It may well be that others will be seeing new things in the next few days.

A publicity release from Microsoft a few days ago said that SP3 will begin automatic downloads and installation to all WinXP users signed up for Automatic Updates. The downloads were to begin with Australia, 10 July 2008.

SP3 previously was an "optional" installation. This will make it automatic for everyone.

For IT Administrators who don't want it installed automatically, there is a download of an "SP3 blocker" that can be used to delay installation; but Microsoft says that it will only work until ???? (current cutoff for the blocker is April 2009, but that could change).

The other option is to turn of automatic installation of updates and then check each of them before installing; but downloads often are identified only by changeable security bulletin or KB article numbers so it would be easy to miss what one is and install accidentally anyway.

It probably will be best for most people to let it install, and respond appropriately if there's a problem. Checking to be sure that System Restore is turned on - pending successfule update at least - probably would be a good thing to do.

John