Want to know what's in the latest Service Packs for Microsoft's Windows XP - Windows 2000 - Windows Server 2003? Unofficial charts with direct links to the Microsoft articles.

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Thanks to Neowin.net for the heads up! A refresh Service Pack 4 Release Candidate (RC) build is now available to download. The build version is 4.077. Please install, test and submit your feedback at your earliest convenience.

Just got word from creamhackered at Neowin.net that MSN Explorer 8.5 Final is out.

Now we can bring you an exclusive download of MSN Explorer 8.5 before it is available generally and before MSN 8 subscribers recieve updated CDs including the software. MSN 8.5 is designed as an interim update to MSN 8 preparing MSN to take the next step to MSN Explorer 9 which will be fully intergrated into Windows Explorer and will include MSN Messenger 6.0. The final build is marked as 8.50.0017.1202, a build that previously entered the beta stage around two weeks ago. It seems this build has been stamped as the final build to be delivered to consumers and Microsoft will be releasing this build to its current MSN 8 subscribers throughout the week.

Thanks to WinBeta.org! MSN Messenger lets you see when your friends are online and exchange instant messages with them. You can also use this free program to make phone calls, send a message to a pager, trade pictures and music with your friends and much more!

MSN Messenger lets you see when your friends are online and exchange instant messages with them.

You can also use this free program to make phone calls, send a message to a pager, trade pictures and music with your friends and much more!

Thanks to B i n k . n u

A number of security issues have been identified in Microsoft® Internet Explorer that could allow an attacker to compromise your Microsoft Windows®-based systems and then take a variety of actions. For example, an attacker could run programs on a computer used to view the attacker's Web site. This vulnerability affects computers that have Microsoft® Internet Explorer installed. (You do not have to be using Internet Explorer as your Web browser to be affected by this issue.) You can help protect your computer by installing this update from Microsoft. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Just got word that Tech-critic have snagged Windows Media Player 9 Build 3005 Upgrade Patch and also they tell me that they have some Media Center Edition Beta 2 Screenshots.

We have all been hearing recently after our latest exclusive story about Windows Media Center Edition that there is a new version of Windows Media Player in MCE 1.5. It is build number 3005. Although there is not alot of difference or hardly any "viewable" difference in this build from the final that Microsoft Relased. Alot of people were anxious to get there hands on this Build for some reason, do not ask me why, well we listened to them and got this build for you. Enjoy this download!

The information below applies to Windows Media 9 series for Windows XP, 2000, ME, 98 SE. When a client tries to play back video content on a non-primary monitor, either no video is rendered and the client sees only a black frame, or only the first video frame is displayed. Audio plays back without error. Windows Media Player 9 Series enters a deadlock state when it starts playback on a non-primary monitor. The Player is waiting on certain information that follows the signaling of the display change event, but it never receives this information because of timing.

Just got word from WinBeta.org that they've snagged Windows XP Service Pack 2 Build 1213 and it is ready for Download.

Microsoft continually works to improve its software. As part of this effort, we develop updates and fixes to recognized issues and release them for customers. On a regular basis, we combine many of these fixes into a single package and make the package available for you to install on your computers. These packages are called Service Packs.

Microsoft Technet has posted an interview with Rob Franco, from the Internet Explorer team and Brian Countryman, Program Manager in Internet Explorer. The interview goes by the topic Changes in Internet Explorer for Windows Server 2003. According to the baseline at MS IE6 SP1 marks the top mark of IE implementation in "legacy OS's". If this is true for Windows XP too, remains unclear. Read more...

The Register.co.uk reports that Devos claims that Whirling Dervishes has discovered hidden Windows interfaces that are crucial for the development of such applications, but whose existence is denied by Microsoft. Not much change there then, post-lawsuit. These and other interfaces which Devos says should have been part of the API disclosures are used in NSELib, and he proposes to make public full documentation on how to use them.

Remember the performance issue about the patch for Q811493? MS have stated this in their technical section in the bulletin:

Microsoft re-issued this bulletin on May 28, 2003 to advise on the availability of an updated Windows XP Service Pack 1 patch. This revised patch corrects the performance issues that some customers experienced with the original Windows XP Service Pack 1 patch. Rancho*: The files within are build 1151 now. Hotfix 330909 still contains higher build files 1159. See here for more details.

Microsoft has released an update package to enhance the current functionality of the Layer Two Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) and Internet Protocol security (IPSec) on computers that are running Windows XP or Windows 2000. This update includes improvements to IPSec to better support virtual private network (VPN) clients behind network address translation (NAT) devices by implementing NAT as specified in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFC 3193 and draft-02 of the IETF NAT-T specification. The update also includes additional support for stronger IPSec protection by using the 2048-bit Diffie-Hellman algorithm (Group 14).

Just got word that both MSFN and Neowin have snagged MSN Messenger 6 Beta Build 0250 and it is ready to download!

Just got word that creamhackered at Neowin.net has snagged some exclusive: MSN Messenger 6.0 Build 0250 screenshots.

All in all this MSN Messenger is a great improvement from MSN Messenger 5 and previous versions. The interface is clean and yet allows customization per contact, the audio/video capabilities and file sends are the best yet in any Messenger version I have used - allowing the user to not worry about XP's or even Windows Server 2003's inbuilt firewall. The only thing we were unable to test was the games side of this new Messenger, we recieve an error message when trying to start a game - obviously the servers aren't ready yet.

Thanks to Neowin.net for the heads up! A refresh Service Pack 4 Release Candidate (RC) build is now available to download. The build version is 4.074. Please install, test and submit your feedback at your earliest convenience.

Thanks to Neowin.net ...... DirectX 9.0a is an updated version of the DirectX 9.0 runtime which includes bug fixes and improves performance in the graphics and networking components. There are no new or modified APIs in this release!Whats new/fixed:

Performance enhancement to the runtime texture management in Direct3D. General performance improvements to D3DX Fix for a potential PSGP memory overwrite in Direct3D. Support for anti-aliased render targets added Update for DirectPlay to address some network connectivity issues using some UPnP routers. Managed DirectX Security fix.

Neowin.net sends word that they have a new version of MSN Explorer 8.5 build 17.1202.

Although MSN Explorer 8.5 will be released soon it will not contain MSN Messenger 6.0. The release is designed as an interim release for bug fixes and small improvements, nevertheless a welcome one. MSN Messenger 6.0 will be intergrated with MSN Explorer 9 later this year. Expect major changes to MSN Explorer 9 with a new UI and changes to MSN Explorer and MSN Messenger allowing them to intergrate fully with Windows Explorer.

Thanks to our bro's at Neowin.net for these two news items.

PC Satisfaction is a set of tools designed to secure and back-up important data on your machine, it includes a firewall (an extension of Windows XP firewall) a backup utility and virus protection alongside the online help & support offered by newsgroups and submission screens. Theres also a safety meter that reminds me of the old concept for PC Health on Neptune/Windows ME, but this one goes further and adds a patch service that automatically updates your system with all the available patches (an extension of Automatic Updates).

Read More for MSN Messenger 6.0 and MSN Radio

Microsoft has again silently released another update for Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1. This update fixes an issue when you host a Vector Markup Language (VML) Web page in a localized Web browser control and set the "C" runtime (Msvcrt.dll) locale to the system default, the text may appear scrambled. The update is available for Windows XP and for all other Windows OS versions. It should change vgx.dll to version 6.0.2800.1167 (previous is build 1106). Currently the installer seems to be broken though. FYI I was on a mediterranean island trip for a week, but I am back - a bit sunburned - to bring you all the latest from the web. Stay tuned, yours Rancho*.