Windows Update V5 alive

[SM-Bot]

Microsoft let off the leash version 5 of Windows Update for Beta testers yesterday. If you've got access to BetaPlace you can of course go and look at and mess with the updated program. For the rest of us though, we'll have to wait a few more weeks till the new update system is publicly up and running.

Windows Update is aiming to keep all your Microsoft products secure and up to date. Initially, Windows Update will offer patches for Windows, etc.

Having customers test pre-released versions of Windows Update in their environments is critical to the product’s success. It also enables you to provide invaluable input on all facets of the product during its development cycle, thereby helping to ensure the final release meets your needs.

The release:

Primary goals: Get feedback on the full set of features and find bugs

Release date: Late 2003 along with Windows XP SP2 Beta program

Target: Initially, Windows Update v5 site is for Windows XP Home/Pro. users only

Pre-released versions of Windows Update V5 will be made available to program participants through links from this site. You will be notified via e-mail and the newsgroup when they are available.

Source - Neowin

[Thrax]

Version 5... ALIIIIIVE!

[Straight_Man]

One thing to note:

To be a tester, you need to have a way to keep your production work safe if you own just one machine. Either backup often, adn keep backups archived so you can go back to what was not changed at NEED, or use a seperate box.

Betas are tests for just that reason, bugs that keep things from working on just 10-15% of boxes need to be found before the code is finalized whenever possible, but anyone's box and software set can be part of the 10% or more that do not work due to so many complex factors that they cannot all be foreseen. So, hand's on testing is needed, but learn a way to backup your "important to you" stuff BEFORE you get heavy into beta testing and aviod testing many things at once. That will save you from the worst possible headaches.

With a WindowsUpdater test, be ready to roll back to the old updater and to do a full recovery if needed, BEFORE you test. Ideally, production and test boxes should be completely separate, though you can in fact run separate HDs for each, run alternatively and not simultaneously and thus test on same hardware and use compare and contrast to help illustrate problems by showing what breaks. Expect, though, to learn a lot if you want to get seriously into Beta testing, and the same things that let you recover from a beta test problem (in principle) will healp you recover from final software that for some reason does not get along with what your box has on and in it. And expect to get under the hood of the O\S you use for both, also.

John.

[Kwitko]

I think it's more like 11-16% of boxes.