What do these three all have in common? They've all leaked to the Internet before they were even released to the public. It seems that's getting to be standard fare.

Yesterday, just around the same time I got confirmation that Microsoft had opened up a pre-beta of Windows XP SP3 to a select group of testers, I came across several Web sites claiming a leaked copy of the test build was out in the wild. It didn't take me long to find copies to download, though of course I won't link to them here.

Surprisingly, though Windows Vista SP1 also has joined the pre-testing ranks, I haven't come across anyone claiming to have found or downloaded an official copy of it, though I've found a few links purporting to be SP1. A few other "leaks" make this relative silence even more surprising. One: a few weeks ago, a list of a bunch of Microsoft hotfixes thought to be included in SP1 made their way to the Internet. Two, just recently two performance and compatibility update packs were leaked before Microsoft released them in full, and people took those updates as "pre-SP1" downloads or even SP1 itself

Not that this is anything new. Back in 2005, almost immediately after Microsoft announced Windows Vista Beta 1 and Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1 had made their way to testers, they leaked to the public via third party Web sites and newsgroups. And earlier this year, Windows Home Server leaked before its release to manufacturers last month.

Microsoft chased down the Windows Home Server leaker, but I haven't heard any comment on Windows XP SP3 yet. I'd look at it from two angles. On one hand, this software is in limited beta because it obviously isn't ready for public consumption or fuller Microsoft support yet. On the other hand, however, the more people using Microsoft software, the better for Microsoft, whatever that software is and however they got it. Still, Microsoft probably isn't happy, especially as it pats itself on the back for getting the government to sentence a man to 46 months in jail for trafficking in fake Microsoft certificates of authenticity.