Windows 2000 SP1, Microsoft’s First Truly "Safe" ServicePack?

Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is the first dramatically visible result of Microsoft’s “Fusion” project, launched quietly 18 months ago to attack the root causes of instability in Windows. The Fusion project calls for changes to the Windows architecture, the development and release process, software update tools, and even the development practices of Microsoft’s ISV partners. Taken together, the results of this effort should make it unlikely that a service pack or any other software installation will break a running system. Setting up a system from scratch should also be much easier and Windows should be more resilient in the face of “normal” user or system errors.

Improving Windows Stability Is Essential

Past versions of Windows have been inherently unstable for a variety of reasons. Although the phrase “DLL Hell” describes a common Windows ailment, instability can be traced to several causes. For an overview of these issues, see the sidebar “Windows Instability Isn’t as Simple as DLL Hell.”