Windows XP Service Pack 2
“An essential update that requires some thought”
As all our regular readers know, we have been making a big thing in recent months of ensuring that our customers keep their windows systems fully up to date. Viruses like last year's Blaster and the recent Sasser would not have got through if everyone had kept up to date with their Windows updates.
At the time of writing this newsletter the latest major update was only available in beta version as a download of greater than 250Mb.
This new major Service Pack, known as Windows XP SP2, is being described by many substantial testers as “almost a new operating system” or at least it should be treated like one. What they mean is that if you have business critical applications running on a business network you should take this new service pack very seriously. There are some major changes and these could stop or alter your current functionality. Now you don’t want to apply a major change like this to all your computers at once, if it causes hassle then your whole business could suffer.
If you are using a stand alone PC or a small home network you may not find any problems, but it is worth finding out the issues before they become critical. What to do? Well if you have a business critical situation you could download the beta version and test it out, or if the full release is available test it on one PC first. Check out www.microsoft.com for the current situation.
Pay particular attention to the way the new service pack interacts with any web based products and e-mail. There is a lot of added security like blocking of certain mail attachments and turning on the Windows firewall by default. Of course turning on the firewall is a real bonus to all the small users out there that don’t know what it is, it gives them some protection where there was none before, but for others on a business network it could cause the system to fail.
Here is an idea of some of the major features in the new service pack:
New Windows Firewall.
E-mail Attachment Manager.
Internet Explorer stronger security default settings.
Data execution prevention helping prevent certain types of malicious code.
Windows Security Centre, this new Control Panel feature allows people to check the status of essential security functionalities at a glance.
Automatic update enhancements.
Centralized management of Windows Firewall and Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer Add-on Manager.
New wireless LAN client.
Internet Explorer Pop-up Blocker.
Internet Explorer Information Bar.
Internet Explorer download monitoring.
Bluetooth update.
DirectX 9.0b, The latest, most secure DirectX® .
Windows Media Player 9 Series.
Windows XP Media Centre Edition.
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Tablet PC Edition 2005.
So, take advantage of this free update, but don’t be caught out by any of the new features.
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