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Some sites report Server 2008 Service Pack 2 BETA is out. Has anyone tried it ?
Installer :
prereqtool_033b26b3dbcf60aa698669cafe328b9c902e02a6.exe
6.16 MB
Service Pack 2 :
windows6.0-kb948465-x86-neutral_baba6ab4f6755a8c80b618674f6ec7a15648ea59.psf
504 MB
I’m all for bleeding edge tech, I mean I AM using Server 2008 over Vista or XP haha, but pre-RTM Service Packs are one thing I have NEVER touched and never will!
A service pack is designed to fix bugs, possibly add new features, and generally improve the experience. But, being Beta, there is a very high chance that it will in fact have an OPPOSITE effect – making your system more vulnerable, more unstable, and maybe even slower!
I strongly recommend that if you DO download this, please don’t put it on your primary OS. It is PRE-RELEASE software! Yes I know you can uninstall service packs, but seriously, if you are not a Tester, or if you are not extremely bored with nothing else to do, just wait for the RTM/Final release š
Hello,
For more informations, a good source here :
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Windows-Server-2008-SP2-Beta-Standalone-ISO-99414.shtml
And you can try it at least with VMware, it’s more simple and less dangerous.
Valorisa
@valorisa wrote:
And you can try it at least with VMware, it’s more simple and less dangerous.
True! I agree 100%. But of course if you want to do, like, a gaming benchmark or something, best to use a completely different harddisk and unplug your main one! Coz it could mess the BCD loader, drive letters, etcetera. š
@RemixedCat wrote:
I dont think they should have betas for service packs. the whole idea seems dodgy to me.
That’s my personal opinion too. A Service Pack is #1 Bugfix, stability fix and/or efficiency fix, with feature additions usually secondary to those. Something that is ment to fix bugs – but is in beta – could have a negative effect rather than positive on system stability, contrary to the entire point of the Service Pack!
But of course, beta tests are needed. Otherwise it would never reach Release Candidate and then Final release of course š
Is there anything actually good about SP2 Beta so far that makes it even worth installing? Things that Hotfixes havn’t addressed? I remember I actually did install the beta of SP2 for XP – because I wanted to see the fancy new firewall =)
@frauhottelmann wrote:
But without Service Pack Betas there would be a lot more bugs in the final! I used all SP3 betas for XP when they came out and I didn’t have any problems. But this is different for everybody!
Yeah tis true, hence why I said Beta Tests are needed =) It’s all up to the user in the end, I just don’t like to promote it otherwise newbies will cry when it breaks….. šÆ
Let’s hope it gets rid of the mandatory driver signing thing. I cannot get my vid capture card to work and I spent alot on it. Also some audio stuff does not work because of this. Some power management panels and “server” hardware does not work either.
I also hope they make slipstreaming the “workstation” features easier and have built in image management. (But that could come for R2 though)
Well from the Springboad blog, SP2 will/does have….
Emerging Hardware Support
* Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack
* Ability to record data on Blu-ray media
* exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file synchronization across time zones
* Support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU
* Support for ICCD/CCID smart cards
Hyper-V *
* Windows Vista SP2 includes Hyper-Vā¢ technology, enabling full virtualization of server workloads
Security
* Windows Vista SP2 incorporates previously released reliability updates, as well as addressing crashes discovered since the launch of Windows Vista SP1
Performance
* Inclusion of Windows Search 4 for improved indexing performance, improved relevancy in search, broader indexing scenario inclusion, as well as new Group Policy integration for Windows Search
* Reduction of resources required for sidebar gadgets
Wireless
* Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless
* Fixed issue where Wi-Fi connection was no longer available after resume from sleep
Administration and Support Improvements
* Service pack clean-up tool: Restores hard disk space by permanently deleting the previous versions of the files (Windows Vista RTM and Windows Vista SP1) that are being serviced by Windows Vista SP2Notable changes from a technet article…
Application compatibility improvements
Thanks to the rich instrumentation capability of Windows operating systems, we are able to understand the types of issues that our customers experience while respecting their personal information and privacy preferences. We use this information to focus improvements in Windows, but we also share this information with our software vendor partners to help improve the reliability and compatibility of non-Microsoft applications. For example, in Windows Vista SP2, Spysweeper and ZoneAlarm, now work with POP3 e-mail accounts.
Hardware ecosystem support and enhancements
* Adds support for the 64-bit central processing unit (CPU) from VIA Technologies, which adds the ID and vendor strings for the new VIA 64-bit CPU.
* Integrates the Windows Vista Feature Pack for Wireless, which contains support for Bluetooth v2.1. Bluetooth v2.1 is the most recent specification for Bluetooth wireless technology and Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi Configuration.
* Improves performance for Wi-Fi connection after resuming from sleep mode.
* Includes updates to the RSS feeds sidebar with improved performance and responsiveness.
* Includes ability to record data to Blu-Ray media.
Enterprise improvements
* Provides the Hyper-V virtualization environment as a fully integrated feature of Windows Server 2008, including one free daughter OS with Windows Server 2008 Standard, four free licenses with Windows Server 2008 Enterprise and an unlimited number of free licenses with Windows Server 2008 Datacenter.
* Provides an improved power management policy that is up to 10% more efficient than the original in some configurations (both on the server and the desktop), and includes the ability to manage these settings via Group Policy.
* Improves backwards compatibility for Terminal server license keys. Windows Server 2008 changed the licensing key from 512 bytes to 2,048 bytes which caused clients using older Terminal versions to fail. SP2 allows legacy license keys on Citrix applications to work with Windows Server 2008 Terminal server.Source: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/dd335036.aspx?ITPID=sprblog
And it goes on a little bit. Hmm, not too exciting….?
Yesh not alot for me there too That I can’t live without.
All I want is the driver signing requirement killed becuse I am also getting into robotics/electronics soon and I want to be able to interface with my bots and if the driver signing gets in the way I am going to be infuriated! I will have to see if it will.
@RemixedCat wrote:
Yesh not alot for me there too That I can’t live without.
All I want is the driver signing requirement killed becuse I am also getting into robotics/electronics soon and I want to be able to interface with my bots and if the driver signing gets in the way I am going to be infuriated! I will have to see if it will.
ReadyDriver Plus still works 100% with Windows 7 and 2008 R2.
Just installed it last night. So far I have noticed that Hyper-V seems to be less resource hungry when idle; it fixed some of the issues I had previously with my control panel (it sometimes did not allow me to access anything besides the 32bit CP and required a restart to regain it’s functionality). Oh, and it did rewrite both of the authui.dll’s, so I had to go through reclaiming the ownership and replacing them in order to change my logon screen background once more.
On the other hand, explorer.exe seems to be consuming much more RAM (~200Mb), though I am not sure it is related to SP2.
200MB!?!?!? WOW that aint right! Is that after a clean boot? Mine was around ~50MB after a cold boot.. in Windows 7 RC1 its down to 35MB š
And what exactly do you mean by 32-Bit Control Panel…? I thought there was only ever one, regardless of x86-64 arch…. I don’t know though, I used x86-32 for Server 2008 R1.
@Eun-Hjzjined wrote:
Ya, 200mb is way too large…
The x86 CP only has speech, java, etc. Nothing to do with configuring your machine, and can be annoying if you can’t get to the normal x64 CP.
Oh. Well as I said, i’m on Windows 7 RC1 now, which had changed to the Control Panel, they must have put them all into one. Java is in with everything else, and there’s no more “show other items” like I remember with Server 2008 R2 Beta 1. Oh well.
Well, my Explorer only uses 20 MB right now! And that is after a good hour of usage! And it’s just a Server 2008 32bit!
Oh and the SP2 is officially done! http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsvista/archive/2009/04/28/windows-vista-sp2-rtm-windows-vista-sp1-blocker-tool-removed.aspxGet the new Service Pack 2:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/04/28/download-windows-server-2008-and-vista-sp2-rtm-600218005/@exaslave wrote:
Seem to be having a small loss of gaming performance with this.
Against Vista or XP? Start a new thread and we should be able to help.
@exaslave wrote:
I meant 2008 SP2 vs 2008 SP1, but nevermind that now 3 reboots later performance was back to what it was before.
Ah. Well, I think installing service packs erases the Prefetch (Superfetch) data, so it would need to cache all the boot files and what not again after a few reboots. If you don’t have Superfetch installed, it’s still got the whole boot defrag (or “optimization” as MS calls it) and the other standard stuff… WinSxS repository probably had to get rebuild I imagine too…
…eh i’m rambling. Glad it’s sorted.
You can make a slipstreamed install iso with SP2 but unless you already have experience with that and with all the necessary tools, it isn’t going to be something done in an evening. I struggled for days before getting it right. AFAIK there is no vLite version for SP2 yet. Either enjoy the learning experience or search torrents.
I did it using a VM. I used Sun’s VirtualBox. It’s much faster than MS Virtual PC and supports 64 bit OS’es. But any VM will do. Server 2008 has to be installed in the VM twice because you can’t use the boot partition (ie. the first installation) for the slipstream. You must use the second installation’s partition/virtual disk, without all the boot stuff on it for the slipstream. As soon as the second installation is installed and you’re logged into the admin account, reboot into Audit mode (run %systemroot%system32sysprepsysprep.exe). Just leave all the windows, including the sysprep window open. In audit mode mount the ISO file with SP2 on into the virtual CD drive of the VM and install SP2. Once SP2 is installed run compcln.exe to remove all remnants of SP1, then use the sysprep window to generalize and shutdown the VM: the window should already display OOBE, leave that. Select “generalize” and “shutdown”. NO REBOOT unless you have the Windows PE iso already mounted in the virtual CD. If the generalized partition boots, which it will fail to, you can start all over again. Boot the VM with Windows PE and make a new install.wim using, for example:
imagex /capture /compress maximum /flags “SERVERENTERPRISE” d: z:install.wim “Windows Server SERVERENTERPRISE”
where drive z: is a network drive connected to a share on the host machine. Note that the first string between quotes, just after /flags, must exactly match the edition you’re slipstreaming otherwise the install.wim file will be useless. What you between the second pair of quotes isn’t that important. You can find the correct strings by using “imagex /info install.wim” on the original instal.wim file or look them up on the Microsoft website. Use “SERVERSTANDARD” if you’re slipstreaming the Standard edition. I don’t know about Datacenter off the top of my head. Capturing the image can take up to an hour because of /compress maximum. Don’t worry, if you don’t /compress maximum you’ll win time with the capture but lose all of the time won later on time and again when you use vLite to add minor updates, drivers or remove components.
When the capture is finshed, replace the install.wim in the original iso with the one you just made. You could copy the contents of the original iso to a USB memory stick and replace the install.wim with the new one or use any tool to make a new iso. You’ll have to download the WAIK to do this first if haven’t done that yet and create a Windows PE iso with imagex installed on it. It doesn’t matter whether you use a VM or real hardware for the slipstreaming because the final install.wim file will be hardware independant anyway. I sincerely recommend VirtualBox. Using that was at least as fast as doing it on real hardware, and easier beacause everythings virtual. DVD’s, harddisks etc are all just files on the host. Even the network connection to the share is emulated and in fact is just a local file copy on the host machine. Just don’t install any VM specific drivers onto the slipstream partition because then you’ll end up with those in the final install.wim too. Maybe even on the real hardware later on, where it’s useless in the best case. Using a VM also makes it easy to make intermediate copies of the virtual diskfile so you won’t have to start all over again if you make a mistake somewhere, such as forgetting to run compcln.exe before generalizing :(. Doing that won’t ruin your install.wim but it will be close a gigabyte larger and may not fit onto a USB stick or a single DVD. Because the copied virtual disk hasn’t been generalized yet, you can also use it to add more updates without using vLite later or even convert server to a desktop in the VM and image that. Really, once you’ve done it yourself you might even start hoping SP3, 4 and 5 are released asap so you can do it again š
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