XP SP3 release candidate, er, released

Season's greetings from Microsoft, in the shape of a release candidate for Windows XP service pack 3. Available to download here, this is the first non-beta version of XP SP3 released to the public.

MS says the update "includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers' experience with the operating system". However, testing of the beta version of XP SP3 and that of Vista SP1 showed SP3 to be pretty darn hot in terms of performance. Then again, that's compared to Vista...

Anyway, over to Redmond for the usual RC proviso:

This pre-release software is provided for testing purposes only. Microsoft does not recommend installing this software on primary or mission critical systems. Microsoft recommends that you have a backup of your data prior to installing any pre-release software.