Microsoft Update Product Team Blog : Vista

Get ready for Vista and Win2k8 SP2!

muteam — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:09:00 GMT

Hi All,

Just a heads up to prepare for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2. It will be available in the coming weeks on the Download Center (DLC) and also through Windows Update and WSUS. On April 28^th, we announced the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SP2 includes all updates that were released since SP1. It also includes support for new types of hardware and other technology improvements. For more information on the changes with SP2, see the notable changes document on TechNet.

Here’s a short list of the tools and guidance that’s available for SP2:

· If you’re managing systems that connect directly to WU, you can use the updated Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit to prevent WU from offering SP2 to your client computers.

· For more information about SP2, refer to the SP2 Frequently Asked Questions on TechNet.

· For help with deployment related questions, you should read this blog post on the Windows team blog.

We hope this information helps you prepare to deploy SP2.

--
The MU Team

Upcoming Expiration Reminders of Windows XP and Windows Vista SP Blocker Tools

muteam — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 01:01:00 GMT

Hi Folks,

Just a reminder, If you have used the Service Pack Blocker Tool for Windows XP or Windows Vista then make sure you’re prepared for the expiration of the blocker tool. The Windows Vista blocker tool expires on April 28, 2009. The Windows XP SP3 blocker tool expires May 19, 2009.

For those of you who haven’t used the blocker tools. They temporarily prevent certain updates or service packs from being offered to a computer through WU. The service pack blockers work for one year after general availability of the service pack. We provide them for business customers who don’t manage software updates using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or our System Center products and solutions.

For more information on the Service Pack Blocker Tool, please see the FAQ available through the Springboard Series on TechNet.

Thanks,

The MU Team

Reminder - Windows Vista SP1 RC Builds Expire soon!

muteam — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:59:00 GMT

Hi there -

Quick reminder for all of you out there who helped test Windows Vista SP1 and may still be running Release Candidate builds (any build less than 6.0.6001.18000). The RC builds will expire on June 30th - so if you happen to running one, be sure to uninstall it before the end of the month. More info is available in the SP1 Forum.

Thanks,

-MU Team

Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisite KB937287

muteam — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:12:00 GMT

Back in February, we posted about the release of a couple of prerequisites for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. While several million customers installed the updates successfully, you may have read that a few customers experienced an endless reboot cycle while installing one of the prerequisites: KB937287, the Servicing Stack Update (SSU), which contains the Service Pack 1 installation program.

As posted last month on the Windows Vista blog, we suspended automatic distribution of the SSU while we investigated the problem. Over the past few weeks, we’ve learned a lot more about the problem and have taken steps to address the issue. Today, we’d like to let you know that we are resuming automatic distribution of the SSU tomorrow and provide more clarity on what happened.

To clear up any concerns for those of you who have already installed the update: There is no problem with the files that make up the Servicing Stack Update (KB937287); the problem some customers encountered was with the installation process for the update. That means if you already have the update installed, you do not need to uninstall it or install the rereleased version of the update.

So what caused the problem? Well, the SSU has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install. If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting. During our investigation, we discovered that there were a few unknown and rare events during the middle of the installation of the update that could cause the update to think it needed a reboot to complete the installation. If this happened, the system entered a repeating reboot loop.

To address this problem for people who have not already installed the SSU, we are releasing a fix tomorrow which will install prior to the SP1 Servicing Stack Update. This pre-SSU update helps to ensure a smooth install of the SSU by working to prevent the system from rebooting during the SP1 SSU installation. We also made additional changes to the SSU installer code, so that it checks for and requires the pre-SSU (KB949939) before it will install.

These two updates should now install seamlessly through Windows Update, in the proper order, so those of you with WU set to “install updates automatically” who haven’t already installed the SSU don’t have to take any further action. For those using the standalone download of SP1, the issues we encountered do not affect that method of installing at all.

--MU Team

Vista SP1

muteam — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:26:00 GMT

Hi all,

Today we made Windows Vista SP1 available for Windows Vista systems in English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

What does this mean for you? Well, here are some details of what you can expect:

Windows Update Users (or those of you who manage systems that directly connect to WU)

From now until sometime in mid-April, SP1 will be interactively available for customers who visit the Windows Update control panel. In mid-April, SP1 will begin automatically downloading according to the settings selected by the user.

What does this mean?

If you're interested in installing SP1 today, you'll need to click start-->all programs-->windows update and then "check for updates." If previously released SP1 prerequisites are installed, you'll then see SP1 pre-checked and ready for download and installation. After you download the service pack using Windows Update, you'll see a series of screens and be asked to make a few quick choices before the installation of SP1 will be underway. (Note: there’s a few reasons you might not see SP1 available. If you’d like to learn more check out Knowledge Base Article 948343.)

Windows Server Update Services Admins

We'll be publishing SP1 directly to WSUS at a future date, and before then we will make a Standalone Package of the service pack and it’s prerequisites, available on the MU Catalog so that WSUS admins, who'd like to test and deploy the update, can easily import the service pack from the catalog into WSUS. We will give an update when the standalone package is available. At that time we will refer you to the WSUS blog for more information and guidance to prepare for the catalog import of SP1 to your WSUS servers.

For more details on the release of SP1, check out the Vista Team blog.

Thanks much!

-MU Team

Another note regarding KB935509...

muteam — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 06:33:00 GMT

We had a small number of early customer reports, that in some cases, this update (KB935509) was being offered for installation on all Windows Vista editions vs. just Ultimate and Enterprise. A quick adjustment of the applicability logic was released shortly there-after to refine the edition offering behavior. For systems set to download and install updates automatically, the update will not install even if it has already downloaded, so most people will not be affected by this at all. Customers who installed the initial release of the update on editions other than Ultimate or Enterprise should not be concerned as the update will have no negative impact on their systems – it was designed to install on all versions of Windows Vista, it is just not required on any of the others for SP1.

MU Team

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Note regarding KB935509...

muteam — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:50:00 GMT

Hi all,

Just dropping a quick line to let you know about one of the updates we're releasing this week to Windows Update (it's a little different than usual). The update, KB935509, is a prerequisite to Windows Vista Service Pack 1, which will be coming later this quarter.

The update is being released this week, for Windows Vista Ultimate and Enterprise editions, so that the required reboot will be bundled with other updates requiring reboots.

Check out the Windows Vista Team blog to learn more.

WSUS customers: you can find more guidance on this update specific to you on the WSUS blog.

MU Team

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Windows Vista reliability & performance update preview release available today

muteam — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 01:28:00 GMT

Today we have released an update preview release for Windows Vista on the Microsoft Download Center. Today's update release preview is targeted toward improving reliability and performance in Windows Vista. The Windows Serviceability Team is releasing this preview to get customer feedback before our planned Windows Update release (expected to be in January). Today's update preview release is geared toward improving reliability and performance in Windows Vista and we highly encourage you to install it.

It includes:

Improvement of previous issues affecting going into or resuming from sleep/hibernate under some scenarios
Update to address a previous issue with the disk spindown feature to improve battery life for portable systems
Up to 15% improved performance of disk I/O (i.e., copying/moving/deleting large files)

You can find more information about today's update preview release in this KB article. You can download the Windows Vista update preview release from here: Microsoft Download Center. See the Windows Vista News blog for more information on this preview release.

Cheers and happy previewing!

MUTeam