USB 2.0 support for Windows XP may have escaped from Redmond slightly early, in accordance with a long tradition of such breakouts. A USB 2.0 patch is due out via Windows Update and hardware vendors later this month, but something that certainly looks like it is currently available for download at littlewhitedog.com. As Fido at Littlewhitedog says: "I will probably wake up the morning and have to take this down, but what the hell I've got a chance to help out a few people with this one." Indeed - maybe yes, maybe no. The file, Q312370_WXP_SP1_x86_ENU.exe, looks plausible, although The Register hasn't yet been able to test it with USB 2.0 hardware. Given that Microsoft intends the patch to be out this month, our guess is that the software is finished, being checked by hardware manufacturers, and that's where it leaked from.

Update: Intel, the CPU giant, has just released official USB2 drivers for Windows XP. However those drivers work only with the NEC USB 2 Controller that is present on some Intel motherboards like the D850MV. Click below to start your download: