Microsoft releases Windows Server 2003 SP1

Microsoft has finished development of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003, and the 329MB upgrade is currently available for download from the company's website free of charge.

The upgrade follows in the footsteps of Windows XP Service Pack 2 released last year. Both upgrades deliver security enhancements to systems running Windows operating systems.

"With Windows Server 2003 SP1 our development team took the time to treat the root cause of many security issues, not just the symptoms," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president at Microsoft's Windows Server Division. "This service pack is very significant and should help address certain classes of exploits."

The upgrade adds a firewall to the server software, as well as a special Security Configuration Wizard which blocks unused ports that might otherwise be used for attacks.

The software also adds Post-Setup Security Updates which block all communications to a server until the system has been equipped with the latest security updates. This is designed to give administrators the time to bring newly provisioned systems up to speed before they are exposed to the outside world.

In addition to the security enhancements, SP1 contains a collection of all past updates, as well as enhancements to reliability and performance. Systems running SP1 can expect to see an increase in performance of up to 50 per cent, according to Microsoft.

The upgrade is also the underlying technology for the upcoming versions of Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP that support chips using 64-bit memory extensions such as the latest Xeon processors from Intel and AMD's Opterons.

These applications will be unveiled next month at Microsoft's WinHEC conference for hardware developers in Seattle.

Windows Server 2003 SP1 was originally scheduled for the end of last year, but Microsoft delayed the project in October.