Respectfully, it's been part of Automatic Updates for well over a month now.

I had one server trashed when SP2 installed itself and refused to work with my software firewall driver. The server kept rebooting endlessly until a tech went in and uninstalled SP2 for me.

Also, if browscap.ini is important to you be sure to make a backup of it because SP2 will replace it with one that's about four years old. This was confirmed by my contact at Microsoft as a mistake that's too late to fix so they just issued a KB article about it.

Yes, it's been available since March by download and Windows Update, but now it seems they will be adding this to Automatic Updates, which is a little different.

Q. Is SP2 a mandatory update through Windows Update? [technet.microsoft.com]
A. No, SP2 is an optional update from Windows Update site. After 3 months on Windows Update site, SP2 will also be offered via Automatic Updates (AU). Even on AU, SP2 will not install automatically until the End User License Agreement has been accepted.
Customers who wish to test SP2 for a longer period and would like to prevent SP2 from installing from AU can download and install the SP2 Blocking Tool at the Microsoft Download Center. The tool will ensure SP2 is not offered from AU for 360 days. Organizations do not need to deploy the Blocker Toolkit in environments managed with an update management solution such as Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS). Organizations can use those products to fully manage deployment of updates released through Windows Update and Microsoft Update.

I stand corrected Bill. MS has so many ways to update I lose track at times. I have Automatic Updates service running so I made the incorrect assumption that I got SP2 via Automatic Update. Even though I have it set to download but not install it installed itself anyway. Hence the resulting mayhem with my firewall. :)

heh heh ... no problem ;)

It's certainly easy to confuse all these different methods of getting updates. I had a hard time figuring this one out myself.

If SP2 installed itself was your AU setting at fault?

If SP2 installed itself was your AU setting at fault?

I had it set to download updates but not automatically install them. As it happens I had submitted a support ticket requesting that my NIC be upgraded. The upgrade took place after I went to sleep and I discovered the problem when I woke up. I suspect, but cannot prove, that the tech who upgraded the NIC decided to do me a favor and install the latest patches. That should not happen in a self-managed environment. But once it did he should have stuck around to be sure the server booted properly. I'm suspicious of the tech simply because of the timing and the fact my Event Log had been cleared which is something I never do. My host was kind enough to give me a month of free hosting and to waive the setup fee when I added another server so I was somewhat forgiving.

I had been testing SP2 here at the office and knew it wasn't ready to be installed on a production server. It's still not ready so I'm glad MS realizes it and that you posted that link to the program that will disable the installation of SP2. Thanks. :)

OK, that makes more sense to me now. It does sound like there was a 3rd party at work here. If I had preferences set to download and not install (as I usually do) it would be quite a shock to find something as important as an entire Service Pack installed without my OK. I also am sure we would still be hearing about something like this in the media if Microsoft pulled something like that.