Following the announcement earlier this week that Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) had been shipped to manufacturing, Microsoft Corp. today confirmed that it seeded another build of Windows XP SP3 to a closed set of testers. "Yesterday, we released Windows XP SP3 RC 2 to private beta testers," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "This release catches the build up on previously released hot fixes and responds to critical feedback from previous betas." Despite the new SP3 release, the final ship date continues to be unknown. Although some reports indicate February 24th or March 23rd as final SP3 release dates, Microsoft continues to claim: "We are targeting 1H [first-half] 2008 for the release of XP SP3 RTM, though our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority," The next major milestone for Windows XP after SP3 ships is June 30, when the nearly 7-year-old operating system is slated to fall off the reseller and retail availability list.