Microsoft recently announced that its first 64-bit desktop operating system, called Windows XP Professional x64, will be available in the middle of next month. At the same time the company released SP1 for Windows Server 2003, which is immediately available for download.

The x64 operating system is specifically designed to run on Intel"s EMT64T CPUs, and will support both 32 and 64-bit applications.

"We do not want to force users to have to upgrade to a 64-bit architecture," says Desmond Nair, product and solutions marketing manager at Microsoft. "Instead we want to offer a solution that enables them to grow at their own pace," he says. "With Intel"s EMT64T CPU and our x64 operating system, users can run 32-bit applications and upgrade to 64-bit versions when they need to."

"Users will, however, notice a performance increase when running 32-bit applications on a 64-bit desktop. The 64-bit architecture allows access to terabytes of memory, therefore eliminating the need for 32-bit applications to access virtual memory," he says.

Microsoft does not see Windows XP Professional x64 as a replacement for Windows XP just yet. "Users are still comfortable with their 32-bit systems, but, as hardware vendors start pushing the 64-bit technology, we should see a gradual uptake with the x64 operating system."

SP1 for Windows Server 2003 now available

Microsoft also released its first Service Pack (SP1) for its Windows Server 2003 operating system. "The main goal of this release is to try and align the security aspects with Microsoft Windows XP SP2," says Nair. "In fact our main priority when designing SP1 was security," he adds.

Administrators who install SP1 will notice improvements in three main areas:

* Firstly, SP1 has been designed to reduce the surface attack area. "By this we mean that administrators can assign certain roles to the server. Once a role has been assigned, the operating system will automatically close off all unneeded ports, and will stop unused services, thus making the server as secure as possible," he says.

* Secondly, the company has included Post Setup Security Updates (PSSU). "The time between administrators installing the operating system and the time before all the updates have been downloaded and installed is when a machine is most vulnerable," says Nair. With PSSU however, the machine is ?locked up" from the Internet, and is only ?unlocked" once all the necessary updates have been installed.

* Thirdly, SP1 includes technology that enables administrators to centrally control all desktop computers in that domain. "Changes that would ordinarily have to be made locally at each and every machine, such as activating the Windows Firewall, can now be made at one location," says Nair.

In the first 48 hours after the release, the 330MB update had been downloaded 82,000 times. "Companies that do not have enough bandwidth to download SP1 can collect a free CD from our offices in the next week," concludes Nair.