I think whoever wrote the documentation wasn't
considering the reality that the 'different areas of applicability' are
already being separated out in the WSUS Content Database by virtue of the
ability to download either Windows 2000 update or Windows XP updates, and
that there are separate content entries for each platform.
For example, using an example of Q324380 -- there are actually four
packages of relevance here:(1) Q324380: Security Update (Windows 2000)
(2) Q324380: Security Update (Windows XP)
(3) Security Update for Windows 2000 (KB835732)
(4) Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WUS Install)
Package (1) is superceded by package (3), and package (2) is superceded by
package (4). One of the things contributing to the confusion is that package
(1) has defective metadata. The metadata contained in package (1) was valid
for the SUS servers, but is no longer valid for the WSUS servers, because
the "areas of applicability" (re: OS Platform 2000 vs XP) are now separated
in the content database.
The Windows 2000 clients will download and install package (3) and ignore
package (1), the Windows XP SP1 clients not approved for SP2 will download
and install package (2), and the Windows XP clients approved for SP2
installation will download and install package (4) and ignore package (2).
A more practical example applies to XP SP2, and to updates applicable to XP
SP1. During an SP2 deployment, it's likely that SP2 will be deployed over a
period of time to groups of machines at a time. During the period of time of
the deployment, updates to SP1 that are included in SP2, will still need to
be deployed to SP1 machines not yet updated to SP2.
The new logic allows for the client to have intelligence to determine which
updates it needs. If SP2 is installed, then it ignores any updates that are
marked as "Superseded by SP2", while a client on an SP1 client will continue
to download and install those updates until it downloads and installs SP2.
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