I have my PC set up to receive Windows XP updates automatically. Recently, one of the updates identified itself as Service Pack 3 and gave me the option of installing it or not. As I had received reports of problems with SP3, I decided to perform a backup before I did the installation, so I rejected the update, reasoning that either I would be offered it again in the near future, or I could get it direct from Microsoft. As no further offer arrived, I searched around for it on the Microsoft website, but all I could find were descriptions of how wonderful it is, but no button marked "Download". Can anyone point me to the relevant web page, please?

If you want to decide yourself, you can download an SP3 iso image to burn to an update cd.
Just google "sp3 iso" and one of the first hits will show you the relevant MS page.

Many thanks for the response. The only web page I could find from searching as you suggest was for SP3 to be installed on multiple computers, with a warning not to click on "Download" for a single machine. It pointed to another page, said to have a smaller and more appropriate download, but on following the links I simply came back to where I started! Surely someone out there knows how to get the single machine version???

Just download the full updater from here

Code http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/0/d30e32d8-418a-469d-b600-f32ce3edf42d/WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe

Many thanks for your help.

Zedy, just to update you, I downloaded from the URL you gave me, did a full backup, set a restore point and ran the downloaded file. SP3 installed without problems, except that XP now starts with Windows Explorer opened. I don't really want that, but it's no big deal to close it, so I'll live with it (I couldn't find it listed under msconfig). Thanks again.