that are silently discarding packets). This detection is turned on by default.

Networking
Network Access Protection
Allows you to better protect network assets by enforcing compliance with system health requirements. For more information about Network Access Protection, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110597.

Security
Credentials security service provider
Allows forward compatibility with Windows Vista® and Windows Server® 2008, And enables applications to delegate user credentials from the client to the target server. This security service provider is available through the security service provider interface, and it is used by Remote Desktop Protocol 6.0.

Security
Descriptive security options control panel
Offers more descriptive text to explain the settings and prevent incorrect configuration of settings.

Security
Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries
Presents Administrators and Service entries (in System Center Essentials) by default on new policy instances. Additionally, a user will not be able to remove the setting in the UI for the "Impersonate Client After Authentication" user right.

Security
Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
Implements and supports the SHA2 hashing algorithms (SHA256, SHA384, and SHA512) in X.509 certificate validation.

The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-1 standard has been replaced by FIPS 140-2, and these modules have been validated and certified according to this standard.

Setup
Windows Product Activation
Allows users to complete their software setup without having to provide a product key.



Previously available functionality
The following items included in this release candidate were previously available as separate downloads.
Technical Area Functionality or Feature Details

Imaging
Microsoft® Windows Imaging Component (WIC)
Provides an extensible framework for working with images and image metadata. For more information about the WIC, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110598.

Management
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0
Provides a framework that unifies and simplifies day-to-day system management tasks in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP. For more information about the MMC 3.0 update, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110599.

MDAC
Microsoft Core XML Services (MSXML) 6.0
Provides improved reliability and security, conforms with the XML 1.0 and XML Schema 1.0 W3C recommendations, and is compatible with System.Xml 2.0.

Windows Installer
Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 v2 (3.1.4000.2435)
Provides a minor update to Windows Installer 3.0 (which was released in September 2004). For more information about Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1 v2, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110600.

Networking
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.5
Helps improve security. This is a required component for Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 and for Windows Live OneCare. For more information about the BITS update package, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110601.

Networking
Digital Identity Management Service
Makes it possible for users who log on to any computer running Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or higher and that is a domain member to silently have all of their certificates and private keys available for applications and services.

Networking
IPsec Simple Policy Update for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
Helps simplify the creation and maintenance of IPsec filters, reducing the number of filters that are required for a server and domain isolation deployment. For more information about IPsec security filters, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=69286.

Networking
Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) 2.1
Enables Windows XP Service Pack 3-based applications that use PNRP to communicate with Windows Vista programs that use PNRP. For more information about upgrading PNRP, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=110602.

Networking
Wi-Fi Protected Access 2
Provides the same support for Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) as is provided in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 with SP2. For more information about the WPA2 update, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110604.


Custom installation
This issue affects Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N.
Creating an integrated installer ("slipstream") by combining the installation disk for this release candidate with Windows XP Home Edition N or Windows XP Professional N by using the /integrate or /s command options is not supported. NEW !!!

To perform an integrated installation of this release candidate for Windows XP Home Edition N or Windows XP Professional N, obtain the appropriate installation media directly from Microsoft.


Website: http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/d/8/cd8cc719-7d5a-40d3-a802-e4057aa8c631/relnotes.htm

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