SP2 Day Serves Office, WSS

Microsoft put major updates to Office 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) on its Web site today, officials said Tuesday.

Service Pack 2 (SP2) builds on the features and bug fixes discovered since the first service packs for the two products were released. In addition to security and performance bugs already addressed in previous updates, including SP1, SP2 aims to correct security, stability and performance deficiencies.

Office 2003 SP2, for example, includes three previously addressed security bulletins affecting the Windows platform and nine Office 2003-specific security and feature fixes.

In addition to these updates, Microsoft addressed a slew of bugs found in Access, Excel, FrontPage, PowerPoint, Publisher and Word. While each bug has had a hot fix in place to minimize the specific problem, SP2 attempts to provide a comprehensive fix to the overall issue.

Microsoft added several new features to its Web-based collaboration tool add-on for Windows Server 2003, based on customer demand.

Officials said WSS SP2 now supports the 64-bit editions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP and SQL Server 2005, as well as developer support for .NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. WSS SP2 also includes new advanced extranet and intranet scenarios.

The first release candidate for Windows Server 2003 R2, which went through beta testing earlier this year, will also ship with WSS and WSS SP2, officials said.

Also included in WSS SP2 is the first service pack, as well as a previously report security update for the product.

More information on Office 2003 SP 2 can be found here. WSS SP2 information is located here.