Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Server 2008

Remaining Windows Vista SP2 Languages Released to Windows Update

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:34:10 GMT

Back on May 26th, we announced Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 hit the RTW milestone. The first wave of languages (English, German, French, Spanish, and Japanese) was made available on Windows Update at that time. Today, we are releasing the remaining languages for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 to Windows Update.

For more information, including languages, on Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 click here.

If you have Windows Update configured to download updates automatically, Windows Update will notify you when Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 is ready to be installed.

Windows Vista SP2 RTM + Windows Vista SP1 Blocker Tool Removed

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 23:49:56 GMT

Today we are announcing the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SP2 represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement. It includes all updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.

As we have mentioned before, here are some of the key benefits of Windows Vista SP2:

Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches
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.

And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support. For a complete overview of the changes introduced in SP2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, check out the notable changes document on TechNet.

Business customers with Windows Vista will find that the transition from Windows Vista to Windows 7 will be significantly more straightforward due to the high degree of compatibility between Windows Vista and Windows 7. If your Windows Vista SP1 deployment is already underway we recommend you continue with SP1 as planned. Then you can deploy SP2 using your systems management infrastructure. If you are in the early stages of deployment or still planning Windows Vista deployment our best advice is that you plan on testing and deploying Windows Vista SP2. For more, I suggest reading this blog post from Gavriella Schuster in regards to guidance on Windows deployments.

We expect Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 to be publicly available in Q2 2009.

As a quick reminder, Windows Vista SP1 Service Pack Blocker Tool is being removed today, as we announced back in January. For customers who previously had the blocker tool in place, Windows Vista SP1 will now be offered to them via Windows Update.

Communicating Windows 7

Chris Flores — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:09:00 GMT

Typically when Microsoft ships a new OS (like Windows Vista), we immediately start talking about the next version-which begs two questions: 1) is Microsoft working on a new version of Windows, and if so, 2) why aren't you talking about it?

I thought I would spend a minute giving you an update on where we are. First, yes, we are working on a new version of Windows. As you likely know, it's called Windows 7.We are always looking for new ways to deliver great experiences for our customers. This is especially true of Windows - where we're constantly examining trends in hardware, software and services to ensure that we continue to drive the innovation that has both made Windows the world's most popular operating system and has provided a foundation on which our partners built great products and businesses. When we shipped Windows 2000, we were already working on Windows XP and we started working on Windows Vista even before we released Windows XP. So naturally, we've been thinking about the investments we made in Windows Vista and how we can build on these for the next version of Windows.

What is a little different today is when and how we are talking about the next version of Windows. So, why the change in approach? We know that when we talk about our plans for the next release of Windows, people take action. As a result, we can significantly impact our partners and our customers if we broadly share information that later changes. With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience. For instance, several months ago we began privately sharing our preliminary plans for Windows 7 with software and hardware partners who build on the Windows platform. This gave them an opportunity to give us feedback and gave us the opportunity to incorporate their input into our plans. As the product becomes more complete, we will have the opportunity to share our plans more broadly. Steven Sinofsky, Windows and Windows Live Engineering SVP, talks more about this in his interview with CNET's Ina Fried, published today: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9951638-56.html.

We know that this is a change in our approach, but we are confident that it will help us not only to build even better products, but also to be more predictable in the delivery of our products. We also know that this change has led to some confusion, so we would like to share information today that will hopefully clear up some of this.

Before we talk about what's ahead, we should take a look at where we are today with Windows Vista. From a quality perspective, both Windows Vista SP1 and the ecosystem have delivered measurable progress in the six dimensions of quality we track -- device compatibility, application compatibility, reliability, performance, battery life and security. The business results speak for themselves. As of March 31, we had sold more than 140 million Windows Vista licenses, and analyst firm forecasts indicate that Windows Vista adoption among businesses is on a similar pace as Windows XP in similar timeframes. Millions of enterprise users are already running Windows Vista, and we invite you to read their stories published in more than 100 case studies. The benefits they are experiencing range from energy conservation, lower TCO for mobile users, and greater security. Our job is not done, but we've worked hard with our ecosystem to improve the quality of Windows Vista and we're pleased with the customer response.

Another question we often get asked is whether Windows 7 is a major release. The answer is "yes" -- it's hard to describe any product that is used by millions of people and worked on by thousands of engineers as anything else. That said, the long-term architectural investments we introduced in Windows Vista and then refined for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 will carry forward in Windows 7. Windows Vista established a very solid foundation, particularly on subsystems such as graphics, audio, and storage. Windows Server 2008 was built on that foundation and Windows 7 will be as well. Contrary to some speculation, Microsoft is not creating a new kernel for Windows 7. Rather, we are refining the kernel architecture and componentization model introduced in Windows Vista. While these changes will increase our engineering agility, they will not impact the user experience or reduce application or hardware compatibility. In fact, one of our design goals for Windows 7 is that it will run on the recommended hardware we specified for Windows Vista and that the applications and devices that work with Windows Vista will be compatible with Windows 7.

We are well into the development process of Windows 7, and we're happy to report that we're still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista. As always, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain feedback, but we're not yet ready to discuss timing and specific plans for any Beta releases. In the meantime, customers can confidently continue with their Windows Vista deployment plans.

Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) Now Available for Windows Vista SP1

Nick White — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:12:00 GMT

Many of you have asked us when the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) would be available for download now that Windows Vista SP1 has been released. As of today, you can!

RSAT is an excellent set of tools for IT Pros wanting to manage their Windows Server environment right from their desktop. RSAT also includes an updated Group Policy Management Console (GPMC), which was previously removed in Windows Vista SP1.

Download: Remote Server Administration Tools (x86)
Download: Remote Server Administration Tools (x64)

RSAT is an updated version of what is called ADMINPAK.MSI and can be used by IT Pros to manage computers running Windows Server 2008. Because many of these tools also work for managing computers running Windows Server 2003, it is essentially "the next version" of ADMINPAK.MSI.

The following are a list of the tools you will find in RSAT:

Role Administration Tools:

Active Directory Certificate Services Tools

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools

Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools

DHCP Server Tools

DNS Server Tools

File Services Tools

Network Policy and Access Services Tools

Terminal Services Tools

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools

Feature Administration Tools:

BitLocker Drive Encryption Tools

Failover Clustering Tools

Group Policy Management Tools

Network Load Balancing Tools

SMTP Server Tools

Storage Manager for SANs Tools

Windows System Resource Manager Tools

And these tools also fully supported managing Windows Server 2003 servers:

Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools
Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools
Active Directory Certification Authority Tools
DHCP Server Tools
DNS Server Tools
Terminal Services Tools
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Services Tools
Group Policy Management Tools
Network Load Balancing Tools

Download RSAT today and start managing your servers!

Microsoft Readying Customers with New Assessment and Deployment Tool for the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 Launch!

Baldwin Ng — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:43:00 GMT

Hello IT Pros!

February 27 is a big day. Windows Server 2008 will be officially launching in Los Angeles with Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, kicking off in just a few hours.

In support of this very important technology milestone as well as the Windows Vista SP1 release, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team has just released the third-generation of the agent-less infrastructure assessment platform called Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator 3.0 (or simply MAP). Through the use of remote WMI calls and secure inventory engines, the MAP tool enables you to quickly inventory a wide variety of networks (AD-managed, IP ranges, and workgroups), securely assess IT environments of servers, desktops, applications and devices, and auto-generate specific and actionable reports and proposal documents in a matter of hours.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE BLOG POST...

GO HERE TO DOWNLOAD MICROSOFT ASSESSMENT AND PLANNING (RTM BITS)

Thank you,

Baldwin Ng (Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning)

Announcing Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC)

Nick White — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 20:06:00 GMT

Today we're making available the release candidate (RC) of Windows Vista SP1 via Microsoft Connect, and tomorrow subscribers to TechNet and MDSN will have access to those RC bits too. In addition, the RC will be available to the public next week via Microsoft's Download Center. The release candidate phase of beta software is typically the final phase before the RTM (release-to-manufacturing) of a product and indicates that the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability.

Let me call out several changes made since the Beta release of Service Pack 1 -- many of which came about as a result of direct feedback from our Beta-testing community (thank you!):

The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn't needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
We've improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

We also have information to share with IT professionals and system administrators regarding final plans for SP1: we're on track to complete and release SP1 in the first quarter of 2008. When SP1 is complete and we reach our release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone, then shortly after the standalone installer will be released to the Web in two waves. The first wave will consist of the standalone installer (x86 and x64) for the 5 initial languages -- English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. These languages will be deployed shortly after the RTM milestone. The second wave will launch 8-12 weeks after the first and will consist of all remaining languages, for both chip architectures (x86 and x64).

For administrators managing Windows Vista PCs configured to use Windows Update but not wishing to deploy SP1 upon its release, we have a "blocker patch" that will prevent installation of SP1. Information on the blocker patch can be found here starting tomorrow: http://technet.microsoft.com/windowsvista/bb927794.

If you're not familiar with SP1, you can find more information in this whitepaper. We built Windows Vista SP1 to address specific reliability and performance issues and also to support new types of hardware and several emerging standards. Further, SP1 is designed to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista. Of course, those of you familiar with SP1 already know that some of SP1's improvements are already available via Windows Update.

A reminder to anyone installing the SP1 RC bits: you will need to uninstall the release candidate of SP1 before you can install a later version.

Also, Windows Server 2008 RC1 was made available today for testing; find the download here: http://www.microsoft.com/ws08eval. And, we announced two updates to the WGA program yesterday: the first addresses two exploits to the activation process while the second adjusts how Windows differentiates between the genuine and non-genuine Windows Vista experience. More information can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/dec07/12-03wga.mspx.

And last, thanks once more to our Beta testing team for their diligence and devotion, as you've made a big impact on this RC release!

Meet Windows Vista IT Pro Hero - Sumeeth Evans from Indianapolis

Baldwin Ng — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:10:00 GMT

Hi all,

Whether you are seriously considering moving your desktops to Windows Vista or just simply contemplating about it, I highly encourage you to grab your favorite latte or beverage, sit back and read about this great story – one that illustrates how an IT pro had become an instant hero in this company.

Meet Sumeeth Evans - IT Manager of the Collegiate Housing Services (CHS). Situated just about 2 hours south of the Great Lake Michigan, CHS manages student housing programs for 27 post-secondary campuses in 13 states across the nation. Late last year (2006), Sumeeth started planning for migrating his company’s computers to Windows Vista but estimated that it could cost $76,000 to get the job done – he assumed that most of his Windows XP machines might not support Windows Vista due the hardware requirements. Fortunately, he joined the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment beta program and found out after using this assessment tool that 70% of his 3-year-old Windows XP machines could run Windows Vista with no or only minor upgrades! Yes, that’s the majority of his PCs!

Needless to say, his manager was pleasantly surprised with the readiness results and the huge savings in the hardware replacement costs that Sumeeth virtually became the IT HERO of the company!

Wanna be an IT hero too? Read on and find out how he did it:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=93644

To become an IT HERO yourself, download Windows Vista Hardware Assessment for free and get the tool here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83115

Cheers,

Baldwin Ng

Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators Team

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/solutionaccelerators

WinHEC 2007: Windows "Longhorn" Server becomes Windows Server 2008

Nick White — Wed, 16 May 2007 01:49:00 GMT

Today at WinHEC 2007 in Los Angeles, Bill Gates announced the final name for what was previously known only as Windows Server codename "Longhorn." Windows Server 2008, which recently reached the Beta 3 milestone, is expected to ship before the end of the year. Here's video of the announcement from WinHEC earlier today:

Video: WinHEC 2007 - Windows Server 2008 Announcement

You can download the Windows Server 2008 fact sheet from Microsoft PressPass and visit the newly branded Windows Server 2008 website for details. Also, check out the amusing "What’s in a name?" video too. (No, that's not exactly how our naming process usually works).

Senior Product Manager Ian Hameroff has also posted about the Windows Server 2008 announcement on the Windows Server Blog. Ian also demoed some of Windows Server 2008's new features earlier today during the WinHEC keynote.