Microsoft Exchange Server is the premier enterprise messaging server solution in the market. Exchange was added to Microsoft’s product line in April 1996 with the release of Exchange Server 4.0. Exchange Server really was a convergence point for the migration of Microsoft’s internal messaging system and their retail PC Messaging product.
Internally, Microsoft was using a legacy Xenix system for their e-mail; however, with Microsoft growing and really a need to move to a homegrown solution, Microsoft developed what became Exchange Server. Concurrently, Microsoft had a commercial product by the name of MSMail, which evolved from the purchase of a product called Network Courier from a Vancouver company. When sufficient bugs were worked out and scalability issues somewhat addressed, Exchange Server 4.0 was released. Work on improving the product has not stopped since then as shown in the Exchange Server Release table shown as Table 1.
Table 1 - Exchange Server Releases
|
Release Version
|
Release Date
|
KB Article
|
|
Exchange 4.0 RTM
|
April 1996
|
-
|
|
Exchange 4.0a RTM
|
August 1996
|
-
|
|
Exchange 4.0 SP1
|
May 1996
|
-
|
|
Exchange 4.0 SP2
|
August 1996
|
-
|
|
Exchange 4.0 SP3
|
November 1996
|
-
|
|
Exchange 4.0 SP4
|
April 1997
|
-
|
|
Exchange 4.0 SP5
|
May 1998
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.0 RTM
|
March 1997
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.0 SP1
|
June 1997
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.0 SP2
|
February 1998
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.0 SP2 RU
|
January 2004
|
KB834130
|
|
Exchange 5.5 RTM
|
November 1997
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.5 SP1
|
July 1998
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.5 SP2
|
December 1998
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.5 SP3
|
September 1999
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.5 SP4
|
November 2000
|
-
|
|
Exchange 5.5 SP4 RU
|
November 2004
|
KB841765
|
|
Exchange 2000 RTM
|
October 2000
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2000a RTM
|
January 2001
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP1
|
July 2001
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP2
|
December 2001
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP3
|
August 2002
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP3 RU
|
March 2003
|
KB815452
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP3 RU
|
September 2003
|
KB824282
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP3 RU
|
April 2004
|
KB836488
|
|
Exchange 2000 SP3 RU
|
August 2004
|
KB870540
|
|
Exchange 2003 RTM
|
October 2003
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2003 SP1
|
May 2004
|
KB843363
|
|
Exchange 2003 SP2
|
October 19, 2005
|
KB906669
|
|
Exchange 2007 RTM
|
December 8, 2006
|
-
|
|
Exchange 2007 RU1
|
April 18, 2007
|
KB930809
|
|
Exchange 2007 RU2
|
May 9, 2007
|
KB935490
|
|
Exchange 2007 RU3
|
June 29, 2007
|
KB935999
|
|
Exchange 2007 RU4
|
August 2007
|
KB940006
|
|
Exchange 2007 RU5
|
October 26, 2007
|
KB941421
|
|
Exchange 2007 RU6
|
February 22, 2008
|
KB942846
|
|
Exchange 2007 SP1
|
November 29, 2007
|
KB946138
|
|
Exchange 2007 SP1 RU1
|
February 28, 2008
|