Microsoft Releases SP4 for Terminal Server
Amid rumors that production problems forced Microsoft Corp. to take Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition off the market, the company announced the availability of Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.
Amid rumors that production problems forced Microsoft Corp. to take Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition off the market, the company announced the availability of Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server Edition Service Pack 4.
"Service Pack 4 for Terminal Server includes all the updates and bug fixes we’ve done to date, and provides software updates for all known Y2K issues and support for the euro," says Solveig Whittle, lead product manager at Microsoft.
Whittle says new enhancements focus on application development, security and application services. Service Pack 4’s new Security Configuration Manager, for example, lets administrators define, apply and inspect security configurations. Administrators also gain greater control over security event logs, and the service pack improves the security of communications between workstations and domain controllers.
The service pack’s new application programming interfaces (APIs) expand application development and networking enhancements. There are a few APIs, for instance, that Whittle says improve mainframe connectivity.
New management enhancements help administrators control the size of user profiles and monitor the reliability and availability of Terminal Server.
When SP4 shipped for Windows NT 4.0 last October, the service pack was based on the code for Windows NT 4.0. Microsoft, however, made changes to the kernel when it created Terminal Server, such as adding support for Citrix System’s Inc.’s (www.citrix.com) ICA protocol.
"We couldn’t take SP4 for NT and apply it to Terminal Server without testing it because the code is different," Whittle says.
Regarding the rumors of TSE being yanked from the market, Whittle explains that the lead time of the company’s repackaging of the product to accommodate a new pricing schema that took effect in February and the demand created by the new pricing created a shortage of the product. "We no longer have back orders to fill," Whittle adds. "TSE is now in distribution and copies are widely available."