[WinPartners] Information Systems recommends SP4 for Windows 2000 Pro for MIT

[Jonathan McIndoe Hunt]

Date: Monday, 29 September 2003
To: MIT Community: itpartners at mit, winpartners at mit.edu, 
sw-release-announce at mit.edu, ed-tech at mit.edu
From: Jonathan McIndoe Hunt <jmhunt at mit.edu>
Subject: Information Systems recommends SP4 for Windows 2000 Pro for MIT
Cc: infosys at mit.edu, itag at mit.edu

Good afternoon,

On July 15, 2003,  we announced that Microsoft had released Service Pack 4 
for Windows 2000 and that we would be testing it for use within the MIT 
environment.  Our testing went well and have not shown any reason to hold 
off on recommending SP4 for Windows 2000 at this point.  We apologize for 
not communicating this sooner, but we have been very busy with the Blaster 
Worm recovery.  If you have not already, we recommend that over the next 
few weeks you plan to upgrade to SP4 for Windows 2000.

Who Should Upgrade and Why
----------------------------------
Anyone running Windows 2000 should apply the service pack in the next few 
weeks.  While there are no applications that require SP4 at this time, we 
expect in the future that some applications will begin requiring this 
service pack level. We also think that the security patches included in the 
service pack are important for MIT machines. Hardware vendors are already 
shipping SP4 on Windows 2000 machines.

Cautions
-----------
While we have done significant testings, we are not able to test every 
possibility. Before applying the service pack, you should backup your 
system. If you have a local technical support provider, check with them 
before applying the service pack. If you support a number of similar 
machines, install the service pack on a few of them and see how it goes 
before applying it to the rest.

Known issues - Resolved
--------------------
Problem with KfW 2.1.0.1 and SP4: this problem has been further isolated to 
be caused by MS03-010 security fix (KB331953) from March 26, 2003.  This 
fix is included in SP4, which led to the initial problem report.  To fix 
the problem install the latest version of Kerberos for Windows from the 
Software Download Site <http://web.mit.edu/software/win.html>.

Problems with SP4 breaking some versions of KLP was also fixed by 
reinstalling the latest version of KLP & KfW 
<http://web.mit.edu/software/win.html>.

The problem with Autodesk VIZ and SP4  has been resolved by applying the 
critical patch MS03-039 (KB824146).

System Requirements
--------------------
The installation Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000 can require as much as 
365MB with backup folder, so be sure you have plenty of free space before 
beginning the installation.

How to get and install SP4 for Windows 2000
-------------------------------------------
Before installing SP4, be sure to backup your system.  Detailed 
instructions and links for downloading the service pack are available at: 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp4/default.asp

Where to get Help
-----------------
For assistance with Windows 2000 including the installation of Service Pack 
4, contact the Computing Helpdesk at:

- email: pc-help at mit.edu
- phone: x3-1102
- web: http://web.mit.edu/helpdesk/

You can find other documentation related to using Windows 2000 at MIT here: 
http://itinfo.mit.edu/product?vid=474.

Notable Features of SP4
-----------------------
- Includes all security patches and fixes up to the release of the service pack

For a complete list of fixes within SP4, visit the following site:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;327194



___________________________________________
Jonathan M. Hunt
Windows Platform Coordinator and Team Leader
Software Release Team
Information Systems
W92-191 x3-0172
MIT Class of 1997