The world must wait until late July at the earliest until Microsoft delivers the final release of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). But that isn't stopping testers and customers from asking what Microsoft's intentions are, in terms of back-porting the SP2 updates and fixes to other Microsoft operating systems and related products.

SP2, code-named "Springboard," is primarily a collection of security fixes. With SP2, Microsoft is turning on its built-in Windows Firewall by default; including new browser and e-mail safeguards and enhancing XP's memory protection features, company officials have said.

During a Web cast held Tuesday for Microsoft system builders — those PC and server vendors that sell products preloaded with Microsoft software — participants asked Microsoft officials repeatedly about the company's plans to make SP2 available on older versions of Windows and Internet Explorer (IE).

A Microsoft representative responded: "There is no information available on if the features seen in SP2 version of IE will be available for other Operating Systems."

Later in the Web cast, another anonymous Microsoft individual answering participant questions elaborated a bit further: "We do not have current plans to make the IE enhancements available in XP SP2 available on Windows 2000, NT 4, Windows 98 or Windows Me (Millennium Edition). We are evaluating the technical feasibility of providing then new IE enhancements for older Windows versions. "

Securing older versions of Windows and IE is a concern of many IT managers, as many companies still run these legacy systems — and not the latest Windows releases. But Microsoft's focus with its "XP Reloaded" marketing campaign, in particular, is to convince recalcitrant customers to upgrade, not to give them reasons to justify holding out.

Microsoft officials have said that the SP2 updates will be applied to the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 and Media Center Edition 2005 products due out this year. It also plans to make the applicable SP2 updates available for the Internet Explorer 6 code that is part of Windows Server 2003. (These updates will be part of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003, due out later this year.)

But Microsoft has other back-porting plans for the Springboard technologies, too, said testers who requested anonymity.

Microsoft is "highly likely" to make the Springboard updates available for IE 6 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 5. And it has told some of its partners that it is considering strongly making the IE-specific Springboard updates available for Windows NT, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows Millennium Edition, the testing sources said.

However, Microsoft is dead-set against porting Springboard to "standalone" versions of IE: IE 6 Service Pack 2 and IE 5.5, the testing sources added.

During the system-builder Webcast, which was designed to coincide with the availability of the Release Candidate 2 beta of Windows XP SP2, Microsoft officials also addressed other SP2 questions from some of the 6,000 participants who managed to log on (in spite of the Internet connectivity problems that plagued sites all over the Web on Tuesday).

Microsoft representatives charged with answering questions told the system builders that they should expect the SP2 RC2 download to be 270 MB in size, but only 90MB for those who already have SP1 installed. Microsoft also is planning to make CD versions of RC2 available for those testers who have narrow-band connections and can't download the hefty service pack. Microsoft told the Web cast participants to expect Microsoft to ship the RC2 CD release to them some time after July 1.

Microsoft representatives also told the system builders that Microsoft is still planning on final availability of XP SP2 in late summer. When asked whether Microsoft would issue an RC3, one anonymous Microsoft representative said: "The future is hard to predict, but probabl(y) not."

The representatives also told system builders that SP2 is currently the last planned major update for Windows XP before Longhorn. Longhorn is expected in 2006+.

(This is an updated version of an article that appeared in the April 26, 2004, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter.)