SMS 2003 SP3 is now available for public beta testing. As usual you’ll get the security (I don’t remember any) and bug fixes for the product. Microsoft will also be adding new functionality that results from the Assetmetrix acquisition. This new functionality includes:
- License Reporting: identify installed software like you’ve never been able to do before. No more trawling through excutable audits or relying just on "Add/Remove Programs".
- Software Consolidation: Application audits can be grouped into categories, thus enabling more informed reporting.
- Upgrade Planning: Idenitify key applications so that you can plan regression testing for future application upgrades.
Vista support is added:
- Deploy Vista updates
- Deploy applications to Vista
- Perform hardware and software audits of Vista
The OS Deployment feature pack has already been updated and released so you can actually deploy Vista images usign SMS 2003.
The supported operating systems for this service pack are:
- Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
- Windows Server 2003
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
You can doanload this beta release from the Microsoft Connect site.