Storage feature pack coming for Windows
NEW DETAILS HAVE appeared about the future availability of a new feature pack for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008.
The 'Windows Feature Pack for Storage' has been in beta testing for a while, but has now appeared on Microsoft Connect.
This was spotted by Mary-Jo Foley who has received excited beta tester feedback.
We're not sure there's that much to get excited about.
The three main features available in the beta are as follows:
Active Storage Platform: This pre-release package enables Windows to restrict access to portable devices (such as a USB flash dongles) via a certificate or password authentication
Image Mastering API update for Blu-Ray media: This feature enables Windows to do master style optical burning on Blu-Ray media
Smart Card Driver: Provides support for new form factors, such as ICCD/CCID
Unlike Service Packs which generally bundle a set of fixes and security patches, feature packs are intended to deliver additional functionality between Windows releases.
Microsoft has previously released the 'Wireless Vista Feature Pack' in July, available here. ยต
Share this:
ShareBusiness Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
How about updating XP to support sidescrolling mousewheels natively, like vista does, it's so childish to not put such things in XP, or are they going to claim 'it's not possible' like with DX10? pfft
I'm bloomin well excited - being able to protect systems against malware on USB flash devices without either disabling USB completely, disabling USB storage devoces completely (via permissions on the USB storage driver file) or buying expensive software is a BIG THING.

And it only took them half a decade to address this slight design flaw.

Woo hoo!! :o)
You are right, it's impossible with XP as XP is old.
Those morons at Redmond understand 1 thing and that's marketing.
They can't make a descend OS and keep it alive and improve it.
No if you believe them, they create a new OS from scratch all the time.

Yeah right....Vista is simply a fucked up XP, just like ME is a nessed up W98.

Don't they ever learn? Probably not.
...no autorun for USB flash drives?

Pass.
These feature packs are only avaliable through an OEM... as stated in the KB. The more interesting feature pack is the Media Center TV Pack which allows native QAM and improved TV tuners support.
How about making these "Ultimate Extra's" for those of us stupid enough to buy the Ultimate version. I still feel ripped off on that front Microsoft.