Service Pack

Service Pack (English for maintenance package ) is a term used by different manufacturers term for the set of patches to update one of its operating systems and other software products.

Microsoft has been around since the publication of the Windows NT operating system in irregular, longer intervals compilations of bug fixes its on NT based operating systems ( including Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 and its server counterpart ) and also to applications (eg Internet Explorer or Microsoft Office) out as service packs. Other manufacturers (for example, Network Associates ), this conceptualization have connected.

Patches correct usually only a single error. For urgent faults, in particular vulnerabilities in network protocols or network interfaces, these patches are provided by the manufacturer as a hotfix shortly.

Service packs offer the advantage that very many of these patches can be recorded with a single installation. This four-digit numbers can certainly be done by changes in the background. Typically, a service pack contains all the patches (if they were not obsolete ) since the major version, or since the respective previous service pack. Partly in service packs, new or previously missing properties are realized. Therefore, a service pack besides bug fixes and extensions or improvements included as an update. Some service packs are provided by the manufacturers in advance for testing and undergo a beta version a test phase.

Some applications work according to the guarantee of the software vendor for an operating system from a given version of a service pack installed. Service packs are thus a new minor version of a software system dar.

Service packs are cumulative in most cases, that is, they take also updates previous service packs together (for example, Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000 includes all corrections of packets 1, 2 and 3). Is not a cumulative service pack, the service pack must be installed in the order of their appearance. However, this is only the case for very few products.

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