In a blog posting on a TechNet forum devoted to SP3, Release Manager Chris Keroack warns of a "compatibility issue" between SP3 and the
Dynamics Retail Management System (RMS), POS (point-of-sale) software designed for small and midsize businesses. As a result, he writes, Microsoft is temporarily withholding SP3 from its Windows Update website, which updates Windows XP software automatically.
"We plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering the service pack to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS," says Keroack. "Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to the web."
The problem is apparently not in SP3 itself, but rather in the RMS software. A patch will be provided to RMS customers that makes their software compatible with Windows XP SP3, according to Microsoft.
SP3, combining previously released patches with new "black hole" router detection, easier-to-use security, and a new cryptographic module, remains
available as a direct download. Meanwhile, the RMS glitch only affects users of Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional, not those running Windows XP Embedded (XPe) or Windows Embedded for Point of Service, since SP3 has not yet been released for these embedded operating systems.
Microsoft says a new version of XPe, dubbed
Windows Embedded Standard 2008, will be introduced in June at the company's TechEd conference. This has been touted as including "the most-requested Vista technologies," such as a new version of Internet Explorer, a revised RDP (remote desktop protocol), a new media player, and updated .NET Framework technology, but will presumably also include SP3 code. For more details, see our earlier coverage,
here.
To read Chris Keroack's blog posting about SP3's incompatibility with the RMS sofware, go
here.
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