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Vista SP1, Windows XP SP3 May Arrive This Week

According to numerous reports on the Web, Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows XP SP3 may both be released this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday.

One major source of clues about the Vista SP1 release date is Amazon.com, which has made the next version of Microsoft's new operating system available for presale. Amazon is currently showing it will have Vista SP1 available for sale on March 19, but the descriptive text mentions that the products will be "released on March 18, 2008."

According to Computerworld, which appears to have been first with the story on Saturday, the March 19 date will be the date that the retail version will be available, while another blog, TechArp.com, is predicting the download version will be available on Tuesday.

Microsoft pre-released Vista SP1 to "technical customers" last month following complaints by IT professionals that Microsoft did not give networking professionals, consultants and developers time to preview it. Redmond released Vista SP1 to manufacturing on Feb. 4.

As for Windows XP3, All About Microsoft's Mary Jo Foley wrote in a post this morning that sources testing the latest Windows XP upgrade told her it will be released this week.

She pointed out that blog UX Evangelist predicted in February that Vista SP1 would be released tomorrow or Wednesday and Windows XP3 next week.

About the Author

Becky Nagel is a contributor to Application Development Trends. She is the editor of ADT's sister sites CertCities.com, TCPmag.com and Redmondmag.com, and is co-editor of RCPmag.com. You can contact her at [email protected].