It's official that Microsoft has finished work on the third and final service pack for its Windows XP operating system and that the update will be available for public download on April 29. Yes, the Redmond, Washington based software giant, Microsoft on Monday announced that Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 is now being shipped to PC manufacturers and volume licensing customers, but existing XP Pro and Home users will have to wait until April 29 to be able to download the service pack directly from Microsoft Download Center or will have to configure their Windows Update to download SP3. Microsoft yesterday released the final code for Windows XP SP3, which is touted as quick and painless upgrade.

According to Microsoft, The upgrade provides support for WPA2 and the Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) used in Windows Vista, among other things. The public version will be available for download via the Web on April 29. The upgrade will be effortless for most Windows XP users. Windows XP, Service Pack 3, will be released to Microsoft business customers through their MSDN and TechNet subscriptions.

The service pack offers a number of enhancements over the current version of the OS. It includes all updates issued since Windows XP Service Pack 2 was released in 2004, and some new elements including Network Access Protection that's borrowed from the newer Windows Vista operating system. NAP automatically validates a computer's health, ensuring that it's free of bugs and viruses before allowing it access to a network.
Windows XP SP3 also includes improved "black hole" router detection, a feature that automatically detects routers that are silently discarding packets. It also steals a page from Vista's product activation model, meaning that product keys for each copy of the operating system don't need to be entered during setup. The feature is expected to grow popular with corporate IT managers, who often need to oversee hundreds, or even thousands, of operating system installations.