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        Microsoft Releases SP1 for Exchange Server 2010
        
        
        
			- By Kurt Mackie
- August 25, 2010
Microsoft today released Service Pack 1 for Exchange Server  2010, which previously was available just as a beta.
Most of the features  of SP1 were described earlier, and Microsoft released a beta of the mail  server's service pack in June at its Tech-Ed event in New Orleans. This first service pack features  improved e-discovery and e-mail management capabilities for IT pros. Those  capabilities are enabled, in large part, because Exchange 2010 uses a new  "Exchange archive" approach for e-mail storage that differs from the  traditional .PST storage approach.
For the detail oriented, Microsoft provides a TechNet  library article describing new features  enabled by SP1 for Exchange 2010. However, Microsoft also provided comments  in a blog  post from some of its Technical Adoption Program testers on what they found  most valuable in the new service pack. 
One of the testers of Exchange 2010 SP1 liked the unified  messaging additions, plus audit-logging improvements in the management shell  and control panel. Another favored the ability to share calendars, the cross-browser  support enabled for Outlook Web Applications and the ability to automatically  map shared mailboxes to Outlook 2010 profiles. 
Exchange 2010 SP1, which is a 64-bit application, can only  be installed on hardware running Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 or Windows  Server 2008 R2. The earlier beta release needs to be uninstalled first,  according to Microsoft's SP1 release  notes. Exchange management tools can be installed on Windows 7 or Windows  Vista client PCs. 
Microsoft added a new option with this service pack release  that lets users install "the required Microsoft Windows operating system  roles and features for each selected Exchange 2010 SP1 server role,"  according to the release notes. Users can upgrade Exchange 2010 using a new an  unattended install option, as described in this TechNet document.
The "known issues" associated with this release  appear mostly centered on problems with the unified messaging language packs.  Audio pronunciations of e-mail messages may get flubbed somewhat by the  Japanese and Russian language packs, according to the release notes.
SP1 for Exchange 2010 can be obtained via the Microsoft  Download Center here (a 522 MB download). 
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
        
            
        
        
                
                    About the Author
                    
                
                    
                    Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.