Microsoft offered official confirmation, admitting that a pre-beta release of Windows XP SP3 has shipped to a select group of testers. All it took was a small, insignificant crack in Sinofsky's Windows Omerta wall, and the flood of information related to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3 followed. Steven Sinofsky is the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group - the user experience of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live services, according to his profile on the company's website. And he is also responsible for setting up the Windows Omerta, codenamed Project Translucency, in relation to Windows 7 (Seven), Windows Vista and Windows XP.

At the end of July, reports starting emerging revealing that Microsoft has made available pre-beta builds of Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 to a select pool of testers. In the aftermath of independent claims related to the two service packs, Microsoft came out with its own side of the story. The Redmond company confirmed that Windows XP SP3, in pre-beta stage, was being tested at that time. "A pre-beta build of Windows XP SP3 was released to a select group of testers. We're currently planning to deliver SP3 for Windows XP in the first half of CY2008. This date is preliminary, and we don't have any more details to share at this time," a Microsoft representative stated in an email to Mary Jo Foley.

Microsoft however continues to not make public any details about the contents of the third service pack for Windows XP. In this context, independent sources claim that there are approximately 1,000 fixes coming with the refresh. Steve Bink from Bink.nu, installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 Beta build 3180 and shared some information. "The SP3 executable pack is named windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe. So there we have the reserved KB article number. The size of the pack is 332 MB. When installing is replaces and backs up 2,848 files (456 MB) to C:WINDOWS$NtServicePackUninstall$. As before it also archives the SP3 itself in C:WINDOWSServicePackFilesi386 2,921 Files (552 MB)," Bink stated.

There are of course additional screenshots from Windows XP SP3 that you can access. And of course, a leak isn't complete without the actual software. And apparently Windows XP SP3 is already available for download via various torrent trackers.