NT4 SP6a Release Raises Questions

With the release of Windows NT 4 Service Pack 6 (SP6) in late October, it appeared that Microsoft was finally getting the knack of releasing stable service packs on a regular basis. However, confidence in the SP release process was shaken in late November as Microsoft unexpectedly released SP6a. The unusual re-release process and confusion surrounding SP6a created unnecessary embarrassment for Microsoft as the Windows 2000 launch approaches.

What Service Pack 6a Fixes

A bug in SP6 would not allow Lotus Notes clients to log into a Notes server if the user was not logged in with administrator privileges. This bug also affected other Winsock applications. Microsoft moved quickly to fix the bug, but made several missteps in the process. It decided to re-issue SP6 as SP6a rather than issue a hotfix that resolved the specific issue. In the past, a hotfix would have been issued and only customers affected by this bug would need to take corrective action. Instead, Microsoft released a bulletin stating that a new service pack—SP6a—was now available for download from the Windows NT support Web site. However, for several days the link to the SP6a download page actually pointed to an unchanged copy of the SP6 code. When the correct SP6a code appeared, it contained a new Y2K bug fix for IIS 3.0 and a new version of a utility called “winver” that reports what version of the OS is running on a system.