October Component updates - almost

If you've gone to the OEM Secure Site to scan for the October componentized updates, you've been both happy and confused. Happy because the releases are out there - confused because they're in a strange format.

When the bits were released, they were released on CD - this means a few things. First, you can order an October XPE Update CD (that's probably not the name, but that's the spirit of the name) from your AR (whoever you got your toolkit from). Second, we can use existing release processes and teams to do the release, rather than me doing 90% of the release work. Third, because this is a new process, there are teething pains we're working out. The IMG file is one of them.

The IMG format is just an ISO copy of the CD we released. If you have a CD burner and software that can recognize the IMG format, you can burn your own CD - pop that CD into your development machine and you can run the update packages from it, scan the documentation, and archive it for posterity. If you don't have a CD burner and software to support it...

We've recognized this as a mistake, and are working to correct it now. However, rather than pull the release down and put it back up once we get the downloads fixed, we're leaving the IMG file available for download until we get the standard EXE/RTF downloads available.

Like I said, these are teething pains - big ugly teething pains. There are changes to our entire release process, from how I hand the bits off to how the web team handles them to exactly who the people doing the work are. We are making sure this won't happen again next time, but I can empathize with those of you affected by the problems we're having this time.