Current service pack announcements Oct. 2011

Hello,

This is for your comfort, to inform and notify about the latest service pack announcements.

Office 2007 and MOSS 2007 (Office SharePoint Server 2007):

Now available!  Office 2007 and MOSS 2007 Service Pack 3 (likely the final last)

 

 NOTE!  -Although the SP3 will be deployed by automatic updates and WSUS servers, it is still highly recommedned to install it manually with a test farm as usual!
Currently there is an onGoing discussion whether there is an issue with October 2011 CU (cannot be installed on top of SP3) which we’re trying to check yet!
At least it happens with the localized version for “Japanese”!  Tests are in progress!  please stay tuned!

MS is offering this release in preparation for the April 2012 end of mainstream support for the 2007 client and server products.

For those of you hoping to test SP3 prior to its deployment, we will continue or standard practice with Service Pack releases. Initially SP3 will be offered through the Microsoft Download Center as a manual download, through Microsoft Update as an Optional update. No earlier than 90 days after release, we will convert SP3 to an Automatic Update for our 2007 customers.

“Service Pack 3 contains a roll-up of all 2007 Cumulative and Public Updates since Service Pack 2 for both Office client suites and applications as well as SharePoint Servers, in addition to some new fixes for issues discovered during the lifecycle of SP2. 

For each of these products, if you are current with Automatic Updates for Office 2007, you have already installed most of the changes in the release. SP3 is much smaller than 2007 SP1, SP2 or the recently released 2010 SP1. We will provide documentation detailing the changes and the affected packages on TechNet.

–> More details you’ll find on the  “official blog of the Office Sustained Engineering and Release team”

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“This service pack contains all the Cumulative Updates and Public Updates for Office 2007 that have shipped since SP2 for both the Office client suites and applications, and the SharePoint server applications. The Project Server updates are included along with the SharePoint updates in the Office Servers SP3 updates. SP3 also contains additional new fixes which are described here. For a list of changes for each product, please refer to their individual KBs. The KB Articles referenced below will be updated throughout the day to include the live links to the published articles.”

–> More details and the downloads table, you’ll find here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/office_sustained_engineering/archive/2011/10/25/office-2007-and-sharepoint-2007-service-pack-3-availability.aspx

Microsoft Support:  KB 2591018 – List of all 2007 Office system SP3, 2007 Office servers SP3, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP3 packages

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 NOTE!

You may experience the following issues when you install these service packs (described on the kb http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2591067/en )

• To install the 2007 Microsoft Office servers SP3 on Windows Server 2008-based computers, the Svrsetup.dll file must be included in the Office administrative images Updates folder.
• In Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SP3, no group name appears after you click the Add all authenticated users link in the Set Up Groups for this Site page. However, all authenticated users are assigned group permissions.
• The 2007 Microsoft Office servers Language Pack SP3 does not update the version number for the Spanish language. However, the service pack is installed correctly and the Microsoft Installer Packages are updated correctly. 
  Note! 
  The version number is not changed from 12.4518.1016.
• If you install the hotfix package that is described in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 983315 and then install the 2007 Microsoft Office suite SP3, pointer movement and scrolling may be slow in Excel worksheets that contain many shapes.
  For more information about how to resolve this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: 2596951  
  “Pointer movement and scrolling are slow when a worksheet contains many shapes in Office Excel 2007”

 

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SQL Server 2008 (not “R2”!):

The download of  SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (version 10.00.5500.00) has been published yet.

Overview

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is now available for download. While keeping product changes contained, we have made significant investments to ease deployment and management of Service Packs. A few key enhancements for customers in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3 are :

• Enhanced upgrade experience from previous versions of SQL Server to SQL Server 2008 SP3. In addition, we have increased the performance & reliability of the setup experience.
• In SQL Server Integration Services logs will now show the total number of rows sent in Data Flows.
• Enhanced warning messages when creating the maintenance plan if the Shrink Database option is enabled.
• Resolving database issue with transparent data encryption enabled and making it available even if certificate is dropped.
• Optimized query outcomes when indexed Spatial Data Type column is referenced by DTA (Database Tuning Advisor).
• Superior user experience with Sequence Functions (e.g Row_Numbers()) in a Parallel execution plan.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 is not a prerequisite for installing SQL Server 2008 Service Pack3. These packages may be used to upgrade any of the following editions of SQL Server 2008:

• Enterprise
• Standard
• Evaluation
• Developer
• Workgroup

SQL Server 2008 SP3 contains the cumulative updates of SQL Server 2008 SP2 cumulative update package 1 to 4, and fixes to issues that have been reported through our customer feedback platforms. These include supportability enhancements and issues that have been reported through Windows Error Reporting.

Note:

To obtain SQL Server 2008 SP3 for Express Edition or Express Edition with Advanced Services, please go here.
For a detailed list of new features and improvements that are included in SQL Server 2008 SP3, review the Release Notes