[WinPartners] Update on MIT progress with Windows XP SP2

[Deb Bowser]

Date: Saturday, 21 August 2004
To: MIT Community:  itpartners, winpartners, sw-release-announce, ed-tech
From: Software Release Team <winxp-release at mit.edu>
Subject: Update on MIT progress with Windows XP SP2
Cc: is&t, itag, it-lead
-----------------------------------------------------

Good evening:

We wish to provide the MIT community with an update on the status of 
efforts with Windows XP SP2.  As we announced last week, Microsoft released 
Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP on Monday, August 9, 2004 to the 
general public.  Since then, we have received information informing us that 
Microsoft has altered their delivery schedule through Automatic 
Update.  Machines configured to use Automatic Update will not start 
receiving Windows XP SP2 until Wednesday, August 25 - at the earliest - as 
long as those machines are running Windows XP Professional Edition.

A more complete schedule of Microsoft's timing for SP2 delivery is 
available on: 
<http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2aumng.mspx#XSLTsection122121120120>

Machines configured to use MIT's Windows Automatic Update (WAUS) will not 
receive the service pack until testing of SP2 at MIT has been completed and 
major problems resolved.  Based on testing and feedback from the community, 
SP2 will be made available through the WAUS at a later date. If MIT testers 
of XP SP2 report serious problems, the release via WAUS will be delayed. 
However, based on our current knowledge we do not anticipate a long delay.

  For more information on ways to prevent SP2 from automatically installing 
beginning next week, see:

	http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/win-xp-sp2/whattodosp2.html

If you do not have local IT support, we recommend that you configure your 
machine to use WAUS, and therefore take the update after testing has 
concluded.  To configure a machine to use WAUS, follow the instructions at:

	http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/windows/updates/

Microsoft has reported a potential problem with Outlook 2003 in which 
messages don't send immediately - work around is available from 
Microsoft.  However, we have not been able to reproduce this particular 
problem with the MIT mail system.

We have observed very few problems with SP2 in our testing and have only 
had a few reports of problems from others testing SP2 at MIT.  The major 
issues to date are:

Reports from our colleagues around campus of products not centrally 
supported include:
- Symantec Ghost Corporate requires ports opened in the firewall - solution 
from Symantec's site
- OpenAFS versions prior to 1.3.70 breaks with SP2 - upgrade before 
applying SP2
         (WIN.MIT.EDU machines running Pismere 4.1.1 are not effected by 
the OpenAFS problem)

These and any additional issues that we hear about will be posted on the 
Release Notebook at:

	http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/win-xp-sp2/

If you are testing XP SP2 within a test environment, we would appreciate 
hearing from you regarding your experiences, both problems encountered as 
well as successful application and service usages so that we can share the 
information broadly.

Please send e-mail with test results or questions to winxp-release at mit.edu.


Deb Bowser
QA Coordinator - Client Support Services
Information Services and Technology (IS&T)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Room W92-176
Cambridge, MA 02139
617-253-3879
bowser at mit.edu