Microsoft scraps service pack for Windows NT 4.0
MICROSOFT MOVED FURTHER away from Windows NT on Tuesday with the announcement that it would not be issuing another service pack for Windows NT 4.0.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft had planned to issue Service Pack 7 later this year, despite the fact that the company had not released a service pack for Windows NT 4.0 since November 1999. Two months after that, the company unveiled Windows 2000.
In a statement, Microsoft officials said that last package of fixes and updates, Service Pack 6a, combined with hot fixes released since then, appears to have solved any problems.
"Since the release of Service Pack 6a, the frequency of critical problems reported to Microsoft has declined significantly," the statement said. "The frequency of hot fixes has continued to decline, and now, well over one year beyond the last SP, we still have made fewer fixes than were included with either SP5 or SP6."
Two of the anticipated features for Service Pack 7 -- a Windows NT 4.0 Active Directory client, and international versions of the High Encryption Pack for Internet Explorer -- already have been released separately and are available on Microsoft's Web site.
In lieu of the service pack, Microsoft plans to release a "comprehensive rollup of all Windows NT 4.0 security vulnerabilities as a single package" in the third quarter of 2001, the company's statement said.
» posted by ITworld staff
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