Is service pack 3 still supported?

[Guest]

Hi

I'm starting to have a sneaky feeling that I'm no longer receiving any
patches for my Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3 systems.

Is SP3 still supported by MS or not?

Regards
Wayne

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

I'm guessing not as everything new I'm seeing on Software Update Services
and Windows Server Update Services is labeled for Windows 2000 Service Pack
4. I'm also stating this because according to
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/servicepacks.mspx, SP3 would only
be supported for 12 months after the release of SP4 and could be extended to
24 per
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;lifecycle&LN=EN-US&x=20&y=10
to give customers extra time to test compatibility. So based on the above,
I would say your feeling is dead on and that it is time to absorb SP4 if the
site needs to squeak some extra life out of Windows 2000.

/neo

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Hi

I'm starting to have a sneaky feeling that I'm no longer receiving any
patches for my Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3 systems.

Is SP3 still supported by MS or not?

Hi,

Support for SP3 retired 2005-06-30.

 

[George Hester]

No (or Yes) it is not. In fact it was not supported immediately after SP4
hit for public consumption. So what we need to do is look at the word,
"supported." Are some updates available if you only have SP3 installed?
Yes although that number is diminishing and new ones not at all. SP4 is
required for example for some of the new security updates released recently.
But then that's not such a bad thing. Is it supported if you call Microsoft
Product Support and they find out you have SP3 installed? Well yes and no
that depends on what your issue is. If the issue was addressed in SP4 then
No. If not then yes.

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

No (or Yes) it is not. In fact it was not supported immediately
after SP4 hit for public consumption.
(snip)

Hi,

Actually, for service packs on Windows 2000 and XP, support ends 12
months after the next service pack is released (24 months for Windows
2003 Server service packs).

So SP3 support was not retired until 1 year after the release of SP4.

 

[George Hester]

Well that may be true although I don't think my scenarios were incorrect.
Right after a Service Pack comes out within a year you will get Hotfixes
available that require the latest Service Pack to install. Are you saying
that for 12 months after a Service Pack is released any Hotfixes released in
that time will ALWAYS be available for the current and the one that was
released less then 12 months prior to the current one? I doubt it Toregeir.

As for the second scenario if a user calls Microsoft Support with an issue
at SP3 and the issue was addressed in SP4 they will require you to go to SP4
hands down. If it was fixed in SP4 that's the Support.

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

Well that may be true although I don't think my scenarios were incorrect.
Right after a Service Pack comes out within a year you will get Hotfixes
available that require the latest Service Pack to install. Are you saying
that for 12 months after a Service Pack is released any Hotfixes released in
that time will ALWAYS be available for the current and the one that was
released less then 12 months prior to the current one? I doubt it Toregeir.

For security updates, definitely. Non-security related hotfixes are
normally also released for the previous service pack (in addition to
the current one), here is an example for WinXP SP1:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/889321

Also note that Microsoft extended the default 12 months support to 24
months both for SP3 for Win2k and SP1 for WinXP (support for WinXP SP1
ends 17-Sep-2006).

This 24 months extension option is explained here:

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesupsps
<quote>
Microsoft will provide support for products that have installed the
immediately preceding service pack for a period of twelve months from
the release of the current service pack. Support may be extended to
24 months for those service packs where Microsoft believes customers
will need additional time for testing and deployment.

As for the second scenario if a user calls Microsoft Support with
an issue at SP3 and the issue was addressed in SP4 they will require
you to go to SP4 hands down. If it was fixed in SP4 that's the Support.

Yes, for a standard consumer end user, this will be the situation. If
it is a company or organization paying Microsoft for Premier Support
agreement, and you have e.g. 200 000 computers with this problem, I'm
pretty sure Microsoft will come up with a hotfix in most cases.