Ready for Windows Service Pack 2?
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Nothing elicits fear and loathing across the land like the announcement of a major Windows upgrade. Grown men and women quake at the thought of hours of troubleshooting. Corporate IT departments don full battle gear and issue stern warnings against upgrading before they've tested for incompatibilities. Small children weep when their favorite computer games suddenly won't run.
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Microsoft has strolled a little closer to delivering an update for Windows Server 2003 by showing a release candidate service pack for the OS.
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Windows XP users interested in trying out the release candidate of Service Pack 3 for the operating system should be able to download the software later today. Be forewarned, it weighs in at 580MB.
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Microsoft is including a set of nonsecurity updates that prepare customers to install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 as part of its monthly &quot;Patch Tuesday&quot; security fixes.Two of three prerequisite updates needed to install SP1 are hitting Microsoft&#39;s Windows Update for the first time Tuesday along with the usual batch of security updates it releases every month. The technologies -- called KB937287 and KB938371 -- are marked &quot;Important&quot; and will install automatically if a Windows user has Windows Update set to the recommended configuration, according to a post on the Windows Vista team blog.KB937287 is an update to Vista&#39;s servicing stack, and KB938371 is a multicomponent update, according to the blog post attributed to Nick White, a product manager on the Vista team. Both must be installed before a machine can successfully be updated to Windows Vista SP1.The third prerequisite to installing SP1, KB935509, also is being released through Windows Update Tuesday. However, that technology is an update of a previously released technology, not a brand new release.Microsoft plans to release Vista SP1&#160;in its first five languages -- English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese -- to the Windows Update and the download center on Microsoft&#39;s Web site in mid-March. However, some computers may not work with the update right away because of device-driver incompatibilities; Microsoft is hoping to resolve those by mid-March, which is why it is putting off the release until then even though the final code for SP1 is available now.Following its first release, Microsoft in mid-April plans to make SP1 available in the first five languages to anyone who has chosen not to download it. Microsoft will follow with the remaining language releases of Vista SP1 soon after. Many believe the SP1 milestone is the one that will bring about a new wave of adoption for Vista, especially among&#160;business customers that have been awaiting the service pack&#39;s release&#160;before updating employee desktops.Microsoft releases security updates every second Tuesday of the month, which is why security researchers call the day &quot;Patch Tuesday.&quot; The company often includes nonsecurity updates with these releases, although it also will release nonsecurity updates on the fourth Tuesday of the month.
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The first Vista service pack will address performance and reliability while adding support for new types of hardware and some emerging standards. Also on tap: a beta of the third and final service pack for Windows XP.
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Microsoft Corp. is giving users more time to prepare for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) by doubling the time a special registry key will prevent PCs from automatically downloading and installing the mammoth update.
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Microsoft&#39;s channel partners are getting set to put out fires when Windows XP Service Pack 2 becomes available to consumers over the Windows Update service on Wednesday.
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The latest beta release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is available to the general public as a free download. Microsoft decided to release the update publicly several weeks earlier than planned, easing Vista early adopters' year-long wait for enhancements to the desktop operating system.
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According to multiple sources, a special edition CD containing Windows XP Service Pack 2 has begun to reach mailboxes of testers.  The CD is nested in a folder marked with the slogan, "I came through for SP2." The major update for Windows XP was completed in early August after numerous delays and mounting pressure on Microsoft to improve the security of its flagship operating system.
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In what analysts are calling a significant move, Microsoft on Tuesday released Service Pack 2 for SQL Server 2005, promising full compatibility with Windows Vista and Office 2007.
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Blog: Tucked inside Microsoft's agreement to change Vista's desktop search is word that a beta of the first service pack for Vista will come this year. No word on when the final version will ship, however.
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Although Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is the big news of the day, Microsoft is concurrently preparing the third service pack for Windows XP. But SP3 won't introduce much of anything new for XP users, and will simply serve as a roll-up of already released fixes, Microsoft says.
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Microsoft has released a critical update for Windows Service Pack 2, designed to resolve an installation problem with a piece of adware -- but it maintains that the update isn&#39;ta patch.
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Service Pack 2, "SP2" for short, aims to stop viruses, worms, browser hijackings and worse by including security features that people have to add and adjust on their own. -Rob Pegoraro
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Part of the recently-released Service Pack 2 for Windows XP was a slew of long-awaited updates to Internet Explorer. Along with patches for the browser, SP2 also included features such as the ability to block
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Â Microsoft Corp. is giving users more time to prepare for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) by doubling the time a special registry key will prevent PCs from automatically downloading and installing the mammoth update.
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Q: I recently installed Service Pack 2 on my Windows XP machine, and now the system&#39;s gone all screwy: Internet Explorer won&#39;t display animations right, I can&#39;t play WarCraft III, and Yahoo Instant Messenger is toast.