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Office 2010 SP2 and SharePoint 2010 SP2 Betas Released

Betas of Office 2010 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and SharePoint 2010 SP2 are now available for testing, Microsoft announced on Monday.

The betas are only designed for use in test environments. An upgrade to the final SP2 versions may not be supported, according to a Microsoft blog post. Few details were provided in Microsoft's announcement, which includes a link to sign up for the beta trial via a Microsoft Connect page.

Microsoft has previously indicated in a support article that SharePoint 2010 SP2 will enable SharePoint 2010 to work with Windows Server 2012. Office 2010 is already supported on Windows 8.

Users of the SP2 betas can expect to see some performance and security enhancements, according to a description available after signing up to use the service packs.

"This service pack beta includes previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack. In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, performance, and security as well as compatibility with Windows 8, Windows Server 2012, and Internet Explorer 10. The service pack beta also includes all the public updates and cumulative updates (hotfixes) that have been released since Service Pack 1. A full list of fixes will be available at the time of final release."

The betas affect a number of Microsoft products. The following server products are supported:

  • Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010
  • Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 Language Pack
  • Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
  • Microsoft 2010 Server Language Pack
  • Microsoft Project Server 2010
  • Microsoft Enterprise Search for SharePoint 2010 (Search Server 2010, Search Server 2010 Express)
  • Microsoft FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint
  • Microsoft Groove Server 2010
  • Microsoft Office Web Apps

Also affected by the SP2 betas are some desktop products:

  • Microsoft Office 2010
  • Microsoft Office 2010 Language Pack
  • Microsoft Project 2010
  • Microsoft Visio 2010
  • Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010

SP2 for Office 2010 apparently has been available since mid-January to private testers, according to a report by veteran Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley. She noted that Microsoft may be planning more frequent updates for Office and Office 365 products, dubbed "Gemini," per her sources.

While Foley has hinted that the faster update release cadence expected to come from Microsoft may do away with service packs, it's not altogether clear that's the case from what Microsoft has said so far. For example, in February, the Exchange team announced a faster product update release cadence but also indicated that service packs will continue to be released.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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