In July, Microsoft will release Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1), its first comprehensive collection of bug fixes for the 32-bit versions of Professional, Server, and Advanced Server editions of this OS. Datacenter Server, which became widely available at the same time as SP1, ships with the SP1 fixes out of the box. Given the attention given to SP1, and the number of customers waiting for the first service pack, it's likely that the release of this update will initiate a new round of Windows 2000 corporate adoptions. Not that the product is performing badly: Microsoft had shipped over 3 million copies of Windows 2000 before SP1 was released.
Obtaining SP1
SP1 is available from the Microsoft Web and FTP sites, or via an SP1 CD-ROM that includes a number of additional tools, supplemental documentation, and support files. If you obtain the CD, it's worth looking through the additional information, which includes a deployment guide, release notes, and more.
Installing SP1
You can install SP1 from the Internet, a network share, or the SP1 CD-ROM. Installation of the CD-ROM version is, of course the simplest, though it's also the least interesting since you're basically relegated to an interactive installation, which is useful only for individual users. The network share installation is similar to the CD-ROM installation except that it facilitates easier distribution in a networked environment. Both the CD-ROM and network installs require you to run the update.exe executable that's found in the \i386\update\ folder of the installation point. See table one for a listing of possible command line switches.
The SP1 update.exe program includes a number of features that were most-often requested by customers. Update.exe supports Windows File Protection (WFP), a feature in Win2K that prevents applications from overwriting key system files during installation. WFP works by referencing a catalog file that contains information about the protected files; if any of the files is the not the correct version, WFP replaces it with a backup copy that's stored in a hidden folder on the hard drive. When SP1 is installed, the WFP catalog file (sp.cat) is updated with all of the information for the files that were changed in SP1. This updated catalog file also contains pointers to the SP1-level system files so that subsequent application installs will trigger the correct file replacements if necessary.
SP1 update.exe also supports the new Windows 2000 driver cabinet (driver.cab) file, which contains a wide array of PnP drivers. Windows Setup uses this file, which is placed in the C:\WINNT\Driver Cache\i386 folder during initial installation, to install frequently needed drivers without requiring the Win2K CD-ROM to be present (this is less of a problem on systems that were installed via a network share, of course). SP1 doesn't update the driver.cab file, however. Instead, it installs an additional cabinet file called sp.cab that is referenced before the original driver.cab file. If a driver can't be found in sp.cab, driver.cab is searched next. If either location comes up empty, the original install location (CD-ROM or network share) will be accessed.
SP1 is also encryption level aware. Rather than ship different versions of the service pack for each level of encryption, SP1 ships in a single version that contains the correct files for both 40 and 128-bit encryption. Update.exe will detect the level of encryption used by the system and install the correct version of SP1.
For Windows 2000, Microsoft is also introducing a Web-based service pack installation for the first time, which is similar to the company's other Web-based install routines for IE, Office 2000 SR-1, and Windows Update. The Web install will detect which files you need to have updated and only download those that are out-of-date. For most Windows 2000 users, however,
