Windows XP SP2 Delayed Until Late 2004

Aiua writes "BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft has pushed back the release date for the second Windows XP service pack to the third quarter of 2004 without giving any reasons." Update: 08/19 12:52 GMT by M : Another article claims it will be out three months earlier, no later than June 2004.

Comments

The press release has a typo in it

[Surak]

As I stated to daddypants, who IGNORED ME ahem, Michael, Wininformant has the real story. Due out in Q1-Q2 2004, not Q3-Q4.

...and WinInformant says otherwise

[OfficerNoGun]

WinInformant says that the statement meant Fiscal year 2004, which ends in June 2004 for Microsoft, and that SP2 is due out mid 2004.

A typo apparently...

[MikShapi]

At least as the other article linked in the first comment of the article in question plainly states.

Re:Without reason?

[shird]

There's always a reason! I think Blaster is a reason enough.

How is that a reason? The exploit that worm used was fixed months ago.

Microsoft have been talking about making auto-updating enabled by default in a service pack which may be linked to the delay. They will need to make sure patches are installed without having too many adverse affects. And a way for business users to have it disabled because they would typically not want it enabled.

Re:One thing I don't really get...

[greenius]

Errm... XP does have an automatic update facility, which can be set to automatically download critical updates... you can choose whether to be prompted before downloading and again and before installing... of course many people disable this because they don't want Microsoft installing stuff on their machines without them knowing.

Or, manually, you can simply click "Windows Update" in the start menu/programs, which will determine what patches are available and allow you to select/deselect which ones you want to download and install.

I'm not really sure how it could be much easier???

Re:Without reason?

[DASHSL0T]

No it was NOT fixed months ago. It was fixed about 3 weeks before the worm came out.

I love how misinformation about this gets out, shifting the blame from MS to the sysadmins of the world.

Re:One thing I don't really get...

[sqlrob]

. Antivirus software for the platform is capable of downloading and applying updates to itself, and it wouldn't be a bad idea for Microsoft to take a page out of their book.

Let's see...

The blaster fix opened a hole on some systems
NT SP5 completely destroyed network connectivity

Tell me again why it should be automated downloads?

Re:calendar? or fiscal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft have already confirmed this to be the case. See

• http://www.neowin.net/

It is fiscal 2004, therefore somewhere in the first quarter of 2004.

Windows update

[Anonymous Coward]

When I click on windows update right now all I get is

Thank you for your interest in Windows Update

Windows Update is the online extension of Windows that helps you get the most out of your computer.

The latest version of Windows Update is available on computers that are running Microsoft Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000 (except Windows 2000 Datacenter Server), Windows XP, and the Windows Server 2003 family.

That's all it says - no where to click for an update. What's with that?

Re:Windows update

[pbranes]

Yeah, I'm getting the same thing. Earlier today, I ran windows update on a sersver, rebooted and windows update showed this message. I tried it on my workstation, and it is doing the same thing. Of course, I am running IE 6 on both machines when I using windows update.

Looks like the wonderful windows update site has failed again.

Re:Windows update

[James Willard]

Microsoft has been having problems with the OS Detection portion of the WindowsUpdate code. The solution is to remove the /thanks.asp from the end of the redirected URL so that it just reads something like:

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/

Re:Microsoft doesn't need to have reason....

[iamthemoog]

an hour to install XP w/ SP1 slipstreamed.. and an hour to install the 50 updates

This is a total pain in the arse for small OEM's like myself - updating your master technician computer with all the latest patches is an eleven-step process per patch.
Many of these steps involve such things as:

Using Notepad, edit
\Opktools\Lang\JPN\SKU\Pro\x86\i386\Dosnet.i nf

an d

REN Q308387_WXP_SP1_X86_JPN.EXE Q308387.EXE

Here's hoping Microsoft include a "Windows Update" for OEM Pre-installs...

moog

Re:Win XP SP2 = Longhorn?... um no...

[the_pooh_experience]

According to wininformant, this is not at all the case. In fact, the relavent snippit of that short blurb is:

"[SP2 will] not [include new] features, but there will be a few things that we're adding to that."... The Microsoft representative also told me that XP SP2 would include no major new features but would instead consist of all the bug and security fixes Microsoft released since XP was issued in October 2001.

Re:One thing I don't really get...

[erasmus_]

What do you mean, they bury it where no one looks? Every install of XP I've ever done, the Auto Update icon shows up on the start bar after using it a short while, and prompts you to run the Automatic Update Wizard. The wizard gives you the option to automatically download updates and prompt you to install them, which is the default behavior and the one I prefer as well. Or you can just have it auto-install them.

So, no one really has to look for it, unless they wish to change their wizard selections. If they do, it's on the auto updates tab in Control Panel > System.

Re:C64 SP 920293420

[xanadu-xtroot.com]

(I hate to do this since I'd rather let people figure out your joke on their own, but I have to know...)

That's the reboot sys call, right? It's been a good few years since my C=64 days.