Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available for download. While keeping product changes contained, we have made significant investments to ease deployment and management of Service Packs. A few key enhancements for customers in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 are :

• Enhanced upgrade experience from previous versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008 SP3. In addition, we have increased the performance & reliability of the setup experience.
• In SQL Server Integration Services logs will now show the total number of rows sent in Data Flows.
• Enhanced warning messages when creating the maintenance plan if the Shrink Database option is enabled.
• Resolving database issue with transparent data encryption enabled and making it available even if certificate is dropped.
• Optimized query outcomes when indexed Spatial Data Type column is referenced by DTA (Database Tuning Advisor).
• Superior user experience with Sequence Functions (e.g Row_Numbers()) in a Parallel execution plan.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 is not a prerequisite for installing SQL Server 2008 Service Pack3. These packages may be used to upgrade any of the following editions of SQL Server 2008:

• Enterprise
• Standard
• Evaluation
• Developer
• Workgroup

SQL Server 2008 SP3 contains the cumulative updates of SQL Server 2008 SP2 cumulative update package 1 to 4, and fixes to issues that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms. These include supportability enhancements and issues that have been reported through Windows Error Reporting.

Note: To obtain SQL Server 2008 SP3 for Express Edition or Express Edition with Advanced Services, please go here.
For a detailed list of new features and improvements that are included in SQL Server 2008 SP3, review the Release Notes

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