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

.

Posted on 15 March 2007 by

Virus Bulletin