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Microsoft Releases SP4 for Windows 2000
Snake_Plisken writes "I checked Windows Update today on a lark and found that Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 has been released." You can read a short CNet article discussing the media player patches as well as one more about
the fixes in SP4.
I'll wait until it's been ported to Linux.
Best Windows Freeware
Any brave souls out there already applied this yet? I am looking at about 100 Win2K boxes that will potentially need this...so anyone with feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Someone post the diffs between SP3's and SP4's EULAs :)
What do you think we are? a bunch of piraters?
Go here for the change log to Windows 2000 Service Pack Four. Some of the changes are quite amusing.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Here's the Service Pack:
1 00 0101001100100000000001111110101010010101010101...
10101010010010001010111101000001010110100111111
Yeah, right! Come out of the closet. You like Microsoft! This guy can't be trusted ;)
Honk if you're horny.
And here you can read about the newest security leak which is not patched by this servicepack ;) :)
That guy who analysed the buffer overflow also found a funny easteregg in the buggy dll file.
Another Microsoft patch? It must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays...
Slashdot, reporting on a Windows update, without making some kind of wise-crack about it?
Did Microsoft buy OSDN?
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
Now I can upgrade from Windows 2000, SP3, hot fix 06052003, ntoskernel patch 5.0022, security rollup 05142003. Yea!
Karma: The shiznight, mostly because I am the Drizzle.
The Scary part is, I've found Win2000 to be the most stable and reliable Windows ever released. 63,000 defects? I wouldn't doubt it. The part that worries me with how well 2000 works, how many defects do the 9x, XP, and NT versions contain?
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
I wouldn't call a Service Pack for one of the most popular operating systems just "every patch". Service Packs come out about once a year.
And if you really want to talk about relevance, I'll guarantee you there's far more Win 2000 boxes out there than any of the Free OSes...
I checked Windows Update today on a lark...
:)
Quick! Somebody port Linux to a sparrow so we can stay ahead of the curve!
Today songbirds, tomorrow fur bearing mammals!
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
And to think that in 1990 that was written as a joke... now it seems like a rather accurate description of reality.
Beep beep.
I checked Windows Update today on a lark...
That just says it all right there, doesn't it? Checking the patch levels on the most widely used operating system in the world is considered a flighty, fickle act one does in a moment of insanity.
It's almost enough to make me wish I didn't relate to the sentiment.
Actually more than that - they counted as high as 65535, but then their bug-reporting software went titsup.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
I hate to say it, but when I read changelogs for many Linux apps (or the kernel), they simply say "Fixed bug in foo.c". That doesn't tell me a whole lot as an end-user.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Except this is what it was: a trojan, but with an all new date, and an all new filename. Someone has just rereleased this baby.
Fortunately, a few things clued me in:
(1) It said it was from Microsoft. But the URL said from a Verizon ad.
(2) It called me a Microsoft Client. I've never felt so humiliated. I do *NIX or Mac.
(3) It claimed to fix ALL the known security flaws in Windows. This one should have been obvious.
(4) It was advertised to work on Win9x, ME, and 2000. My guess is that Microsoft doesn't do a whole lot for Win95 people who haven't upgraded. I could be wrong.
(5) It included an executable. [??? how did that slip past my ISP??? They normally strip executables.]
Anyhow, for those of you who use Windows, be aware [once again, and again and again] that those trojans are not to be run.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I am!
I rate pi at 3.14159
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
You can use the handy official Microsoft desktop support lifecycle wizard to see how long they plan to support each desktop OS version. Windows 2000 will be fully supported through 3/31/05, then it will enter "extended support" for two more years (extended=more expensive). After that you're on your own. Win2k server follows basically the same guidelines, except that in the "extended" support period you need to pay for non-security-related hotfixes.
SUPPLEMENTAL END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
MICROSOFT WINDOWS 2000 SERVICE PACK 4
PLEASE READ THIS SUPPLEMENTAL END-USER
LICENSE AGREEMENT ("SUPPLEMENTAL EULA")
CAREFULLY. BY INSTALLING OR USING THE
SOFTWARE THAT ACCOMPANIES THIS SUPPLEMENTAL
EULA, YOU AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS
SUPPLEMENTAL EULA. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, DO
NOT INSTALL OR USE THE SOFTWARE AND, IF
APPLICABLE, RETURN IT TO THE PLACE OF
PURCHASE FOR A FULL REFUND.
THIS SOFTWARE DOES NOT TRANSMIT ANY
PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
FROM YOUR COMPUTER TO MICROSOFT
COMPUTER SYSTEMS WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT.
1. GENERAL
This EULA is a legal agreement between you (either an
individual or a single entity) and Microsoft Corporation
("Microsoft"). The accompanying Microsoft software
includes computer software and may include associated
media, printed materials, online or electronic
documentation, and Internet-based services
(collectively, the "Components"). The Components are
provided to update, supplement, or replace existing
functionality of Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional,
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, Microsoft Windows
2000 Advanced Server, and Microsoft Windows 2000
Datacenter Server (the "Software"). Your use of the
Components is subject to the terms and conditions of
the end user license agreement (either from Microsoft
or some other entity) under which you have previously
licensed the Software (the "Software EULA")
and this Supplemental EULA.
IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A VALIDLY LICENSED COPY OF
THE SOFTWARE, YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO
INSTALL, COPY OR OTHERWISE USE THE COMPONENTS
AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS UNDER THIS
SUPPLEMENTAL EULA.
2. GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF YOUR USE
OF THE COMPONENTS
a. Installation and Use.
Provided you comply with all applicable license terms and
conditions contained in the Software EULA (which are
hereby incorporated by reference except as set forth
below) and this Supplemental EULA, Microsoft grants
you the right to reproduce, install and use one
copy of the Components on each of your computers
that is running a validly licensed copy of
the Software ("Computers").
b. Reservation of Rights.
The Components are protected by copyright and other
intellectual property laws and treaties. Microsoft
Corporation or its suppliers own the title, copyright,
and other intellectual property rights in the Components.
All rights not expressly granted to you in this Supplemental
EULA are reserved. The Components are licensed, not sold.
c. Capitalized Terms.
Capitalized terms used in this Supplemental EULA and not
otherwise defined herein shall have the meanings assigned
to them in the Software EULA.
3. AUTOMATIC INTERNET-BASED SERVICES.
The Software features described below are enabled by
default to connect via the Internet to Microsoft
computer systems automatically, without separate
notice to you. You consent to the operation
of these features, unless you choose to switch
them off or not use them. Microsoft does not
obtain personally identifiable information
through any of these features. For more
information about these features, please see
your Software documentation or the Microsoft
online support site.
a. Windows Update Features.
Under the Software's default configuration, if you connect
a device to your Computer and the correct device driver is
not available on your Computer, then Windows Update
features on your Computer (including Device Manager
and the Plug & Play CDM Module) automatically attempt
to check Microsoft computer systems via the Internet
for the correct device driver. Having this happen
automatically makes Plug-and-Play
I can't for the life of me understand some of the comments I read in response to this article about SysAdmins who are actually INSTALLING this thing right now to a bunch of users without testing!
This isn't a flame against Microsoft, it makes sense to fully test anything like this, be it OSX, Redhat, Windoze, whatever. Those that are deploying without testing are doing SysAdmin's in general a complete disservice-- it makes us all look bad when something goes wrong.
It just doesn't make any sense to me to even consider deploying before it has been out a while and tested. A service pack is a cumulative rolloup of security fixes and bug fixes and occasionally some enhanced features. Yes, there are additional fixes that haven't been distributed yet, but unless you HAVE to install it, you can wait a couple of weeks and test it in production before deploying it to everyone in your company.
Look at Winnt SP3 and SP3a. They released SP3a shortly after 3 because of some problems with the service pack. Frankly, I wouldn't want to be the sysadmin who installed it on all my clients to discover all the problems! Crazy!
"Look! There! Evil, pure and simple from the Eighth Dimension!" --Buckaroo Banzai
"Come on, how many icons and groupings can a default win2k have wrong? I doubt they have 10,000 help pages."
:)
Doesn't sound like ya know, does it? I don't know how you can leap from an "I doubt" comment to a "this is clearly..." statement.
"This is why Windoze 2000 can't run more than a few days in a row."
Funny, I had a home-made Tivo running Windows 2000 that had an average up-time of 3 months. I've got an NT4 Exchange Server that's been up for 80 days here. We used to have an IIS webserver running gon NT4. It was up for well over 6 months. We never needed to restart it, but we did have to physically move it a couple of times. My desktop machine has been running for about 13 days now. It'd have gone longer but my UPS is flaking out on me. Not bad for a machine that I do 3D animation and play games on.
" Trust your observations to tell you that software simply sucks."
Think I'd be defending 2K if I had 'observed' that the software 'simply sucks'?
"Balderdash! Windows2000 runs on intel 386. Wince runs on ARM. That's it. What do you think this is, free software that's compiled to specific x86 processor families, Motorola, ARM, Alpha, "
A machine is not a processor, it's a complete setup. Never heard of the old "Windows is on 90% of desktops" stastic before?
"you will always be at the mercy of the service patch that requires you to give up hope of privacy."
Actually, if you had read the EULA instead of going by the sensationalized Slashdot version of it, you'd know that the purpose isn't for MS to go sniffin around your machine. The reason it's there is to support a number of the features they added to Windows to deal with the virus problems that have been plaguing it. Go read it.
"Pull your head out of your closed source place please."
I would suggest you do a little thinking on your own instead of repeating all the stuff you've heard on Slashdot that gets modded +5 Insightful.
"Free software has fewer bugs and does more than any dinky windoze distro will ever. "
That's a myth. I'll give the Open Source community credit for responding to bugs in a timely manner, but you need to face facts that Open Source Software is rarely both well designed and bug free. Run a few commercial apps in front of an ordinary user and then run a few free apps in front of an ordinary user, most of the time he or she will be able to tell you which is which. "well, the commercial one seems to be friendlier to me while the free one is confusing to use."
" The complextiy you are thinking of is a legacy of all the dirty tricks M$ used over the years to kill of software rivals. That does not exist in free software and never will. "
Yeah, that's scientific. Heh.
"This is why free software PCs don't have to be turned off until the power fails."
Riiiiiiiight. We'll see how stable your Linux machine gets when games start becoming available. You'll find out just how 'rock-solid' it is then. Linux machines are not being used like Windows machines are, so drawing comparisons like that is not very informative.
Nice bit of Linux propoganda tho. Bucking for a +5 Insightful?
"NT4 includes version 2 of IE. IE2 is so old it dosn't support http1.1 and can't access virtual hosted sites cutting it off from a lot of the web."
Oddly enough, you can install Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 on Windows NT Workstation 4.0. It doesn't appear to slow down anything at all.
"I want a new version of NT4 with updated drivers and USB support "
Yeah, that's called Windows 2000.
"Microsoft plans to maximise revenue direct otherwise."
By your logic, if I can't purchase an Intel 4004 with integrated 802.11a/b and SSE-II, it's because Intel "plans to maximise revenue direct otherwise." That doesn't sound a little silly to you? Come on, this was a product created back in 1995/96. Do you expect them to give you free support and updates in the year 2025? Even Microsoft couldn't afford to do that; they'd have groups of people paid only to support a product that hasn't been produced (read: hasn't made them any money) in more than 20 years. At some point, you must either upgrade to a newer version, or accept that you simply will not have support for things that weren't around when the technology you're using was created.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
I wouldn't know. I would say no because the key and ISO showed up in newsgroups at least 2 to 3 months before XP was released (There's even a picture of someone holding the rip in front of Microsoft's X days until XP launches sign). I myself had it one month before...Not that I kept it or anything ;P
I'm sure Microsoft got wind of the key long before anyone actually used it and I would guess whoever may have gotten the key was issued new a new one.
Snarf This.