Microsoft News Tracker

Microsoft’s Chris Keroack announces on a TechNet forum that Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been released to manufacturing:

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.

We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.

SP3 rolls up all current XP fixes, adds a few new fixes, and adds some minor functionality. The Microsoft documentation isn’t online yet, but Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a nice summary.

Sometimes I think that what Microsoft’s Vista operating system really needs is an exorcist given the amount of unnatural occurrences plaguing it, but what it got this week was a disorderly rollout of Service Pack 1:

[Y]ou can now download Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. For those of you eager to receive the benefits of Windows Vista SP1 - you can now do so! We’ve seen quite a bit of questions in our comments so we want to communicate as much as possible surrounding Windows Vista SP1 and today’s release to Windows Update as we can.

For those of you happy to wait - sit tight because SP1 will start downloading to PCs automatically beginning in mid-April (Remember, this happens only if you have your Windows Update configured to automatically download updates and SP1 will automatically download but not automatically install).  But if you want to get the benefit of a year’s worth of improvements right now, go check Windows Update today…(Hit the Start Menu, All Programs, and select Windows Update).

If in running Windows Update you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed, there are a number of good reasons for this (Eight in fact, see the whole list).

And there’s the rub as everything from an installation of a wrong language to a troublesome device driver could potentially hold up the parade. Microsoft says they are working on these problems and have recalled last month’s prerequisite Servicing Stack Update (KB937287) which caused some Vista systems to continually reboot, but the whole thing has a chancy feel when what Microsoft wants out of SP1 is an impression of solidity.

Adding to to the uncertainty were the mixed messages concerning retail availability of SP1 in boxed copies of Vista and on OEM hardware. It appears that Vista with SP1 is now available at some retailers including Amazon, but OEM PCs with SP1 won’t start showing up until April. As for current users that don’t want or whose connectivity can’t take a huge download from the Internet, the plans for a DVD copy are still up in the air.

The puzzling thing is that Microsoft knows how to do this right, but can never seem to put it all together for Vista. As for SP1 being what it takes to get the vaunted enterprise customers on board the Vista train, add at least 6 months for them to qualify Vista with SP1 for internal use.

Update (March 23): See “So Microsoft, Why Can’t I Get Windows Vista SP1?” for an example of some SP1 driver incompatibility pain and yes, PC OEMs share the blame with Microsoft.

It’s a bit of a yawner, but Microsoft has apparently confirmed that Windows 7 will be available in 2010 barring unforeseen quality issues:

Officially, the Redmond company has only been saying that Windows 7 development would take an estimated three-year timeframe. However, Microsoft always failed to specify the moment when the three-year timeframe started.
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Well, this is no longer the case. Microsoft explained that it would deliver Windows 7 three years after the consumers launch of Vista. “We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release,” a Microsoft spokesperson revealed to Softpedia via email.
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In this regard, Microsoft has merely reconfirmed what it has in fact said since mid 2007, that Windows 7 is planned for 2010.

Windows 7 seems to be a just a tune up of Vista, but I’m still a bit surprised that anyone is doing much public talking about it at this stage given the sad history of Vista.

One of the novelties with Vista was supposed to be the Windows Anytime Upgrade which involved providing all consumers with a single DVD containing multiple versions of Vista and allowing them to upgrade their system to a pricier version by purchasing an electronic key online. Apparently the program hasn’t worked too well and Microsoft is discontinuing Windows Anytime Upgrades on Feb. 20:

Microsoft has now decided to stop distributing product keys online, it said on Thursday. Starting Feb. 20, customers who want to upgrade will have to buy a Windows Anytime Upgrade kit from a local retailer, or via postal mail from Microsoft. The kit will include a Vista DVD and a product key for the version they are upgrading to.

Microsoft said it was making the change based on feedback from users. The new system means customers won’t have to worry if they lost their original Vista DVD and now want to upgrade.

However, it also means that people will now have to visit their local retailer or contact Microsoft via post (an option not available in Japan).

I’m sure there’s a problem with consumers having trouble locating their Vista DVDs, but I also wonder how much demand there is for version upgrades in the first place.

Microsoft was sued last April over its ill-conceived Windows Vista Capable program and now the fruits of legal discovery are coming out with likely more amusing revelations than Microsoft would like:

Quoting extensively from internal Microsoft Corp. e-mails, plaintiffs’ lawyers argued Friday that the company knowingly misled consumers by allowing PC makers to emblazon “Windows Vista Capable” stickers on PCs that could run only the most bare-bones version of the operating system.
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During his opening presentation, plaintiffs’ lawyer Jeffrey Tilden of Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell quoted from numerous internal e-mails that appeared to show that employees within Microsoft had misgivings about the “Windows Vista Capable” campaign. The documents are under seal pending a ruling by Pechman.

“Even a piece of junk will qualify” for the “Windows Vista Capable” designation, wrote one employee in an e-mail that Tilden read out loud.

Another employee, Mike Nash, currently a corporate vice president for Windows product management, wrote in an e-mail, “I PERSONALLY got burnt. … Are we seeing this from a lot of customers? … I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine.”

Jim Allchin, then the co-president of Microsoft’s Platforms and Services Division, wrote in another e-mail, “We really botched this. … You guys have to do a better job with our customers.”

Microsoft unsurprisingly says these are just “just snippets of a broad and thorough review that took place during the development of the Windows Vista Capable program.”  I still say what I said at the time which is that the Vista Capable marketing goofiness was just trouble waiting to happen and detracted from the real Vista hardware logo program.