Servicing plans for VS 2003 and VS 2005

Today has been a big day, with the official launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.

We've seen some questions today in blogs and forums about our servicing plans for VS 2003 and VS 2005, and I thought it would be a good idea to communicate them here.  We use "hot fixes" to address time-critical issues, and periodically release service packs that have multiple fixes.  By having the combination of these methods, we hope to provide timely fixes for critical issues and also make it easy for customers to deploy fixes broadly.

We have plans for two service pack releases for the first part of 2006:

• VS 2003 SP1 is scheduled for April 2006.  We have done much of the work for this release already, and are anxious to get it to you.
• VS 2005 SP1 is scheduled for the first half of 2006.  We will be more specific about the date in a few months, once we have more customer data.

--Scott

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Will this include the Express editions?

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Thank you. Very much... I'm glad MS decided to address these issues sooner rather than later. Thanks for listening to your users.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  When will VS.Net updates be available over MS Update?

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Thanks!
  
  It's great to see Microsoft committing to something that's obviously an issue in the industry.
  
  With that committment to Whidbey, I think I might reconsider my planned "embargo" on Visual Studio 2005. Hopefully my C# adventures will be less turbulent in 2006.
  
  Sincerely appreciated this entry from you.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Hi Scott,
  
  Do you also know when .NET 1.1 SP2 is scheduled for release?
  
  Cheers,
  Matt

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Great news about the SP:-) thanks!

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Microsoft will release VS 2003 SP1 when??? 3 (THREE) years after its release!?
  
  The SP strategy needs serious revising at Microsoft. I remember the days of Windows NT and Visual Studio 6 and they were the days of REGULAR Service Packs. A service pack delayed like those for VS 2003, Windows XP and so on does NOT gives much value to customers. Just because it is too late. I have already swallowed the bugs in VS 2003 and I just acept them. You even cannot persuade me that they will be fixed some day ... Can you guess why? Because in April 2006 I will be using VS 2005, I won't even try to istall a SP1 just to throw away 15 mins or so...
  That's from me. I hope the author will read it.

• Anonymous
  November 07, 2005
  Finally! I welcome this, I really do. Reminds me of the good old days of VS prior to version 7 (aka .net).
  
  However, we have to wait until the middle of next year for a VS 2003 service pack? I don't really understand this, bearing in mind how long VS 2003 has already been out. I work in a bank where the standard desktop is updated at about the speed of a glacier moving over a mountain. We won't be moving to VS 2005 until the rollout of XP service pack 2 and .net fx 2. Which won't be for a very long time. So I guess I'm stuck with the VS2003 bugs for the best part of another year. Sigh.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2005
  Service packs! Thank you! I really think that Visual Studio need an Update feature much like Windows and Office have been given. This would be an IDEAL way to send out updates and fixes in a fast-paced manner. Please consider this.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2005
  Thanks for listening to everyone, dev's and mvps, on this, except for that whole part where WE BEGGED FOR ANOTHER BETA.
  
  
  

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2005
  > except for that whole part where WE BEGGED FOR ANOTHER BETA
  Well those of you who wanted another Beta can consider RTM to be Beta 3. When SP1 comes out you can consider this as the "real" RTM. I expect the final version of Team Foundation Server and DSL Toolkit will require some updates to VS 2005, so I would expect the SP1 release to coincide with their release.

• Anonymous
  November 08, 2005
  Soma just posted a long blog entry (http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2005/11/08/490694.aspx) discussing our future work, including servicing plans for VS 2005.
  
  He is more general in his specification of SP schedule than I was above. As we get more feedback and do more work, I am sure we will be more specific about the schedule. As Soma said, "As we get more mileage on the product usage in your production environment and get your feedback, we will firm up our plans here."
  
  I apologize for any confusion.
  
  --Scott

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2005
  Are there any plans for a service pack for the 2.0 framework itself? There are framework issues (in particular with ASP.NET) which were either postponed or "too late to investigate" when reported through the product feedback center.
  

• Anonymous
  November 09, 2005
  I can only second what others have said.
  Releasing SP1 for VS 2003 THREE years after the product launched is ludicrous. I'd periodically seen at kbalertz and other places all of these patches for VS 2003 and they are still not readily available. This is ludicrous. Why on earth have Microsoft withheld supporting VS 2003 for so long?
  I agree with others, the way in which VS prior to .Net got lots of support from Microsoft in terms of timely updates was a lot better, even if VS 2003 is a good tool.

• Anonymous
  November 10, 2005
  I don't see what the confusion is; why would MS release a free SP when they can charge us on a per-hotfix basis so we can get our work done?

• Anonymous
  November 23, 2005
  Is it possible to have both VS 2003 and VS 2005 installed on the same system ?

• Anonymous
  November 23, 2005
  Why isn't it posible to fix BUGs per-hotfix basis? VS2003 and VS2005 have bugs which make the IDE hardly useable.
  The code-generation does not work properly, the designer shows errors after replacing a referenced library (still under development in another solution).
  Somtimes I rue to choose VS2003 or VS2005.

• Anonymous
  November 29, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 07, 2005
  I couldn't agree more. Requiring us to make a phone call to obtain a hotfix is EXTREMELY frustrating. VS 2005 service pack 1 and VS 2003 service pack 1 is being released around the same time? this doesn't make sense to me.
  
  I don't understand why the hotfixes need to be controlled. why does it need to be "rolled up" to a service pack before it's released? is it because it requires more testing? (as a service pack?).. if we have the option to install and rollback a hotfix, then let US test it for you!. It's probably better than living with "process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process" and having our code build fail. I don't want to speak for everyone but I am willing to bet most developers are willing to try/test it for you. As someone mentioned, we are not MS Office customers. We are developers! Let us work with you to get these issues resolved! Call it "Hotfix labs" if you have to. =)
  
  IMHO

• Anonymous
  December 07, 2005
  If Not Do Something ASAP
  Microsoft("RIP")
  End If

• Anonymous
  December 14, 2005
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 16, 2005
  But according to Vierck's Law, Half the software I will Wirte will be no longer in use within 18 months. How do you feel about that?

• Anonymous
  December 23, 2005
  Totally agree with most of the posts here. Release a service pack now is a joke and should have been done a long time ago. As if most developers can ask the people they work for for $$'s to call MS to fix the product unless it's a show stopper?

• Anonymous
  January 09, 2006
  Agreed you should have a comprehensive list of fixes. The product has been out for 3 years and there is only 2 security fixes. A day doesn't go by where i'm not a victim of a bug. You really have to fix event handlers from getting removed for no apparent reason other than switching view panes. You can compile without error causing bugs in production versions.

• Anonymous
  January 24, 2006
  I think we will be spending time and money in Microsoft until we realize there is no SP for our headaches. We can´t wait anytime for this SP. HAHA, good joke Microsoft, VS2003 SP1!!

• Anonymous
  January 30, 2006
  Efter nu at have brugt VS 2005 igennem temlig lang tid er der efterhånden nogle ting der er begyndt at gå...

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 03, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  February 22, 2006
  With obscure compile time errors like "Previous AppDomain was unloaded", the annoying restart requirements...

• Anonymous
  May 02, 2006
  Another random bunch o' links:
  
  A November CTP of Enterprise Library
  has been released.  It's...

• Anonymous
  August 16, 2006
  PingBack from http://www.buayacorp.com/archivos/liberado-el-service-pack-1-de-visual-studio-net-2003/

• Anonymous
  September 27, 2006
  Why does it take Microsoft longer to release a service pack than it take most companies to release a...

• Anonymous
  September 29, 2006
  I just cannot stress how upset I am with the Visual Studio team. Since VS2005 was released, developers

• Anonymous
  January 13, 2007
  Servicing plans for VS 2003 and VS 2005

• Anonymous
  February 14, 2007
  Service Packs for Visual Studio .NET 2003 and 2005

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