MOSS 2007 SP2 Bug

It turns out there’s a bug in the recently released Service Pack for MOSS 2007. I first became aware of this bug last Friday as I was preparing to do some SharePoint demos using Microsoft’s internal MOSS deployment and I kept getting an error message.

It seems that when SP2 is installed, it incorrectly sets an expiry date as though the server were a trial version. So, 180 days after the install of the service pack, the MOSS features cease working and users receive an error message telling them that their evaluation license has expired. The sites, data, configuration and so on of the deployment will be safe, it’s just that users won’t be able to get to them.

Microsoft is working on a hotfix and there is a work around. I know the work around works because our internal SharePoint deployment is behaving and I can now access all my SharePoint demos again – now that the presentation is done.