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Microsoft, pondering ways to enhance Windows XP after releasing Service Pack 2 later this year, is considering releasing an interim update before Longhorn.

The company is considering the strategy change under the project name Windows XP Reloaded.

Customer Interest

Such a release would not be entirely unexpected. Analysts at Gartner have predicted Microsoft will offer an interim release of Windows in order to placate customers who signed up for its Software Assurance licensing program, which provides three-year contracts for software maintenance and upgrades.

Microsoft is considering how to deliver updates to Windows XP, but it is too early to draw any conclusions, says Greg Sullivan, Microsoft's lead product manager for Windows.

"We're looking at what our options are in terms of delivering what our development team creates in terms of new technologies to our customers," Sullivan says. "This is not an announcement of a second edition of Windows XP."

Microsoft officials have said repeatedly that the company has no plans for an interim Windows release to fill the gap between Windows XP, which appeared in late 2001, and Longhorn, the code name for a major new operating system release expected in 2006.

"That is still true," Sullivan says. "We're currently exploring our options."

'Reload' Considered

Microsoft may not have decided how it will package further updates to Windows XP, but it has come up with a name for its discussions about those updates: Windows XP Reloaded.

"The term Windows XP Reloaded refers to current thinking about the ways we can add value to Windows XP," Sullivan says. "To say that it is an interim release is premature."

While Sullivan maintains that Microsoft has no plans for an interim Windows release, one publication on Thursday reported the opposite. Windows & .Net Magazine, citing sources, reported that the interim XP version will ship as a new retail product that replaces current Windows XP boxes and will be offered as an update to current users.

The interim Windows release would include all features of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and a host of other updates, including a new Windows Media Player, according to the report. Windows XP Service Pack 2 is currently being tested.