Why must my customers update to the latest OS service pack?

[David Henrie]

I am using VB6+SP5 and develop using XP Pro+SP2, and I intend to use either the freeware or standard edition mainly because SocketWrench binds to all adapters, while MS Winsock control binds to the first adapter.

The problem that I have is with the minimum system requirements, which are listed in the FAQ. Why the end-user has to have SP4 if running Windows 2000, or SP2 if running XP? If they don't have the latest service pack, they won't bother downloading it just to try my software, which means less sales.

I am also a bit disappointed that the DLL does not run on Windows 9x especially that Winsock 2 update is available for Windows 95+. A quick test with Dependency Walker under Windows 98 first edition shows a missing import function OpenThread(). This function was introduced in Windows ME/2000. It doesn't exist in Windows 95/98/NT4, so in these OS'es the DLL doesn't load. It doesn't matter if you apply the latest OS or IE updates. However, in this particular application, Windows 2000+ is fine. I can use MS Winsock control for Windows 9x/NT4.

Thank you

[Technical Support]

The minimum system requirements that we list are those for which we'll provide technical support. Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 95/98/Me reached end-of-life quite a while ago. Speaking personally, no one should really be using an operating system -- particularly one that is being used to connect to the Internet -- if it's no longer getting security updates (and not just from Microsoft; the vast majority of hardware vendors don't provide updated drivers that address security and stability issues for those old platforms any longer).

Windows XP SP2 was released over 5 years ago, and is considered to be a "baseline" version by Microsoft that addressed a lot of security issues with the platform. IIRC, you can't even get current platform and security updates from them until you've at least updated your system to SP2. Windows 2000 SP4 is pretty much the same, where that's considered the minimum release. The only customers that you would run into that don't have those service packs installed are ones that are intentionally not installing high-priority updates for the operating system (and therefor intentionally allowing their systems to continue to run with significant, and well-known security flaws).

What we consider to be the minimum version requirements for a version of Windows is guided by two general policies. First, is the operating system still supported by Microsoft, or has it reached its end-of-life and is no longer receving updates? Once an operating system reaches end-of-life, it's not possible for us as an ISV to obtain support from Microsoft (for example, if we discover an issue related to the TCP/IP stack). Second, what is the minimum version of a supported platform that Microsoft will continue to provide updates for?

Bottom line, if you have a customer that absolutely cannot update their Win2K or XP system to the current service pack, then your application should load and run. But we only test against supported, current systems. For example, let's say you deploy your application to a Windows XP system with no service packs installed, and you encounter a problem. The first thing we'll do is attempt to replicate that on a Windows XP SP2 system. If we can, then we can provide guidance and if it's a problem in our component, work on providing an update. However, if we can't reproduce the issue on a supported platform, then we can only advise you to update the operating system. I hope that clarifies things.