Microsoft To Kill Vista, XP Upgrade Blockers

Information Week ^ | Feb. 2, 2009 | Paul McDougall

Posted on Monday, February 02, 2009 12:29:54 PM by smokingfrog

The software maker is warning customers that tools designed to prevent automatic installation of service packs are nearing expiration.

Microsoft wants users of its Windows operating systems to move to upgraded versions of the software, so it’s killing a tool that prevents upgrades from automatically self-installing.

“I have some important information for those of you who have installed the Service Pack Blocker Tool for Windows XP or Windows Vista,” wrote Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft’s in-house Windows blogger, in a Friday post. “The Service Pack Blocker Tool temporarily prevents the installation of a service pack through Windows Update, typically for one year after general availability of the service pack. We are announcing the upcoming expiration dates for the Service Pack Blocker Tool for Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3,” LeBlanc wrote.

LeBlanc said the blocker for Vista SP1 will expire on April 28, while the blocker for XP SP3 will expire on May 19.

Despite the tools’ expiration, LeBlanc noted that companies that don’t want to upgrade to the Windows service packs won’t be forced to do so. Users that have the Automatic Updates feature turned on will receive an alert from Windows Updates indicating that an important update is available for installation. Users can then elect to install the service packs or ignore the update.

Users that don’t have Automatic Updates turned on will receive the alert only after manually checking for updates in Windows Update.

(Excerpt) Read more at informationweek.com …

Ref
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176764/posts

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