The Pros and Cons of Upgrading Now
Microsoft released Service Pack 6 (SP6) for public download at the end of October 1999. After a week or two, several nasty problems emerged—a Winsock error that, among other things, prevented users from accessing Lotus Notes unless they logged on with administrator rights; an AppleTalk error that generated a blue screen on systems connected to an AppleTalk network server or Apple print server; and a date problem in Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) 3.0's log converter that converted year 2000 dates to the year 2028. Microsoft corrected these problems in SP6a, included an update of winver.exe (the command-line utility that reports the version of the running OS), and released the new service pack at the end of November 1999. SP6a supersedes and replaces SP6 and all earlier service packs.
Many people installed SP6, then removed it a few days later in response to either the bad publicity or the problems they discovered during testing. Therefore, many Windows NT 4.0 servers are still running SP5, and many users have unanswered questions about SP6 and SP6a. Is now the time to upgrade your SP5 systems? With this article's discussion of post-SP6a hotfixes, you should have enough technical input to make that decision.
SP6a Enhancements
SP6a includes a long list of bug fixes for networking problems, closes several security holes, corrects minor setup glitches, fixes a few desktop problems, and adds three Y2K updates. After you install SP6a, you'll no longer need to maintain 15 post-SP5 hotfixes; instead, you'll manage 3 post-SP6a hotfixes and at least 1 security update (which I discuss later). Considering the number of network bug fixes, systems running SP6a will probably require significantly reduced troubleshooting. The Microsoft article "List of Bugs Fixed in Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6/6a (Part 2)" at http://support.microsoft.com/support/ kb/articles/q244/6/90.asp provides detailed descriptions of SP6a's fixes. In addition to bug fixes, SP6a offers several notable enhancements.
Encryption. SP6a extends the encryption strength of the standard version of NT from 40 bit to 56 bit, which is more secure and not subject to as many export constraints as the 128-bit high-encryption version. When you install the high-encryption version of SP6a on a standard version of NT, SP6a upgrades your system from 40-bit to 128-bit high encryption. For more information, see the sidebar "Determining Encryption Level and Current Version."
French version. The French version of NT now supports 40-bit encryption for RAS and PPTP, Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) Remote Console, SQL Server, and Exchange Server.
OEM partitions. NT 4.0 Setup now recognizes Compaq and Dell OEM utility partitions, so you needn't reformat the system disk or use an alternative partition to install a fresh copy of the OS.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0. SP6a lets you install Internet Explorer (IE) 5.0 so that IE doesn't create its desktop icon or make the file associations that establish IE as the default browser. If you use another browser or want to disable Internet browsing, you'll appreciate this improvement. IE 5.0 updates are available on the SP6a CD-ROM, not in the download version. To disable the desktop icon and IE's status as the default browser, you must run the IE 5.0 update from the command line.
Print-spooling enhancements. SP6a offers three major print-spooling enhancements. If these improvements work as Microsoft advertises, you'll experience far fewer print-management headaches. First, a print job that hangs on a printer that is part of a printer pool will resume after you resolve the error. Second, print jobs won't queue to a printer that shows an unavailable status—except when the status indicates low toner. Third, when a print job doesn't print within a specific time period, the spooler will redirect the output to another printer in the print pool.
New print drivers. Microsoft has extended the Add Printer wizard to include many new print drivers, including drivers for several Hewlett-Packard (HP) LaserJet PCL 5e printers (i.e., the 2100, 4000, 5000, and 8x00 series) and two Lexmark Optra printers. SP6a also includes many PostScript drivers.
Winnt32.exe and Setupdd.sys
The downloadable versions of SP4 through SP6a don't include NT's native setup utility winnt32.exe or the SCSI driver setupdd.sys. However, service packs that ship on CD-ROM include these files. Winnt32 is a handy tool that lets you perform an upgrade or a reinstall on a running NT system, and setupdd.sys recognizes your SCSI boot drive. You can download setupdd.sys from the NT 4.0 Service Pack Download page (it's the last entry on the list), and you can download both files from the SP4 directory at ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/winnt/ winnt-public/fixes/usa/nt40/ussp4/additional. Although you'll find the files in the SP4 directory, these two utilities operate correctly with SP4 through SP6a.
Download vs. CD-ROM
The CD-ROM version of SP6a contains more updates than the version you can download from Microsoft's Web site. The additional updates include improvements to IE 5.0, the Security Configuration Editor (SCE), Distributed COM (DCOM), Winsock, Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ) files for Windows 9x, additional print drivers, files that let you install RRAS in unattended Setup mode, and updates to Certificate Server and Internet Authentication Service (IAS). You can order the CD-ROM at the Service Pack Download page.
The SP6a Upgrade
You can upgrade your system online, download the 34.5MB update file, or order the CD-ROM from Microsoft. (For more information about downloading SP6a, see the sidebar "SP6a Download URLs.") The sp6i386.exe file expands to 67MB of files, and you need 120MB of disk space for the expanded files and the uninstall directory. SP6a doesn't include the post-SP6 RAS hotfix, so you need to install the hotfix after the upgrade completes. If you're already running SP6, you can update your systems to SP6a by applying the SP6a hotfix (i.e., q246009i.exe for Intel platforms and q246009a.exe for Alpha systems). If your systems are running SP5, you need to download and install the full SP6a upgrade.
After you install SP6a, you'll see the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Hotfix\Q246009\Installed = 1 Registry key. After you upgrade, you might want to verify that this key is present; it won't exist if your system is running an earlier service pack.
Potential Installation Roadblocks
When you reboot after installing SP6a on a system running Microsoft Exchange Server, the messaging server might initiate a full index recalculation. If you interrupt the index operation, Exchange Server might corrupt the database it's processing. When I upgraded my Exchange Server system to SP6a, a long pause occurred after I logged on (and before the desktop appeared), and I found several sets of Exchange Server recalculation events in the Application Event Log (i.e., Category of Table/Column and Event IDs 174 and 175). These log entries indicate that Exchange Server cleaned up the Public and Private stores and the Directory Store. If your Exchange server has a large database, this cleanup operation can add 15 minutes to 1 hour or more to your upgrade time, as well as slow mail delivery. So be sure you allocate sufficient time for the upgrade.