The latest service pack for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system was released yesterday, and users of the Internet Explorer browser should take heed to some new restrictions prior to upgrading. Jane Maliouta, IE8's Deployment PM, explained these rules in detail on the company's IEBlog. Here are the main points that you need to know...

• Users currently running IE6: You can upgrade to SP3 with no issues whatsoever. The service pack contains the latest security updates for your browser.


• Users currently running IE7: You can upgrade to SP3 and retain your browser preferences. However, you will not be able to uninstall IE7 in the future without first uninstalling the entire service pack and reverting back to SP2. If you feel that you may want to uninstall IE7 at some point in the future, perhaps to revert back to IE6, then you should probably uninstall the browser prior to upgrading to SP3. You can then reinstall IE7 with no limitations attached.


• Users currently running IE8 Beta 1: You can also upgrade to SP3 and retain your settings. Be careful here, as you will not be able to uninstall this version once you have upgraded your OS. Since you are running a beta version of the browser, it is highly recommended that you remove Beta 1 from your PC before you begin the service pack upgrade. You can then reinstall a removable version of the browser.

I recommend paying close attention to these restrictions prior to making this very important OS update, or you may find yourself dealing with some less than pleasant situations down the road.