WSUS Product Team Blog

New Category for Expression Web 3

2009-11-16T21:17:00Z

Hi WSUS Admins,

There is a new product category being added to the WSUS Products and Classifications dialog under the product family “Expression”. The new product category is for Expression Web 3.

The Expression Web 3 product category will include updates for Expression Web 3, including service packs, incremental and cumulative updates.

For additional information on the Expression product family, see http://www.microsoft.com/expression.

Microsoft will also be releasing a service pack for Expression Web 3 in the coming months. Expression Web 3 Service Pack 1 contains significant fixes and improvements in publishing, SuperPreview, file management, extensibility, and other areas of the program.

Thanks!

The WSUS Team

Platform Update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

2009-10-27T19:26:00Z

Hello WSUS admins,

Here’s some additional information on the recently announced Platform Update for Windows Vista and Platform Update for Windows Server 2008. These two updates are part of a broader set of updates being offered to improve the interoperability of earlier versions of Windows with applications and devices designed to run on Windows 7.

For the unmanaged clients, the platform update for either Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 is offered as a bundled, or cumulative, update containing all the unique components. To give you greater control of the updates deployed through WSUS, we are offering the components of these updates as separate individual packages that can be approved by platform.

The individual components are as follows:

KB971512 – Updates the Windows graphics, imaging, and XPS libraries (Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008).

KB971513 – Provides the Windows Automation API (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008).

KB960362 – Provides support for applications that use the Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library (Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008).

KB971514 – Provides the Windows Portable Devices Platform (Windows Vista).

Thanks,

The MU/WSUS teams

New Product Category for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2

2009-10-23T21:40:00Z

There will be a new product category added to your WSUS server Products and Classifications dialog under the existing System Center Virtual Machine Manager family, titled Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2. This product provides a comprehensive management solution for the virtualized data center that enables centralized management of virtual machine infrastructure. The new category will allow all classifications of updates to be offered to the Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 product.

This new category should be available in the near future for updates for this product.

Thanks.

--The MU Team

Interested in managing desktops with an online service? Get in on the private beta!

2009-10-13T20:02:00Z

Want to test out and use new bits for Microsoft’s new hosted management service? A good friend to the Group Policy team is the System Center Online team, who announced the first version of their product at MMS 2009.

They are looking for qualified customers to be part of their fall beta, check out the full details here:

http://blogs.technet.com/systemcenteronline/archive/2009/09/23/system-center-online-desktop-manager-beta-is-coming-soon.aspx

If you are an IT pro who manages an IT environment, look into this! They’ve been working with members of the Group Policy team to create a cool hosted management experience. The beta includes the following:

Updates Management: Manage the Microsoft updates from a web-based console. Review available updates, choose updates and deploy to selected computers or groups of computers. Imagine WSUS from the cloud.
Policy Settings: Provides the ability to configure operational settings of the Windows Update and Anti-Malware agents installed on the client computers.
Anti-malware : Review anti-malware, anti-virus status and remedial actions from the SCODM console. Ensure managed computers have up-to-date signatures.
Assets Inventory: Collect detailed hardware and software inventory on managed computers. View this information in reports. Use the License reconciliation feature to load your Microsoft volume license agreement information and compare installed application quantities with licensed quantities.
Alerts : Helps you quickly and easily find problems (or potential) on your computers. You can also get help on how to solve the problem or how to start troubleshooting.

If you are chosen, here’s what they expect from you:

Active involvement in discussion groups, good feedback and bug reporting
Ability to deploy to a number of test PCs (preferably 5 or more)
Test on a variety of browsers, Windows operating systems, and PC architectures.
Ability to run through all the documented core scenarios and provide feedback.

Selected participants will be notified by email by the end of October so hurry up!

Cecilia Cole, WSUS PM

New Product Family Name for Visual Studio coming soon

2009-10-12T18:28:00Z

Hello folks,

Just some product family and product name housekeeping we want to keep you updated on. Very soon, the "Visual Studio" product family will be renamed to "Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables". The reason for the change is to more accurately reflect the various developer related products that will be serviced via Microsoft Update and WSUS.

After this change, any previously released (and new) updates released for Visual Studio 2005, and Visual Studio 2008, will be available under those product categories, but now under the new product family name of Developer Tools, Runtimes, and Redistributables.

Also under this new product family name, you will also see two new product categories. Report Viewer 2005 and Report Viewer 2008. These two new product categories will include updates for the Report Viewer 2005 and 2008 Redistributables.

Thank you!

The MU and WSUS team

WSUS 3.0 SP2 RTM is now available!

2009-08-26T07:26:00Z

The WSUS Product Team is proud to announce that WSUS 3.0 SP2 is now available! Get it today!

We recommend installing SP2 on all existing and new installations of WSUS.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 supports the latest operating systems including Windows Server® 2008 R2 and Windows 7 clients. WSUS 3.0 SP2 is more robust and features significant improvements in client performance, reliability, and increased server usability and reliability.

Administrators will see improvements in several areas including:

Reports

· New Update and Computer Status reports provide the ability to report on only the updates you’ve approved for installation. You can run these reports from the WSUS console or use the API to incorporate this functionality into your own reports.

Auto-Approval Rules

· Auto-approval rules now include the ability to specify the installation deadline date and time for all computers or specific computer groups.

Update Files and Languages

· Improved handling of language selection for downstream servers includes a new warning dialog that appears when you decide to download updates only for specified languages.

Easy Upgrade

· WSUS 3.0 SP2 can be installed as an in-place upgrade from earlier versions of WSUS and will preserve all of your settings and approvals. The user interface is compatible between WSUS 3.0 SP1 and SP2 on the client and the server.

Software Updates

· Stability and reliability fixes for the WSUS server, such as support for IPV6 addresses.

· The approval dialog now sorts computer groups alphabetically by group name.

· Computer status report sorting icons are now functional in x64 environments.

· A new release of Windows Update Agent is included with WSUS 3.0 SP2 that provides improvements in reliability and faster client scan times, the ability to perform ‘scoped’ scans, improved update organization, more clarity on update value and behavior, plus improved display of imaged machines.

Operating Systems Supported by WSUS 3.0 SP2

Server

· Windows Server 2008 R2

· Windows Server 2008 SP1 or later

· Windows Server 2003 SP1 or later

Client

· Windows 7 client

· Windows Server 2008 R2

· Windows Server 2008 SP1 or later

· Windows Server 2003 SP2 or later

· Windows Vista

· Windows XP Professional

· Windows XP Professional SP1

· Windows XP Professional SP2

· Windows XP Professional SP3 or later

· Windows 2000 SP4

For more information about WSUS 3.0 SP2 including documentation and download instructions, see:

1. Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 Dynamic Installer for Server Manager (KB972493)

2. Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 (KB972455)

Additional information

For more information about this release visit us at our Windows Server Update Services page.

The Product Team would like to thank you for your support throughout Beta and RC of this release. Thank you for making WSUS a better product!

Regards,

Cecilia Cole

WSUS PM

Re-offer reports confirmed for KB973869

2009-08-14T02:21:00Z

Hi Folks – We have investigated reports that the KB973869 (MS09-037) update is re-offered through Automatic Updates and Windows Update on some x64 systems, after it has already been installed. We have identified some limited scenarios where this is occurring with Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows XP x64, and Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based systems. No systems are left unsecure due to this behavior. A revision to the update detection logic will be published shortly to prevent this update from being re-offered after it has been installed, and to ensure clients accurately describe the updates' installed status. If you have installed this update, you do not need to re-install the revision.

We apologize for this inconvenience,

The MU Team

Upcoming Updates for .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1

2009-06-23T01:38:00Z

Hi WSUS Admins,

We are planning on releasing two updates related to the .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. Both of these address customer feedback problems that have been reported back to us.

The first is for the .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 that enables Firefox browsers to use ClickOnce technology. We will be releasing an update to the .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 in order to make the extension compatible with future versions of Firefox and enable the uninstall button of the add-on. This update is applicable to all machines with .NET 3.5 SP1 installed.

Additional information about this update can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/963707

We will also be releasing a revised .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Family Update this week for Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP with the .NET 3.5 SP1 language packs separated from the original update. While the detection logic has been updated, there have been no changes made to the binaries shipped. Therefore, machines that have previously installed the .NET 3.5 SP1 do not need to install this again. Machines with .NET 3.5 SP1 installed and without .NET 3.5 SP1 language packs, will receive the latter as a separate update.

Additional information about .NET Framework 3.5 sp1 can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951847

Thank you!

FCS update re-offer problem resolved

2009-06-20T02:47:00Z

Hello WSUS Admins,

Shortly after the release of our previously announced update for Forefront Client Security, we received reports of a previously released update for FCS (Client Update for Microsoft Forefront Client Security (1.0.1703.0)) constantly re-offering. The Forefront team has tested and released a revision to this older update to resolve this re-offer problem, and this revision is now live for WSUS servers.

Machines managed by WSUS servers will need to 1.) synchronize their WSUS server to download the latest revision 2.) approve the latest revision and 3.) wait for the client to re-scan against the WSUS server to receive the corrected update revision. (Note that Step 2 is not required if you have configured your WSUS server to automatically approve revisions).

We apologize for any inconvenience this problem may have caused.

Sincerely,
The WSUS Team

Forefront Client Security (FCS) update coming to WSUS

2009-06-17T21:48:00Z

Microsoft is releasing an update to the Forefront Client Security (FCS) v1 antimalware client on Thursday, June 18^th. This update includes the following changes:

Improvements to the FCS kernel-mode driver.
A change in how the component object model (COM) is used in Software Explorers. There is an issue present, only in Windows 2000, that causes it to crash.
A change to how the FCS engine scans shortcut files(.lnk). The engine can now be configured to query the path to which the shortcut points; if the path is on the local computer it will scan the referenced location, if it is a network location it will not scan the reference.

This update is cumulative, and can be installed on FCS v1 release client as well as all previous antimalware updates.

Regards,

WSUS Team

New Product Categories for Office Communicator R2 releases

2009-05-27T20:43:00Z

Hello WSUS Admins,

There are 2 new product categories being added to the WSUS Products and Classifications dialog, both under the product family “Office Communicator Server and Office Communicator”. The two new categories are:

Office Communications Server 2007 R2:

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 product category will include updates for the Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 R2, including service packs, critical and security updates.

Office Communicator 2007 R2:

The Office Communicator 2007 R2 product category will include updates for the Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2 , including service packs, critical and security updates.

For additional information on the Office Communicator 2007 R2 product family, see http://www.microsoft.com/uc/products/default.mspx

Thanks!

--The WSUS Team

WSUS 3.0 SP2 RC Program now available on Microsoft Connect!

2009-05-26T22:30:00Z

I am very pleased to announce that WSUS 3.0 SP2 RC will be available to the general public today, May 26, via the Connect Site.

All you have to do is sign in to your Connect account or sign up now in order to participate in the RC program.
This program is available to all registered and authenticated users of Connect.

WSUS 3.0 SP2 RC Overview

New Windows Server and Client Version Support

· Integration with Windows Server® 2008 R2

· Support for the BranchCache feature on Windows Server 2008 R2

· Support for Windows 7 client

WSUS Feature Improvements

Auto-Approval Rules

· Auto-approval rules now include the ability to specify the approval deadline date and time for all computers or specific computer groups.

Update Files and Languages

· Improved handling of language selection for downstream servers includes a new warning dialog that appears when you decide to download updates only for specified languages.

Easy Upgrade

Reports

· New Update and Computer Status reports provide the ability to filter on updates approved for installation. You can run these reports from the WSUS console or use the API to incorporate this functionality into your own reports.

Software Updates

· Stability and reliability fixes for the WSUS server, such as support for IPV6 addresses greater than 40 characters.

· The approval dialog now sorts computer groups alphabetically by group name.

· Computer status report sorting icons are now functional in x64 environments.

· Fixed setup issues with database servers running Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008.

· A new release of Windows Update Agent is included with WSUS 3.0 SP2 that provides improvements and fixes, such as support for APIs called by non-local system callers in a non-interactive session.

For more information about this release refer to the Release Notes for Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP2 RC.

Thank you very much for your participation. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Cecilia Cole

WSUS Program Manager

Get ready for Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2

2009-05-21T02:13:00Z

Hello WSUS Admins,

The MU team has published information about the upcoming release of Vista and Win2k8 SP2 through WU and WSUS. You can find more information on their blog post here.

As always, please review and prepare your environments for this release.

Thanks!

--
The WSUS Team

New Product Family - Live Search

2009-05-21T01:10:00Z

Hello WSUS Admins,

Shortly we will be publishing a new top level category (product family) for WSUS – Live Search. The Live Search product family will include updates for all Live Search products. Under this product family we will be creating a category for:

Search Enhancement Pack – For all updates relating to the Search Enhancement Pack.

The Live Search products may include updates including service packs, optional updates, critical updates, and security updates.

For additional information on Live Search Products see: http://www.live.com.

Thanks!

The WSUS Team

Installing WSUS 3.0 SP1 through Windows Server 2008 SP2 Server Manager

2009-05-13T00:17:00Z

By default, Windows Server 2008 SP2 includes the ability to install the Windows Server Update Services Role Service by using Server Manager. This role lets you use the MMC Server Manager snap-in and wizards to install, configure, and manage WSUS 3.0 SP1. This behavior is different from Windows Server 2008 SP1 where the administrator needed to install an update to Server Manager to be able to install WSUS as a Role.

Important:

· There is no need to install "Update for Windows Server 2008 Server Manager" (KB940518). This update is only applicable to Windows Server 2008 SP1 computers.

Deployment Instructions

· To install WSUS 3.0 SP1 on a Windows 2008 Server SP2 server that is pointed to Windows Update or Microsoft Update, go directly to Server Manager and install the WSUS Role.

· To install WSUS 3.0 SP1 on a server running Windows Server 2008 SP2 which is being updated by a WSUS server, do the following procedure.

1. Enable the following Product Classifications:

1. Updates

2. Enable the following Category:

1. Windows Server 2008 Server Manager – Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Dynamic Installer category is a container for WSUS updates. These updates are “hidden” such that user will never see a notification or be downloaded by WUA. These updates can only be downloaded via the WUA APIs. Server Manager is using this method to download and start the install of WSUS.

3. Approve the Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1 Dynamic Install for Windows Server 2008 (KB948014) (there’s one for x86 and one for x64). This specific WSUS package is targeted at Windows Server 2008 computers that do not have WSUS installed. This package will only install via Server Manager.

Note: Since the update is targeted at any Windows Server 2008 computers that don’t have the WSUS role installed, these machines will report that the update “is needed”. You do not have to install this update on these computers if you do not want it.

After WSUS is detected as installed by Server Manager it can be configured and managed within the Server

Manager UI/WSUS Snap-in.