Windows Service Pack refuseniks offered temporary respite
Testing time
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Microsoft has released a tool that allows enterprises to side-step a wave of upcoming Windows service packs.
SPBlockerTools toolkit will temporarily defer the installation of Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 to allow testing for up to a year following the release of the updates. Windows XP SP3 is due sometime in the first half of 2008. Vista SP1 will probably arrive earlier, as it's pencilled in for availability in Q1 2008.
The blocker toolkit can be used to put a hold on updates of both Windows client desktop service packs as well as Windows Server 2003 SP2 for a shorter period up until March 2008. The toolkit includes a script, an executable, and a template. The three different options are designed to suit different sizes of computing environments.
Redmond has supplied similar blocking utilities in the past including software to defer the application of IE7, and before that Windows 2003 SP2 and Windows XP SP2.
The idea in all cases is to create a means for firms to test the application of the software within their environment and roll out changes gradually, rather than dealing with a Big Bang upgrade. As with similar software packages the latest tools only delay the application of service packs. ®
COMMENTS
@ Colin Millar
> You really need to get out more
Hmmm... I guess tips for Windows 95 doesn't apply anymore, doesn't it?
@Looking forward to SP3
erm.. your users are allowed internet access while roaming?!?
that's why VPNs were created... not the checkpoint type that allows LAN, internet and VPN, but the cisco type that locks off your computer to anything except VPN...
Hmmm...
<quote> Moving from Windoze to Linux is easy next to the downgrade to Vista, for a single computer or an organization with thousands. How many times do you have to suffer upgrade abuse before you get off the treadmill? The sooner, the better because M$ is only making things harder. Your users will thank you. </quote>
Until the factory stops working because of a piece of software that will only run under real windows 2000 fails. Yeah, great idea!!!
@Gordon Fecyk
<quote>Doesn't this increase the mainstream support period for Windows XP? I would have expected a "Windows XP SP2 Rollup Package" or something, but not an honest-to-goodness Service Pack.</quote>
Yeah, or maybe SP3 has some code in it that makes XP run so bad that it will make Vista look good!!!
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