As
publicized in the article "Delayed Deployment of Windows
XP Service Pack 2 (WinXP SP2)" (Network Computing,
Issue 41 - September 2004), WinXP SP2 is more than just
a series of bug fixes but significant changes to the security
protection mechanism. These changes can affect both existing
applications and applications under development as they may
cause incompatibility and render these applications unusable.
Therefore, WinXP SP2 upgrade requires in-depth testing before
campus-wide deployment and needs close coordination when launched
in case unexpected problems arise. Subsequent communication
to the Departmental Network Administrators (DNAs) in December
2004 indicated that the deployment of WinXP SP2 would be in
phases, starting from mid-January 2005.
In order
to smoothen deployment, the Computing Services Centre (CSC)
invites departments (through the DNAs) to join the upgrade
according to the tentative schedule. After seeking consent
from the concerned department, the CSC will schedule to download
and then install WinXP SP2 to the PCs of the department accordingly.
Depending on hardware configurations, the average installation
time of WinXP SP2 is about 2 hours. As the installation process
consumes a lot of computer resources and the disruption during
installation can cause unrecoverable errors, installation
time has been scheduled to be the least busy period, normally
during mid-night when nobody works in the office. Users are
also advised not to disturb the installation process nor click
on the Windows Update indicator on the Desktop to start installation
manually. Besides, the Help Desk and the support team have
been alerted to support the different scenarios that may arise.
By the
end of February 2005, about two-thirds of the departments
have been arranged for the upgrade and more than 600 staff
LAN PCs have been successfully upgraded. The target completion
date of the whole upgrade exercise is mid-April 2005 right
before Microsoft revokes the blockage of automatic download
of WinXP SP2 through its Windows Update tool. With careful
planning, we managed to proceed the installation at a good
pace without too many problems.
As a
next step to help staff get the most advantages from WinXP
SP2, the CSC has arranged the training partner to prepare
half-day short courses, covering both the CityU and more generic
home computing environments. When the course is ready, staff
can find out the training schedules through the e-Portal for
online enrollment.
Microsoft
has put up many useful resources online. The followings are
helpful in general:
