Performance, stability fixes arrive for Windows 7, Server 2008 R2

In addition to releasing the most security bulletins ever on this month's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft has released a number of non-security updates, the majority of which are for the latest versions of its client and server operating systems. All the patches are available on Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center and most will require a restart. With the exception of the last patch, they're all for Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.

Most of these updates will be rolled into Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Testers got the first Windows 7 SP1 beta build two months ago, but just today Microsoft sent out build 7601.17077 to selected PC and Technology Adoption Program partners, according to ZDNet.

The first patch (KB2028560) is vaguely described as one that delivers "new functionality and performance improvements for the graphics platform." 

The second patch (KB2249857) describes an issue that occurs on 2TB+ hard disk drives. If the OS is configured to save dump files to a volume of such an HDD, some of the dump file is offset at a disk offset greater than the 2TB address, and Windows is either put into hibernation or crashes, volumes on the HDD may be corrupted, and data is lost. If the corrupted volumes include the system partition, the computer will no longer boot. 

The third patch (KB982110) fixes a problem when running 32-bit applications on a 64-bit edition of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. If the application uses the QueryPathOfRegTypeLib function to retrieve the path of a registered type library, it may return the path of the 64-bit version of the type library instead of the 32-bit one. 

The fourth patch (KB2272691) is for a game, application, or firmware that is either installed incorrectly, causes system instability, or has primary functions that do not work correctly. The update will either prevent incompatible software from running (hard block with third-party manufacturer consent), notify the user that incompatible software is starting to run (soft block), or improve the software's functionality (update). It lists just a single application (Sensible Vision FastAccess) as being affected.

The fifth patch (KB2203330) solves a problem when installing a third-party application for the multiple transport Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) device or for the Windows Portable Device (WPD). Connecting an MTP or WPD device may result in an APC_INDEX_MISMATCH stop error message because of a race condition in the Compositebus.sys driver. 

The last patch (KB979453) is for Windows Home Server and addresses five separate issues that were found since the release of WHS Power Pack 3.

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Exchange 2010 SP1 arrives with increased focus on the cloud

The Microsoft Exchange team has announced that Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1 is available for download now. This comes after a short public beta period; announced in April, and released in June.

Among other things, the Service Pack adds new replication features to improve robustness, a new mailbox online repair mechanism for when things do go wrong, the ability to import historic e-mail directly from a PST into a mailbox, better load balancing, improved mailbox searching, IRM support in OWA when using Safari, the reintroduction of themes in OWA, and a raft of other improvements.

The new version should also usher in the availability of hosted Exchange 2010 solutions. Multi-tenant support, which allows one Exchange installation to provision services for multiple customers, means that service providers can use regular Exchange to provide cloud-hosted Exchange. Previously, this required extra components that only supported Exchange 2007, with the result that hosted service providers have not been able to offer Exchange 2010 (with perhaps one exception). Service Pack 1 should enable such providers to offer Exchange 2010 capabilities.

This fits in neatly with Microsoft's forthcoming Small Business Server "Aurora," which unlike previous Small Business Server versions, eschews a locally-hosted Exchange in favor of cloud services. This obviously becomes more attractive if those cloud services support Exchange 2010, as it means that Aurora will offer the same capabilities as standard Small Business Server, but without the administrative overhead.

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Feature: Being a behemoth: how Microsoft (and 9 others) make their billions

It has become a bit of a cliché: really innovative technology comes from garage-level startups. Once a company gets too large, it focuses its energy on keeping its existing customers happy, and loses its edge. But, for the most part, the technology we rely on for getting things done—providing the hardware and networking infrastructure, for example—comes from mature, profitable companies. So, we thought it might be interesting to take a step back and look at what tech companies are among the most successful at marketing products and services that are widely put to use.

Of course, any measure of "success" is inviting argument. Should it be profits, units sold, recent growth? We settled on two measures. The first is the market capitalization, which provides some sense of how the financial community views both a company's current fiscal strength and its potential for future growth. To provide some sense of how much of that is growth potential, we chose the price-to-earnings ratio as our other measure—the higher the number, the more the company's perceived growth potential factors into its market cap.

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SBS beta and WHS Vail release candidate are out

Microsoft has released new previews of two of its server products: the first beta of the new cloud-based Small Business Server Aurora, and an updated beta of the second version of Windows Home Server, codenamed "Vail."

The first beta of Vail was released in April. The new version of Windows Home Server provides more robust storage management and better backup options, including the ability to back up Mac OS X computers. Peculiarly, the initial announcement from Microsoft described this new build as Release Candidate 0, but this language has since been removed; this is just another beta after all.

This is just as well; this build contains several known data-loss bugs, so clearly has some way to go before being release quality. As always with a beta, Microsoft advises against using this in any production capacity, and with such flaws in this build, that's probably good advice.

Small Business Server Aurora is a new product that simplifies the configuration and installation, using cloud services for Exchange e-mail and SharePoint collaboration. A beta of Small Business Server 7, the next version of Small Business Server, is due by the end of the month. The new version includes among other things Windows Server 2008 R2, and Exchange Server 2010. 

Both betas can be had from their respective Connect sites, Aurora here and Vail here.

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