Expect Vista Service Pack 1 in the fourth quarter of this year, although this may be a near-miss push back to 2008 given how development on Longhorn Server goes.

Service Pack 3 for Windows XP?

Microsoft has reported a couple of times in 2006 that Windows XP Service Pack 3 would be much delayed from its original track. It was widely anticipated that a service pack for Windows XP would ship before Windows Vista itself was released to the public, given that the last major update on Windows XP was in the summer of 2004.

Now, on the Windows Service Pack Road Map page, Microsoft is indicating that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP is due in the first half of 2008. But will the pressure from the public, who will have at that point gone at least three and a half years using an operating system that's been updated only with patches, cause Microsoft to bow and release the service pack in late 2007? Or will the company's entire focus at that point be on delivering the first service release for Vista and the release to manufacturing of Longhorn Server? Only time will tell, but I have a feeling we'll need to wait until 2008 to see an update to Windows XP.

Windows Home Server