Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 features surface

Microsoft began private beta testing of Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 4 lastweek, with an expected public release in June. While details were few andfar between last week, Microsoft spoke up Monday morning and revealed somedetails about the service pack, which is far more important than previouslyexpected. First of all, Service Pack 4 will encompass all of the previous servicepacks as well as all of the post-SP3 hot-fixes, such as the Year 2000 fix,and the NetWare file and print services update. This is standard fare forservice packs, which are designed by Microsoft to offer bug fixes, notmajor new features.But Microsoft has diverged from this plan by adding several new features toNT 4.0 through Service Pack 4. First among these is the Security Configuration Editor, a Microsoft Management Console (MMC) plug-in with aneasy-to-use graphical Wizard that allows administrators to configure all ofNT's security options from one place. SP4 will also include support forDistributed Component Object Model (DCOM) usage over HTTP and the InternetGroup Management Protocol, which lets users inform a router when they leavea group. Also included is Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), a featureoriginally slated for Windows NT 5.0. WBEM provides administrators with away to manage data from a variety of sources from one console. Internet Explorer 4.01 rounds out the new features, though the soon-to-be releasedIE 4.01 with Service Pack 1 could be substituted.

Aside from the additions to NT 4.0 itself, Service Pack 4 takes the unprecedented step of updating the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack as well.Released in December 1997, and included with new NT 4.0 packaging, theOption Pack includes Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0 (Microsoft'sWeb server), Transaction Server 2.0, and other new NT features. SP4 fixesnumerous bugs in the Option Pack, and adds new Option Pack functionality,such as user profile disk quotas, a new capability to handle Euro currency,and Fibre storage capability.

"The focus of this service pack is on improving reliability," says JonathanPerera, lead product manager for Windows NT Server at Microsoft. "That's why we're giving it to lots of customer sites and why we'll be beta testingit for about three months."

The best feature in SP4? DCOM on HTTP, says Perera.

"Today, you can do E-Commerce over non-networked protocols. This feature lets components talk over HTTP," Perera said. "So, if you build somethinglike a component-based extranet application, components can work over and through firewalls."

Though Service Pack 4 walks a fine line between standard service packs andoptions packs, which are supposed to add functionality, not fix bugs, Microsoft says this is the last time it will add features in a service pack. In the future, service packs will only fix bugs and new features willonly be added via option packs