October 20th, 2009

Microsoft releases Windows-7-friendly version of Desktop Optimization Pack

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:07 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Management tools, Service Pack, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Desktop, Optimization, Microsoft Corp., Tool, Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack, Productivity, Asset Management, Operational Planning, Business Operations, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft officials last month said they had revised their Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) plans so as to get a Windows-7-friendly version of its tools out to businesses around the time of the Windows 7 launch.

On October 20, the MDOP team announced that the newest version of MDOP isready for download. Software Assurance licensees who’ve purchased MDOP can get the final MDOP 2009 R2, as the revised version of the pack is known. And those who aren’t already customers but who have MSDN/TechNet subscriptions can try it out today, as well.

MDOP is a collection of deployment-focused tools. Originally, Microsoft was planning to hold up the new MDOP release until early 2010 in order to include updated versions of all six tools in the pack. But the team decided instead to get a Windows-7-focused version of MDOP out now and provide the updated MED-V virtualization tool to business users via a service pack once it is available in early 2010. (MED-V is the application-virtualization software based on the Kidaro technology Microsoft acquired in 2008.)

MDOP 2009 R2 will be available today to existing MDOP customers for download via the Microsoft Volume Licensing Site (MVLS). For others who want to evaluate MDOP but who aren’t current customers, Microsoft is making it available via MSDN and TechNet

According to a new post on the  MDOP Team Blog, Microsoft is planning to make a beta version of MED-V version 1.0 SP1 by the end of calendar 2009. The final release is still on track for the first quarter of 2010, officials said.

An updated version of another MDOP tool, Asset Inventory Service (AIS) 2.0 — which will get new hardware inventory functionality, a Silverlight-based interface, better scalability, and the ability to track virtual apps — is now available to beta testers. Registration for the AIS 2.0 beta closes on October 24. The final version of that service is slated for the first half of 2010.

October 13th, 2009

Gartner: Windows 7 is 'all but inevitable'

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:37 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Service Pack, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Gartner Inc., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Gartner Group analysts are telling business users that they should look at Windows 7 as an  “all but inevitable” Windows release.

Because “typically more than half of an organization’s applications still require Windows,” said Gartner researchers during an October 13 Webcast for Gartner clients and others, replacing Windows is not a short-term option.

Gartner analysts Michael Silver and Stephen Kleynhans shared these opinions and more during an hour focused on providing business users with guidance about Windows 7 features, licensing and deployment.

Assertions from their presentation:

• Windows 7 is not a major architectural release; it’s a polishing of Windows Vista. Still, for businesses, there are “good things to be had” in Windows 7, including AppLocker, BitLocker to Go, BrancheCache, better User Account Control settings, an updated user interface and support for HomeGroups.
• Business users should be cognizant of the downgrade/upgrade gotchas around Windows 7. For users who don’t have Software Assurance (SA) contracts, Microsoft’s limits on downgrades to XP (18 months from Windows 7’s release or until the time Windows 7 Service Pack (SP) 1 is released — whichever is earlier) could be problematic. If you don’t have SA and don’t purchase new PCs with a Windows 7 license within this window, you could end up paying $120 to $200 per PC for an upgrade license if you aren’t ready to deploy Windows 7 right off the bat.
• While Windows XP’s extended support phase doesn’t end until 2014, third-party application support for a new operating system typically begins to wane two years after the end of mainstream support. This means the XP “danger zone” is 2013 and beyond.
• There’s no need to wait for Windows 7 SP1 before starting to plan and test Windows 7. Because Microsoft releases most fixes and updates regularly over Windows Update/Automatic Update, there’s no need to wait for SP1, which is basically a rollup of all these fixes. Microsoft officials aren’t saying when they are planning to release SP1 for Windows 7, but Gartner is calculating it’ll be some time in mid-2010, according to their charts.
• Companies should budget 12 to 18 months to test and prepare for a new operating system release. Because Windows 7 had “a good beta,” that period may be slightly shorter. But expect a 12-month window between Windows 7’s release to manufacturing (which was July) and “maturity.” Maturity, in this case, means full ISV support; the availability of sufficient training resources and a significant amount of “expertise to be built up in the market.”

The Gartner folks conducted a few online polls during today’s Webinar. According to one, 59 percent of the particpants never teted and ended up skipping Vista and another 24 percent tested Vista but still ended up skipping it. Those who did deploy Vista are likely to encounter significantly lower migration costs than those who didn’t, Gartner said. Here’s the chart with their calculations. (Click on the chart to enlarge.):

Another poll, which asked when Webcast participants planned to deploy Windows 7, found that 21 percent are planning to deploy in the first half of calendar 2010; 30 percent in the second half of 2010; 23 percent in the first half of 2011; and 20 percent some time beyond that. (Six percent of those polled said they plan to deploy in calendar 2009.)

Unlike consumers, businesses have not been early adopters of 64-bit Windows releases. Gartner’s online poll regarding business plans for 64-bit versions of Windows 7 found 34 percent still planning to stick with 32-bit Windows 7 and 25 percent undecided, but learning toward 32-bit. Another 28 percent of those polled said they were undecided, but leaning toward a 64-bit Windows 7 variant, and 13 percent saying they planning to go primarily 64-bit. Gartner’s analysts noted that 64-bit does proide more address space and access to more physical RAM, but offered users “no major benefit changes,” as well as possible lack of availability of security, VPN and other applications/services.

Gartner’s bottom-line recommendations for business users weighing what do do about Windows 7 (and when):

Many large enterprise customers still rely on Gartner for guidance. What do you think of the firm’s advice on Windows 7?

September 29th, 2009

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 delayed to after Windows 7 launch

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:53 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, Service Pack, System builders, Windows 7, Windows Home Server, Windows server

Tags: Team, Microsoft Windows Home Server, Server, Microsoft Corp., PP3, Power Pack, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software

Microsoft’s Windows Home Server (WHS) team had been pushing to deliver the Power Pack 3 update around the time Windows 7 launches in October. But it’s not going to happen, officials acknowledged on September 28.

In a post to Microsoft’s official Windows Home Server Blog, the team didn’t offer many specifics as to why PP3 is late. The team said the PP3 update needs more testing to ensure quality.

Microsoft released the beta of PP3 in July. A Power Pack is like a feature pack, and this one adds support to WHS for Windows 7 clients. When the team released the beta, they stated the goal was to ship the final version prior to October 22, the day Windows 7 goes on sale at retail.

New features slated for inclusion in PP3 include:

• Backup and restore support for computers running Windows 7
• The inclusion of Windows Search 4
• Integration with Windows 7 libraries
• Various enhancements for Windows Media Center, including TV archiving
• Better support for netbooks

According to yesterday’s post, Microsoft is looking for more tester feedback from individuals who are running Windows 7. The beta of PP3 is available for download from the Microsoft Connect site.

Microsoft has said it will make PP3 available to WHS users for free when it is released some time toward the end of this calendar year.

September 16th, 2009

Microsoft starts warning of support phase-out for older Windows Server releases

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:46 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Service Pack, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 /("Windows 7 Server"), Windows XP, Windows client, Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Microsoft Corp., Server Team, Microsoft Windows, Servers, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Mary Jo Foley

As it is doing on the client side of the house, with warnings about the scheduled support phase-out for Windows XP, Microsoft officials are beginning to do the same with Windows Server.

In a September 15 blog post to the Windows Server Division Weblog, Microsoft officials provided an early warnings about the approaching end-of-support dates for customers running Windows Server 2000 and 2003.

Microsoft provides support — “mainstream,” followed by “extended” — for most of its business software for ten years. The main difference between mainstream and extended support is the way Microsoft treats non-security-specific hotfixes. Under mainstream support, Microsoft provides these kinds of hotfixes for free. Under extended, customers are required to pay for non-security hotfixes and must sign an extended hotfix agreement, purchased within 90 days of mainstream support ending. (Or, if customers are covered by Software Assurance, the extended hotfix agreement can be purchased at any time.)

This week, Microsoft noted that extended Support for Windows 2000 Server will end on July 13, 2010. That means, at that time, “Windows 2000 Server will no longer be publicly supported,” but customers will be able to continue to get Self-Help Online Support.

(”Self-Help Online Support” means online access to Knowledge Base articles, FAQs, troubleshooting tools. This type of support is available for a Microsoft product’s entire lifecycle, plus a mnimum of 12 months after a product reaches its end of support phase.)

Also on July 13, 2010, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will move from the mainstream support to the extended support phase. Microsoft will offer customers free security updates and paid support for those releases. It also means, according to the September 15 blog post, that “non-security hotfixes developed during the Extended Support phase will be provided ONLY to customers who enroll in Extended Hotfix Support (EHS).”

Microsoft also put to rest talk that the company might be issuing a third service pack for Windows Server 2003. No such Service Pack is coming, according to the blog post.

Microsoft has been sounding the warning bells on the end of XP support — mainstream, free support ended in April of this year — as one way to entice users to upgrade to Windows 7. The server team is likely employing the same tactic, in the hopes of convincing users of older versions of Windows Server to start thinking now about moving to Windows Server 2008 R2.

Both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were released to manufacturing in July and made available to volume licensees in August/September. Microsoft has embarked on a campaign to try to get corporate customers to start now their deployments of the newest versions of Windows client and server, rather than to wait, as many typically do, for a service pack before kicking off their deployment plans.

September 14th, 2009

Microsoft pushes business users to start Windows 7 upgrades now

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 8:53 am

Categories: Corporate strategy, Office 2010/Office 14, Service Pack, Virtualization, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Windows 7’s consumer launch is just over a month away. But there’s no reason business users should delay their Windows 7 deployment plans, according to the company.

To accentuate its point, Microsoft is rolling out the new version of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) — a bunch of deployment-focused tools available to its volume licensees with Software Assurance contracts — months earlier than expected. Instead of holding up the new MDOP release until early 2010, as it originally planned, Microsoft is going to ship MDOP 2009 R2 at the end of October 2009 and then provide the updated MED-V virtualization tool to business users via a service pack once it is available in early 2010.

(MED-V is the application-virtualization software based on the Kidaro technology Microsoft acquired in 2008.)

“Windows 7 is ready to deploy now. Enterprise customers don’t have to wait,” said Microsoft Senior Director Gavriella Schuster.

Microsoft made the final Windows 7 bits available to its business customers with volume licensing agreements starting in August.  Consumers who want the new OS preloaded on new PCs will have to wait until the general-availability date of October 22.

On September 14, the Windows team also released several new case studies about companies that have been part of Microsoft’s Windows 7 early-deployment programs. The idea is to prove that there are real and provable dollar and time savings for companies in moving to Windows 7 and MDOP. In other words, if they can do it, you can, too….

Microsoft execs are getting more forthright in admitting what numerous market researchers have found: Vista never really took hold with many corporate customers and Microsoft’s biggest challenge will be to convince budget-constrained enterprises that they should move off XP.

Schuster, with whom I had a chance to speak late last week, acknowledged that many IT pros have a lingering bad image of how difficult and costly it was to roll out XP to thousands of users.

“Back then, when we rolled out XP, IT managers had very few tools, just things like WAIK (Windows Automated Installation Kit) and WinPE,” she said.

But with Windows 7, there are lots of pre-deployment aids, deployment tools, virtualization tools and Solution Accelerator samples and guidance to make rolling out the new OS less of a chore, Schuster said.

What about companies which still believe that it’s unwise to move to a new operating-system release before Microsoft issues a Service Pack (SP) for it? Starting with Vista, Microsoft tried to convince corporate users that the old “wait for SP1″ adage was outdated (but bungled the way it attempted to do so, by refusing for months to say when and if Vista SP1 would arrive).

“We are trying to get the word out that Windows 7 is stable and the RC (Release Candidate test build) was really our gold image,” Schuster said. “Will everyone believe that? No. There will always be some customers who will want to wait for SP1.”

For now, Microsoft has no guidance for these customers as to when to expect the Windows 7 SP1, she said.

“We are still gearing up for our postmortems on Windows 7,” she said, “so we don’t have a plan in place yet for our SP1 rollout.”

What about those corporate customers who are interested in rolling out multiple Microsoft products simultaneously so that they don’t have to do two major upgrades — as would seemingly be required for customers who want both Windows 7 and Office 2010, which isn’t expected to ship until mid-2010?

Schuster had advice for those users, as well.

Users need to decide whether they plan to deploy Office 2010 across all their machines simultaneously, or whether they’ll do a staged release, using application virtualization, for example. Whichever way they decide, it’s not too early to kick the assessment and planning phase of their testing off now, she said, since hardware and application compatibility testing prior to the deployment of a new version of Windows typically takes companies six months or more.

“Operating system deployments take a lot of work,” Schuster acknowledged. “Users can start testing the hardware now and then decide whether they want to make Office 2010 part of their golden image or not later. You could decide to leave Office 2007 in your golden image, or put Office 2010 in using virtualization and then flip the scenario once you’re ready.”

Corporate users: What’s your take? Are you planning to kick off your Windows 7 deployment plans any time soon? Why or why not?

July 23rd, 2009

The Scarlet V: What's a Vista business user to do?

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 9:10 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Service Pack, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing and is obviously the operating system that Microsoft and its partners will be pushing for the next two-plus years. If you’re one of those business users who is in the midst of deploying Vista, what should you do?

Up until fairly recently, Microsoft was telling users to continue going forward with their Vista deployments if they’d already begun them, and to just skip Vista and go straight to Windows 7 if they were just starting them.

But in May, around the time Microsoft delivered the near-final Release Candidate (RC) test build of Windows 7, Windows execs stopped saying much at all about Vista. In fact, it was like pulling teeth to get them to talk about Vista Service Pack (SP) 2, in terms of discussing features, fixes and/or  availability. At the company’s recent Worldwide Partner Conference, the message was clear: As of May, any marketing campaigns that had been using the word “Vista” should be switched to refer to “Windows.”

Where does that leave big shops that bought into Vista? Are they deigned to be ridiculed and abandonned like Hester Prynne, forced to don a scarlet “A” (or, in this case, “V”)?

Mike Angiulo, General Manager of Microsoft’s Planning and PC Ecosystem team, said Microsoft is not casting off its Vista users.

“We are not abandoning our existing Vista customers,” Angiulo said. “A three-year cycle is the right amount of time” for the delivery of a new client operating system release to users, and that’s just about how long it will be by the time it makes Windows 7 generally available, he said.

“A lot of the compatibility work we’ve done with Windows 7 will benefit Vista users,” Angiulo added. Many of the drivers and applications that weren’t compatible with Vista out of the gate are now ready for Windows 7 and, by extension, Vista.

When I spoke with Dell this week, the shift in messaging around Vista vs. Windows 7 was crystal-clear.

“A year ago, 87 percent of our commercial customers were on XP. Many are looking to skip a generation and go straight to Vista, Windows 7″ said Jim Ginger, Global Lead of Dell’s End User Services Computing Practice. (Sorry: my mistake on that one… MJF)

Read the rest of this entry »

July 7th, 2009

Life beyond Windows 7: Microsoft updates other products

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 7:45 am

Categories: CRM Live/CRM Online, Code names, Corporate strategy, Dynamics CRM, Dynamics ERP, Office, Service Pack, Speech, Telecommunications, VOIP, Web conferencing

Tags: Microsoft Commerce Server, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Office, Server, Microsoft Windows, Service Pack, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Update, Microsoft Office Communications Server, Enterprise Software

Believe it or not, Microsoft is still developing enterprise products besides Windows 7 and Office 2010. While those two are garnering most of the headlines and attention lately, other Microsoft product teams are still chugging along, rolling out updates and readying new versions.

Here are just a few of the latest updates that have come across my RSS reader:

Dynamics CRM/ERP: Microsoft has changed the support policy for service packs for its Dynamics line (Dynamics CRM, AX, GP, SL and NAV). According to Microsoft’s Support site, users will now get “24 months of support for a previous service pack, when a new service pack is released. Previously, when a new service pack was released for these products, Microsoft provided 12 months of support for the previous service pack.” Those currently deploying a currently supported Dynamics CRM or ERP service pack will get an additional 12 months of free support. Microsoft also is reactivating support for a number of Dynamics service packs that had expired, but would be grandfathered in under the 24-month policy. There’s no change in the dates for extended, paid support for these service packs.

Office Communications Server: Microsoft has made licensing changes around the instant-messaging connectivity supported by its Office Communications Server (OCS) product. Microsoft is renaming the Live Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license to “Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC). Those with certain OCS Client Access Licenses (CALs) will no longer require additional licenses to federate with Windows Live — but still will require them to federate with AOL and Yahoo. Windows Live Federation offers users the option to add Windows Live Contacts to their Office Communicator contact lists, view presence status and send/receive IMs between the two products. The OCS licensing changes took effect July 1.

Commerce Server: Last we heard about Commerce Server, Microsoft was planning a number of releases — including the 2009 Commerce Server “Mojave” release and the 2009 R2 “Mojave R2″ release. Microsoft is in the final throes of recruiting Technology Adoption Program (TAP) testers who want to check out the private R2 test release. Microsoft released Commerce Server 2009 to manufacturing in March 2009. The R2 release is looking like an early 2010 product, at this point. The Commerce Server team said to expect yet another Commerce Server release in late 2010 or early 2011. No word on what that one will be codenamed and officially designated.

June 30th, 2009

Microsoft to push IE 8 to more business users in August

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:37 am

Categories: Channel, Corporate strategy, Internet Explorer, OEMs, Resellers, Service Pack, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows Update, Service Pack 2, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft Windows, Web Browsers, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems

Microsoft will start pushing Internet Explorer (IE) 8 to business users via Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) on August 25, according to a June 29 posting on the IE Blog.

Microsoft already began pushing IE 8 to users via Windows Update and Automatic Update in April.

If WSUS admins aren’t ready/willing for IE 8 to install across PCs in their organizations, they should turn off auto-approve for the IE rollup, the IE team is advising.

Microsoft shared the latest on its IE 8 rollout plans the day before Mozilla made available for download the final version of Firefox 3.5.

Speaking of automatic downloading, I’ve been getting a few questions this week about Vista Service Pack (SP) 2 and Microsoft’s plans for pushing it to users. While Microsoft tried to obscure didn’t tout widely its plans for Vista SP2 distribution, the company did, in fact, start pushing SP2 via Windows Update a earlier this month.

A spokesperson clarified on June 29 the company’s rollout plans for Vista SP2, which Microsoft released to manufacturing at the end of April:

“Windows Vista SP2 was released to Windows Update last month - May 26th. A throttled release, it started being delivered automatically in June to users who set their Windows Update configuration to receive updates automatically. Different from Windows XP, it’s not an ‘Automatic Update,’ but still part of the Windows Update. Of course, if users want it now, they can go to the Download Center and install it manually.”

The TechARP enthusiast site claims Microsoft decided against providing PC makers with the right to distribute SP2 until after Windows 7 was generally available (October 22). I asked Microsoft if this were true and was told by a spokesperson that Microsoft “does not disclose details of our agreements with OEMs.”

TechARP said Microsoft decided to delay the Vista SP2’s distribution by OEMs because “Microsoft does not want SP2 to interfere with a successful implementation and launch of Windows 7 by their OEM partners.”

If you’re curious what’s in Vista SP2, here’s my feature list from a few months ago.

Update (July 1): Microsoft released on June 30 Vista SP2 in all remaining languages (beyond the initially released English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese) and made them available on its download site.

June 18th, 2009

Microsoft puts an 18-month cap on Windows 7 to XP downgrades

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 6:21 am

Categories: App Compatibility, Channel, Corporate strategy, OEMs, Resellers, Service Pack, System builders, Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows client

Tags: Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Corp., Windows 7 Volume Licensee, Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Windows XP, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

Microsoft has gone public with a piece of its Windows 7 to XP downgrade guarantee that it refused to  make official until yesterday: The end date.

Volume licensees who buy Windows are provided automatically with guaranteed downgrade rights to previous versions of Windows. A Windows 7 volume licensee has the right to downgrade to Vista, Windows XP or other previous versions of Windows, according to Microsoft’s policies.

Earlier this year, Microsoft officials refused to confirm a report which claimed that the company planned to limit the length of time it would allow users to downgrade from Windows 7 to XP to six months after Windows 7 shipped. The leaked memo pegged that date at April 2010, which both Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (the OEM mentioned in the memo) declined to confirm.

On June 17, however, Microsoft officials told Computerworld that the downgrade period during which users will be allowed to move from Windows 7 to XP is going to end, at the latest, in April 2011, which is 18 months after the October 22, 2009 general availability date for Windows 7.

A Microsoft spokesperson provided the publication with the following statement:

“Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate customers will have the option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional from PCs that ship within 18 months following the general availability of Windows 7 or until the release of a Windows 7 service pack, whichever is sooner, and if a service pack is developed.”

(Oh no! Here we go again with the “when and if a service pack is developed.” Forget the fact that there already have been sightings of what is believed to be early leaked SP 1 builds for Windows 7. Microsoft tried hide the fact that a Vista SP1 was in the wings; sadly, it looks like the same strategy will be in place with Windows 7 — in spite of the fact that many business users still use a first SP as a guideline for their deployment plans.)

Back to the 18-month cap. While many can’t imagine wanting or needing to downgrade from 7 to XP, for some business users, this ability is a necessity. A substantial number of businesses are still running XP and aren’t keen on making an abrupt or wholesale move to a brand-new operating system, especially before their custom line-of-business applications are certified as compatible.

I’m curious as to why Microsoft is capping downgrade rights with XP — other than for the obvious reason that it is trying to push users to move off of its eight-year-old operating system. I’ve asked the company for further comment and will add it to this post if and when I receive it.

May 26th, 2009

SP2 for Vista, Windows Server 2008 now on Microsoft Download site

Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 5:20 am

Categories: Service Pack, Vista, Windows Server 2008/ Windows Server Longhorn, Windows client, Windows server

Tags: Microsoft Windows Server, Service Pack 2, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Mary Jo Foley

As one Microsoft official acknowledged last week, Microsoft has begun making the second service pack for Vista and Windows Server 2008 available to the public on May 26.

SP2 for Vista and Windows Server 2008 is available for download from the Download Center (x86, ISO and 64-bit flavors).

Microsoft is expected to begin pushing SP2 to users via Windows Update on June 30, according to the aforementioned company official.

Update (May 27): Some users already are finding Microsoft is pushing SP2  to them via Windows Update.  On the Microsoft Springboard blog, Microsoft officials noted that the company has begun pushing SP2 automatically.  (Information about how users who aren’t ready for SP2 can block it using the Microsoft blocker toolkit is part of that post.)I understand Microsoft execs are trying their best to downplay Vista, due to the imminent arrival of Windows 7, but the conflicting and confusing information coming from Microsoft about Vista SP2 has been ridiculous — almost as bad as the way the company communicated information around Vista SP1.

Microsoft released SP2 to manufacturing on April 30 and has been telling customers it would deliver the final SP2 bits to the public before the end of the second quarter of 2009, declining to provide further specifics.