Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be available for download on April 29, 2008. At the end of this month, the Redmond company will release the third and final service pack for Windows XP, the operating system released initially at the end of 2001, and overhauled in 2004 with SP2. Until this point Microsoft has kept a steady refrain of the deadline for the delivery of XP SP3, pointing to a release to hit by mid-2008, but failing to pinpoint the exact date of the launch. In this regard, the Redmond company has failed so far to issue any official comments, or to confirm or deny the fact that XP SP3 is dropping on April 29.

Neowin has made public the internal schedule for XP SP3's release and revealed that the service pack will be up for grabs staring next week. On Monday April 21, 2008, Microsoft plans to deliver the gold bits of XP SP3 to Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License customers, but also to Connect, MSDN and TechNet subscribers. It will take Microsoft yet another week to drop the service pack to the general public.

On April 29, 2008, XP SP3 RTM is scheduled to go live on Microsoft Update, Windows Update as well as the Microsoft Download Center. At the same time, just as is the case with Windows Vista Service Pack 1, XP SP3's availability through Automatic Updates will be pushed back until June 10, 2008. At this point in time, it seems that Microsoft has already went live with support for XP SP3 RTM as of April 14.

Of course that the Redmond company has yet to confirm the availability dates for XP SP3. I have contacted Microsoft on the matter and as soon as I will have anything to share, be sure that I will offer you an update. In the meantime, XP SP3 is just around the corner, so hang in there, the wait is nearly over.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 2 Refresh can be downloaded from here.