Frequently Asked Questions About the Windows 2000 Update Rollup Announcement

Microsoft talked to many customers about their plans for maintaining their Windows 2000 deployments. The most frequent requests were for Microsoft to make it as easy as possible to keep Windows 2000 systems up to date from a security perspective, and to reduce the amount of pre-deployment testing they would need to perform.

Update Rollups make it easy for customers to keep their systems secure, and build new system images without having to apply (and track) a large number of individual hotfixes. Further, because the number of updates included in the Update Rollup is significantly lower than the number typically included in a service pack and because Microsoft will have already released most of the contents of the Update Rollup as individual updates and hotfixes, the Update Rollup should require less pre-deployment testing.

Also, because Windows 2000 has reached a high level of product maturity, many of the hotfixes that Microsoft has made to Windows 2000 since SP4 address relatively obscure issues that affect a small number of customers. Because every update to Windows introduces the possibility of system instability at the customer's site (for example, an update to one part of the system causes some other part of the system—or an application—to fail), an Update Rollup will provide the maximum utility at the minimum risk of instability at this point in the Windows 2000 life–cycle.

Microsoft will list the Update Rollup as a Critical Update on Windows Update.

There will be no requirement for customers to deploy the Update Rollup. However, because Microsoft designed the Update Rollup to make it easy to keep Windows 2000 systems up to date with security updates and other important updates, Microsoft strongly recommends that customers deploy the Update Rollup as soon as possible after its release.

No. Machines will remain on SP4. Also, Windows 2000 systems with SP4 deployed will be 'up to date' from a life–cycle policy perspective until the end of life (EOL) date of Windows 2000. The EOL date will be no sooner than January 1, 2010.

No. Microsoft has done update rollups before. For information on previous rollups, visit the following links:

Service packs and update rollups play different yet complementary roles.

Service packs are good for delivering a large number of important updates and new features that customers are requesting Microsoft to ship prior to the next major operating system release.

Update rollups are good for delivering a select group of updates, as an interim release vehicle, when there will be longer than usual gaps between service packs. Later in a product's life–cycle, update rollups also are a good mechanism for making it easier for customers to keep their systems up to date without requiring them to deploy all available updates.

Microsoft examined the number of times customers requested and downloaded individual hotfixes from Microsoft's support web sites, and evaluated potential operational cost savings based on Microsoft's experience with its own datacenter environment. In some cases, despite an update being popular or offering potential cost savings, the inclusion of that particular update also would have required Microsoft to include a high number of other 'encompassed' updates made in the same files. In such cases, Microsoft evaluated whether the increased risk of regressions from encompassed updates outweighed the potential benefit of including the update.

Microsoft will include all encompassed updates contained in the Update Rollup in the substantial pre-release testing Microsoft will perform (including beta tests with customers) to ensure that the risks of regressions and other issues are as low as possible.

The Update Rollup will contain all security-related updates produced for Windows 2000 between the time SP4 was released and the time when Microsoft finalizes the contents of the Update Rollup. The Update Rollup will also contain a small number of important non-security updates. These include updates that:

Microsoft will include a comprehensive list of all updates and hotfixes with the Update Rollup. See also Knowledge Base article 891861, Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 SP4 and Known Issues for more information.

Microsoft will include a comprehensive list of all updates and hotfixes with the Update Rollup.