Vista/Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2)

In December 2008, Vista/Windows Server 2008 SP2 beta was made public.  Yes, it is the first service pack for Windows Server 2008, but it is named SP2 since Windows Server 2008 RTM is really Vista SP1.  In this blog post, I will high light some of the key changes for IIS 7.0 in SP2.  (For more information on SP2 in general, here is the official SP2 site.) 

• Request Filtering Update
• The request filter is now updated to include the following features:
• Requests can be blocked based on query string sequences.
• Rules can be scoped by the file extension in the request.
• It is possible to declare specific URLs that are exempt from filtering.
• These updates bring the Request Filter to feature parity with UrlScan 3.1.
• Application pool identity.
• SP2 introduces a new and temporary account called appPool identity for running application pools.  On the local machine, this virtual account behaves just like a local user account, making it more secure than NETWORK SERVICE by providing further isolation between application pools.  On the network (ie. accessing remote resources), it behaves like NETWORK SERVICE by assuming the machine's identity.
• Custom errors are delegate-able.
• This is something that shared hosters have been asking for since Windows Server 2008 RTM.  With SP2, custom errors are delegation safe by allowing relative paths.

In addition to above, there are several bug fixes, including all the QFEs that we have done since Windows Server 2008 RTM.

SP2 beta can be downloaded from:

• ISO for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64
• x86 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x86
• x64  for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x64
• IA64 for Windows Server 2008 ia64