In a meeting with Windows
XP Lead Product Manager Greg Sullivan the week of May
20, 2002, I got the low-down on Windows XP Service Pack
(SP1), an important upgrade to Microsoft's fastest
selling operating system of all time. Here's what I
found out, augmented by information that's come to light
since then, including licensing changes supplied by
Microsoft's Allen Nieman, and data about the RTM release
of SP1, which will become publicly available on
September 9, 2002.
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Prelude to
the Service Pack: Windows XP Momentum
Sullivan was excited about XP's market momentum, despite
the overall downturn in the PC world. "We sold 17
million copies of Windows XP in its first three months
of availability, and then 32 million by the sixth month
mark," he noted. "And those sales represent [PC maker]
bundling and retail sales only, not enterprise sales or
volume licensing." This makes XP the fastest selling
Windows version ever, and Sullivan told me that PC
makers had switched their product lines over to XP
faster than they had with any previous Windows version.
"People want XP," he said, "and the computer companies
responded."
In addition to the various
experiences in Windows XP--digital media, home
networking, and communications--Sullivan said that the
Windows XP ecosystem, or infrastructure, is stronger
than any previous Windows version. At launch, Microsoft
had three times as much support for devices as did
Windows 98, for example, and product support tripled
within 6 months, so that XP now supports almost 13,000
unique devices.
What's in
Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1)
Windows XP
Service Pack 1 (SP1) consists of three main areas:
Enhanced security, reliability and Compatibility -
Post-RTM Security fixes and hot-fixes,
compatibility updates, and a new Messenger version.
New capabilities - USB 2.0 support, optional
.NET Framework, enabling technologies for new devices
such as Tablet PCs, "Freestyle" PCs, and "Mira" display
hardware.
Consent decree compliance - New UI
components, including Configure Program Defaults.
Let's take a closer look
at each of these areas.
Enhanced
Security, Reliability and Compatibility
XP1 SP1 will include a roll-up of all of the security
patches that have been released for Windows XP since
that product RTM'd last year, Sullivan said. This
includes critical updates that were created during the
extensive Trustworthy Computing code review that
occurred in February/March 2002. "The Windows Division
underwent a rigorous code review," he told me, "We've
changed our entire software development process because
of the Trustworthy Computing initiative."
XP SP1 will also include
Windows Messenger 4.7, a new version that includes
updated security features and the Add/Remove
capabilities required by the consent decree compliance.
Windows Messenger 4.7 will become available as a free
download as well, shortly before SP1 ships this fall.
New
Capabilities
Windows XP SP1 will enabled PC makers to ship two new
kinds of PCs, Tablet PCs, and "Freestyle" PCs (See
my Freestyle
preview for more information). Previous to my
meeting with Sullivan, I understood that Tablet PCs
would obviously be separate machines, but this was the
first time I had heard that PC makers would ship
Freestyle-specific PCs. The reason, Sullivan said, was
that Freestyle requires specific hardware devices,
including a remote control and associated interface, and
a specific type of TV capture card. So the Freestyle
software won't be available for free. You can only get
it as part of a Freestyle PC.
Let that sink in for a
moment, because it's very bad news. I explained to
Sullivan that this decision was a mistake, but he said I
needed to take that up with the eHome people who are
developing Freestyle. I will do so.
Support for Mira,
obviously, will come in the box with Mira display
devices (See my
Mira preview for more information).
In any event, Mira,
Freestyle, and the Tablet PC will all require XP SP1.
But SP1 won't natively include support for any of this
technology, because that would needlessly bloat the
download, Sullivan said. Instead, the Mira, Freestyle,
and Tablet PC bits will be delivered by PC makers and
hardware makers only. "They're all OEM deliverables,"
Sullivan noted.
Also, by separating out
the code for Mira, Freestyle, and the Tablet PC,
corporate customers won't be affected by these new
scenarios.
Interestingly, support for
the .NET Framework in XP SP1 will be optional. This is
so that enterprises can opt out of this technology
during software roll-outs, Sullivan told me. However,
the .NET Framework will be an integrated part of the
next Windows version. "In the future, all Windows
applications will require the .NET Framework," Sullivan
said.
Compliance
Changes
Perhaps the most interesting part of our meeting
revolved around the changes that Microsoft will make to
XP in order to meet the requirements of its proposed
settlement with the federal government, a consent decree
in which the company agrees, among many other things, to
the following:
Starting at the earlier
of the release of Service Pack 1 for Windows XP or 12
months after the submission of this Final Judgment to
the Court, Microsoft shall allow end users (via a
mechanism readily accessible from the desktop or Start
menu such as an Add/Remove icon) and OEMs (via standard
preinstallation kits) to enable or remove access to each
Microsoft Middleware Product or Non-Microsoft Middleware
Product by displaying or removing icons, shortcuts, or
menu entries on the desktop or Start menu, or anywhere
else in a Windows Operating System Product where a list
of icons, shortcuts, or menu entries for applications
are generally displayed. [Also, Microsoft shall] allow
end users (via a mechanism readily available from the
desktop or Start menu), OEMs (via standard OEM
preinstallation kits), and Non-Microsoft Middleware
Products (via a mechanism which may, at Microsoft?s
option, require confirmation from the end user) to
designate a Non-Microsoft Middleware Product to be
invoked in place of that Microsoft Middleware Product.
Note the language here:
"enable or remove access to each Microsoft
Middleware Product." That is, Microsoft doesn't
have to remove any middleware products (which
include Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows
Media Player, Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine, and
Windows Messenger), it just has to hide them from the
end user. And hiding them, Sullivan told me, means
simply that any Start menu, desktop, or taskbar icons to
those applications will be removed, while the
applications themselves stay right there on the system
where they always were.
This started a somewhat
heated discussion.
Sullivan told me that
Microsoft was committed--absolutely committed--to
honoring the spirit of this consent decree, something
the company has had problems with in the past (see my
WinInfo article,
Microsoft Remedy Trial: Judge Warns Microsoft It Must
Comply, for details). And sure enough, the
agreement pretty much says that Microsoft simply has to
hide access to the offending middleware. But I'm not so
sure that Microsoft is honoring the spirit of the
agreement at all. In fact, Microsoft is simply meeting
the letter of the agreement, as they've often
done with similar agreements in the past. If the company
was interested in really complying with this
agreement--which, after all, is partially designed to
ensure that the applications Microsoft commingles with
Windows don't disadvantage the competition), other
related bundled applications, such as Windows Movie
Maker (WMM) and MSN Explorer would be included in this
list as well. And they would be completely removable.
There's no reason for most corporate users to install
WMM, for example.
Well, that's one opinion.
This topic seems to polarize people somewhat.
In any event, the
compliance changes are complicated. First, Microsoft is
adding a new entry to the Start Menu and Add or Remove
Programs applet called Set Program Access and
Defaults, which provides end-user access to the
so-called middleware settings. This UI lets users
"remove" (actually, hide) access to Internet
Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, Windows
Messenger, or Microsoft's Java Virtual Machine. The
following four
configurations are presented:
Computer manufacturer
- If you choose this configuration, your
machine will be returned to the middleware configuration
that was chosen by your PC maker. So, if you purchase a
Dell PC in this purely hypothetical scenario, and Dell
has signed deals with RealNetworks and America Online,
choosing this configuration would hide Windows Media
Player and Internet Explorer, and assign RealNetworks
RealONE as the default media player, and AOL as the
default Web browser.
Microsoft Windows
- This configuration uses Microsoft's
applications, obviously, so that other middleware would
be hidden and Microsoft's products would be the
defaults.
Non-Microsoft
- In this almost humorous configuration
choice, all of Microsoft's middleware products are
hidden.
Custom
- Here, you can customize how each middleware
application behaves, so that you can individually hide
application shortcuts or make certain applications the
default.
If it's not obvious, this
compliance piece will also require Microsoft's
competitors to add code to their products so that they
can identify themselves to Windows XP and be included in
the configurations. Microsoft has already alerted all of
the middleware competitors what they must do in order to
be included, and Sullivan told me that all of them will
ship new versions that quietly add this functionality
before the fall. "It's a very small coding change," he
told me.
Getting back to the hiding
controversy, Sullivan said that the goal was to ensure
that customers had the best possible experience. But
why, I wondered, couldn't Microsoft simply make these
applications truly removable? Sullivan told me that
hundreds of applications rely on services exposed by
these middleware applications and that removing them
would create confusion and require application
developers to write additional code that could initiate
the needed middleware installations. "Windows is a rich
environment," he said, "and users just expect certain
capabilities." I agree with that, actually, but also
wonder about the non-settling states' pending case
against the company. What if, I asked, the states win,
and Microsoft is forced to let users remove these
applications? Sullivan admitted, at that point, that the
company would have to look at each application and
decide where to draw the line between front-end
application and back-end service. I recommend that they
get going on that right now.
Changes to
Product Activation
Updated!
Microsoft's controversial Windows Product Activation
(WPA) technology is also seeing three minor modifications in XP
SP1, neither of which will affect any legitimate
users. First, the company discovered that the majority
of pirated XP copies out there are tied to single volume
license product key. So Microsoft has alerted the
company about the problem, changed their key, and
disabled it for use after SP1. So anyone using this
pirated key will be unable to upgrade to SP1 or any
future updates via Windows Update, Sullivan said. In
August, Microsoft alerted me that this single pirated
key wouldn't be the only one blocked by Windows XP SP1.
"Software piracy continues to be a worldwide problem and
Microsoft is committed to a long-term strategy of
protecting intellectual property through innovative
technologies," the company wrote. "The introduction of
technical measures to thwart piracy has kicked-off a
cat-and-mouse game between software publishers and those
who pirate software. Microsoft will introduce additional
technological measures in Service Pack 1 for Windows XP
aimed at ensuring legally licensed customers receive the
full benefits of owning their valid license. These
changes include denying access to the Windows XP SP1
updates for PCs with known pirated installations,
product key validation during activation, and the repair
of cracks to activation."
Also, Microsoft is adding
a three-day grace period for people that need to
reactivate after making significant hardware changes; in
the past, there was no grace period and the user had to
immediately activation via phone in order to use XP. This will give users some
breathing room if disaster strikes and you have to
install XP on a new system.
Finally, volume license
customers will be able to encrypt their volume license
product key in unattended installations, an important
change for those that weren't too excited about typing
their product key into an unprotected text file.
"The impact on valid
licenses is zero," Sullivan said. Instead, what
Microsoft wants to do is make it more difficult for
pirates to continue using and updating Windows XP. For
more information about the Product Activation updates in
XP SP1, please refer to the
Microsoft Web site.
Timing and
Delivery
Updated!
XP SP1 entered beta in late June 2002, and hit the release candidate (RC) phase
later that summer. The RTM (Release To Manufacturing)
date was reached Friday, August 30. Windows XP SP1 will be available for free download or
via CD for the cost of shipping and handling (about $10)
starting September 9, 2002.
Additionally, the Windows XP retail packaging will be
updated in mid-October 2002 to include SP1 labeling. That is, all retail copies of XP will include the SP1 code,
slipstreamed into the original version of XP. Sullivan told
me that Microsoft hadn't decided yet how the SP1 version
would be differentiated from the original version, other
than that the included CD-ROM would mention SP1 in some
way. The retail box may include a sticker, but the
company is concerned that customers might think they
need to purchase another Windows version if a "new
version" sticker is used.