Vista and Server 2008 SP2 – What You Need to Know

Wow they are busy down in Redmond!  Yesterday Service Pack 2 for Office 2007 was released and today Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 were completed!  I’ve been doing some digging to find out what is new and noteworthy as well as what resources are available.  So what’s new in SP2?

First and foremost this release coincides with the expiration of the Windows Vista SP1 blocker utility.  If you have this in place you will now be offered Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update.

Windows Vista:

• Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1 and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology. 
• SP2 includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray Disc media. 
• SP2 includes Windows Search 4.0, which builds on Microsoft’s search technology with improved indexing and search relevance. It also helps find and preview documents, e-mail (including signed e-mail messages), music files, photos, and other items on the computer.

Windows Server 2008:

• SP2 provides the Hyper-V virtualization environment as a fully integrated feature of Windows Server 2008, including one free instance with Windows Server 2008 Standard, four free instances with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and an unlimited number of free instances with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter. 
• SP2 improves backwards compatibility for Terminal Server license keys. Windows Server 2008 changed the licensing key from 512 bytes to 2,048 bytes which caused clients using older Terminal Server versions to fail. SP2 allows legacy license keys on Citrix applications to work with Windows Server 2008 Terminal Server. 
• SP2 increases the authentication options for WebDAV redirector, enabling Microsoft Office users greater flexibility when authenticating custom applications using the WebDAV redirector

And in relation to both Windows Vista and Server 2008, SP2 provides an improved power management (both on the server and the desktop), which includes the ability to manage these settings via Group Policy.

For more information on SP2 for Vista and Server 2008 please see:

• Windows Vista/Server 2008 SP2 Download for TechNet/MSDN subscribers (if you don’t subscribe it will be a little while longer)
• Hotfix List For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2
• Guidance on Windows Deployments for Business Customers
• Microsoft Springboard Portal
• Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit