The third and last service pack for Windows XP is barely out the door and Microsoft has rushed to put the past behind it. As of May 6, 2008 the Redmond company has officially killed Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh. XP SP3 RC2 Refresh represented the last development milestone for the service pack before it was released to manufacturing. At the time of launch Microsoft was testing the delivery of XP SP3 through the Windows Update infrastructure and in this context, RC2 Refresh was meant to help with the assessment of improvements.

On May 6, the webpage for Windows XP SP3 RC2 Refresh was refreshed with information indicating the death of the release. "Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh is no longer available, as Windows XP SP3 has now released", Microsoft informed. May 6 is the day when the Redmond company offered the service pack through Windows Update and the Download Center for all XP users.

XP SP3 RC2 Refresh was never offered as a standalone download, instead it was delivered only through Windows Update. Microsoft had offered a script designed to tweak the Windows XP registry in such a manner that the operating system would detect the RC2 Refresh of SP3 on the WU servers. While the script is still available for download, XP SP3 RC2 Refresh is not.

RC2 Refresh marked an important jump in terms of development milestone labels for XP SP3. The service pack jumped from Build 3311 which referred to XP SP2 RC2 to Build 5508 at the end of March 2008. Build 5508 was offered exclusively in English, German and Japanese and was designed to resolve some Windows Update issues with Microsoft also including support for HD Audio. The gold version of XP SP3 is synonymous with the discontinuation of XP SP3 RC2 Refresh Build 5508 downloads.