Microsoft has finally decided to give the corps some light with the release of the first and long-awaited service pack for Windows Server 2003. SP1 includes many of the same enhancements found in Windows XP SP2, fortifying the operating system with a bevy of security updates.

According to the techs, Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003 tightens Internet Explorer security, adds the Windows Firewall and new Security Configuration Wizard and offers customers a "Post-setup Security Update Wizard," which patches any outstanding security holes before a server boots up for the first time. SP1 also adds support for "no execute" hardware restrictions in Intel and AMD chips, which prevents malicious code from running in areas of memory not designed to run programs. Now that sounds like a good startup for all the sad years of insecure computing. However, the question still remains of the pack's compatibility with different applications. Not many would forget the starting days of SP2 for Win XP.

Apparently the SP1 release also provides the groundwork for the upcoming Microsoft's 64-bit Windows releases. And that's not just it; they are also on the run expanding measures to combat software piracy in the form of validating windows systems for legitimacy during localization. Steps are also been taken so that all Windows XP and Windows 2000 users will require to validate their copy of Windows before they can download software from the Download Center or Windows Update Web site. So the piracy lock is finally getting in to the core of the players. But what would be more fascinating is to know how M$ would restrict the one thing that's unbreakable among the sharers; their spirit!

Apart from the main downloading scene, MS has moved forward in the mediaserv platform by offering TV downloads for handhelds just a few months after launching MSN Music. Since the release of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center it has always been a case of expanding the range of downloads and content providers. The scene already has partners like MSNBC.com, MSN Music, MTV Networks Music, Napster and TiVo etc. However the introduction of the new ID system dubbed Info Cards, a big step ahead from DRM, is expected to put the service in a much secure line of usage.

In the middle of all this, they also wanted to give their tiny Good Guy look a little bit of polish by dropping the $500,000 fine put on the Blaster worm kid Jeffrey Lee Parson who was convicted for infecting 48,000 computers with a variant of the destructive Blaster worm. Instead he would have to take up 225 hours of community service in addition to a year and half in prison. Now, I wouldn't be surprise to see a limo parked opposite the road when the kid gets out. Still, this kid won't have to worry about the cash. At least, nothing worse than the fruit fine posed on the recently acclaimed best actress Hilary Swank just for taking an apple and an orange to the Kiwi land.