The TechNet Australia Blog : service pack

Office 2007 Service Pack 2 is ready for download

Deeps — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:30:04 GMT

2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 (SP2) gives customers the latest updates for the 2007 Office suite. This service pack includes two main categories of fixes:

Previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack.
- In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, in performance, and in security.
All the public updates, security updates, cumulative updates, and hotfixes that were released through February 2009.

It is available on Windows Update or you can download it through the Microsoft Download Center

Have a read through a description of the new 2007 Microsoft Office suite Service Pack 2 (SP2)

For those of you who will be deploying SP2 across your organisation please read the maintaining an Office Installation information on TechNet

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta

Deeps — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 01:35:03 GMT

As announced on the Windows Vista Team Blog, Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta will be made available to a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers at the end of October. No final date has been set for release.

In addition to previously released updates since the launch of Windows Vista SP1, Windows Vista SP2 contains changes focused on supporting new types of hardware and adding support for several emerging standards:

Windows Vista SP2 adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
Windows Vista SP2 contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

Here are some resources on Windows Vista from TechNet Springboard:
How (and Why) to Get Going on Windows Vista Adoption
Deployment Stories and Case Studies
Five Ways Windows Vista Makes Deployment Easier
Answers to Common Deployment Questions

Windows Vista SP1 availability

Deeps — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:20:00 GMT

Its ok, Im allowed to talk about SP1. I know alot of you have been eagerly anticipating any information about SP1 so here it is. Updates in Windows Vista SP1 fall into 3 areas - Quality Improvements (Reliability, Security and Performance), Improvement to the Administration experience including BitLocker and finally support for emerging hardware standards such as Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and an Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT).

One area I am looking forward to is the Performance Improvements and it looks like there are going to be quite a few areas of improvements to look forward to. The following list describes some of the performance improvements that Windows Vista SP1 will include:

Improves the speed of copying and extracting files.
Improves the time to become active from Hibernate and Resume modes.
Improves the performance of domain-joined PCs when operating off the domain; in the current release version of Windows Vista, users would experience long delays when opening the File dialog box.
Improves performance of Windows® Internet Explorer® 7 in Windows Vista, reducing CPU utilization and speeding JavaScript parsing.
Improves battery life by reducing CPU utilization by not redrawing the screen as frequently, on certain computers.
Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and the password prompt displaying.
Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform as fast as expected.

Here are some more resources:
This is the press release
Here is information regarding SP1 Beta
Windows Vista SP1 Beta Whitepaper

What is SP1? What is it not?
In addition to updates we’ve previously released, SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues we’ve identified via customer feedback, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also makes additional improvements to the IT administration experience. We didn’t design SP1 as a vehicle for releasing new features; however, some existing components do gain enhanced functionality in SP1.

More information on what’s included in SP1 can be found in the detailed white paper.

When can I get my hands on the Beta of SP1?
A Beta release of Windows Vista SP1 is slated for availability in the next few weeks. A small group of testers has been putting a preview of the SP1 Beta through its paces to help prepare for broader release. We made the choice to start with a very small group of testers because we think it’s better for both our customers and for Microsoft to keep the beta program small at the start.

A later pre-release of SP1 will be available to a larger group of testers via MSDN and TechNet subscribers.

And what about SP1 itself -- when will that be available?
We're targeting releasing SP1 to manufacturing in the first quarter of 2008, but as always, we’re first and foremost focused on delivering a high-quality release, so we'll determine the exact release date of SP1 after we have reached that quality bar. (FYI, in case you didn’t already know: the Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 engineering efforts are aligned, so the Server team also said on their blog today that they are targeting the first quarter of 2008 for their release to manufacturing.)

Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 released

Deeps — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 04:10:00 GMT

We hope everyone had a great break over Queens birthday weekend. For those using Virtual Server 2005, you will be pleased to know that Service Pack 1 has been released.

Download here

New Virtual Server site

What are the features?
1. Support for hardware-assisted virtualization technology (AMD-V and Intel VT)
2. Support for greater than 64 virtual machines on x64-based hosts
3. VHD Mount command-line tool and APIs
4. Interoperability with Volume Shadow Copy Service
5. Support for additional guest and host operating systems
6. Service publication using Active Directory Service Connection Points
7. Host clustering white paper
8. Virtual SCSI fix for Linux guests
9. Larger default size for dynamically expanding virtual hard disks
10. VMRC ActiveX control and Internet Explorer security zones
11. New VMRC client option to enable video stretch in full screen mode
12. IVMGuestOS::Get_OSName property returns more operating system information