No fanfare for Windows Server 2003 SP2
Major update release emerges in mysterious silence.
Microsoft has released a new service pack for its Windows Server 2003 platform, almost entirely
without warning or promotion. The release contains a swathe of fixes, including many security flaws patched
since the previous service pack, and also covers the 64-bit version of Windows XP.
Service packs are the biggest upgrades issued for the Windows family of operating systems, and the
release of SP2 for Windows XP, which took place in August 2004, was a major event with some
important changes in the security model of the platform, including dramatic enhancements to the
Windows Firewall. The Server 2003 release, however, is a less significant change to the
platform, consisting mostly of minor updates and fixes, with a few new versions of some components.
The release was initially expected in early 2006, and after a long delay the sudden appearance of the
product on Microsoft's update sites has come as a surprise to many.
The standard 32-bit version of the service pack can be downloaded
here, a
summary of new items included is
here and
a complete listing of the updates is here. The
Microsoft update team's blog, at the time of writing still carrying no mention of the service
pack release, is here.
15 March 2007
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