W2K Mainstream Support Ends June 30, This Year

Mainstream support for W2K server edition will officially end June 30, 2005. Redmond's standard policy is to provide Mainstream Support for 5 years after a product was released, and after that
you get 5 years of Extended Support, if you are willing to pay for it. No further service packs will be released for W2K after June 30-th this year. After that, you will be joining NT users that no longer have regular free hotfixes.

Microsoft Pull NT 4 Life Support Plug

Users of Microsoft's Windows NT 4.0 Server operating system are reminded that free support ended on the 31st December 2004, no more critical updates or service packs. The move is part of a previously announced program to phase out the aging server software in favor of Microsoft's newer operating systems

Windows XP Service Pack 2 is ready for you. Are you ready for it?

Companies that use Microsoft's Windows Update or Automatic Update services have only a short time left before the security-focused XP SP2 is automatically downloaded on desktops. To make the transition easier for those who haven't yet put SP2 into production, Microsoft recently updated a tool that checks for compatibility between SP2 and an organization's applications.

The automatic download blocker that Microsoft implemented in August will expire April 12, at which time SP2 will be automatically installed on machines running Windows XP or Windows XP Service Pack 1.

SP2 has generally received good reviews for its ability to better protect desktops from worms and viruses, but it has also drawn some criticism from enterprise users because it interferes with their applications. The updated XP SP2 application testing kit now gives administrators additional information for evaluating how the service pack will work with various applications.

Redmond Pegs New Exchange Release For 2006

Microsoft plans to release the next version of its Exchange messaging server in 2006, a company executive said. Redmond had previously said that Exchange 12, the code name for the next Exchange version, would be out in 2006 or 2007. Andy Lees, corporate vice president of the server and tools business at Microsoft, in a presentation in San Francisco on Tuesday said the product is slated to ship in 2006.