14 DAY TRIAL // The latest build of Windows XP SP3 Beta has been leaked to Peer-to-Peer file sharing networks. Following the availability of Release Candidate 0 for Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn as well as the first fully-fledged beta for Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Microsoft also dropped another beta version of the third and final Service Pack for Windows XP. The fact of the matter is that while Vista SP1 did step into beta at the end of September, as Jon DeVaan, senior vice president of the Windows Core Operating System division at Microsoft, together with Nick White, Vista Product Manager, promised in August, the most recent release of XP SP3 is still a preview version and not the full beta.
The Redmond company made Windows XP SP3 Beta Preview Build 3205 available via Microsoft connect, opening the testing process to all the testers already involved in the test-driving of the development milestone of Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008. In this manner, some 12,000 testers can now access XP SP3 Build 3205. And while Microsoft did reveal the dates when the service pack will be dropped via MSDN subscriptions, it failed to inform of when TechNet and MSDN subscribers will be getting their hands on the beta for XP SP3, or for Vista SP1 for that matter.
However, the beta program for Windows XP SP3 is now artificially expanded beyond the 12,000 Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 testers, and Microsoft offered the service pack, as the refresh was leaked to P2P networks, and is available for download via torrent clients. The information associated with the downloads points to the fact that the torrent delivers Windows XP SP3 Beta Build.5.1.2600.3205, 2007.9.1, KB936929. Additionally, the file offered via torrent trackers weighs in at 334.9 Mb, while the English language standalone installer for XP SP3 Beta Build 3205 is windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe 334.92 MB.