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Service packs and bug reports

ActiveWin, a Windows resource site, is greeting newsthat Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has entered itslate testing phase by publishing a list of what itclaims to be "Bugs Fixed in Windows 2000 SP2."I've been browsing the list, looking at the bugs (infact not all are actually "bugs," but I won't quibble)and learning a bit about Windows 2000 and howMicrosoft treats bug fixes and service packs.
Written by Larry Seltzer, Contributor
ActiveWin, a Windows resource site, is greeting news that Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2) has entered its late testing phase by publishing a list of what it claims to be "Bugs Fixed in Windows 2000 SP2." I've been browsing the list, looking at the bugs (in fact not all are actually "bugs," but I won't quibble) and learning a bit about Windows 2000 and how Microsoft treats bug fixes and service packs. Despite a recent report of Microsoft removing the SP2 beta from its site, the ActiveWin list seems legit, and serves as a good starting point for a look at service packs and bug reports.

The first thing I noticed as I examined the ActiveWin list is that almost all of the reports address bug fixes available individually from Microsoft, although the Microsoft site says the fixes are "not completely regression tested." Thus one way to think of a service pack is as a collection of bug fixes that Microsoft has tested sufficiently and declared ready for general release.

When should you install service packs? Some say that if your operating system ain't broke, don't fix it. However, many users require service packs to execute general system tasks and run applications. Take article Q265367 for example, which fixes bugs in two COM+ programming events — IComActivityEvents::OnActivityCreate and IComActivityEvents::OnActivityDestroy. Programs that rely on these events (which report the creation and destruction of Com+ Activities) require SP2 to function properly, at least in certain circumstances.

If you find that some of your systems need the service pack, you should install it across the board so you have a consistent platform.

Installing a service pack is not a trivial operation, and like any major upgrade you should back up crucial system information, such as the system state and boot files, before applying it.

The ActiveWin list contains relatively few bugs that bring Windows 2000 to a screeching halt. When you read these bug reports, it's important to note words like "may." For example, Q262137 says that "Client Connection Manager for Terminal Services Causes Access Violation in Explorer.exe." It sounds severe, but this only may happen. In fact, this is an old bug and one I tried to reproduce when writing my book ADMIN911:Windows 2000 Terminal Services, with no success. I don't deny its existence, but you can't assume it will happen to you. Nothing I see about Windows 2000's bugs has me overly concerned.Below I've categorized titles and links to notable bugs the ActiveWin article says SP2 fixes. A large number seem to be "Access Violation" errors. These are usually conventional programming errors that occur when a Windows 2000 program accesses memory outside its space, or more likely accesses memory that it had mistakenly released too early.

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