| Author |
Microsoft Windows xp SP2 (Review) |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
PM, WWW
|
The wait for a long-promised security fix is finally over. Today, Microsoft announced the release of SP2, which it expects to make available at its Download Center by Monday. The company will roll the service pack out to its Windows Update service later in the month. Boxed retail versions of Windows XP with SP2 are expected to hit store shelves by the end of October.
We suggest you update your PC with SP2, since it promises to make your Windows XP Home or Pro system more secure and give you better control over your security settings. And we recommend you use Windows' built-in update system to do the update. You can get the update more quickly if you seek out the download from Microsoft's site, but by waiting for the automatic update (it might be a few weeks), you give Microsoft time to fix its fixes, if need be.
Upside: SP2 will protect your PC better against intruders and unwanted software than past versions of Windows did. The new Windows Firewall replaces the old Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) and is turned on by default. In our experience with a beta version of SP2 (Release Candidate 2), Windows Firewall was more vigilant than ICF in blocking unwanted programs, though sometimes a bit too vigilant. For example, Windows Firewall blocked programs that had legitimate reason to access our test system, such as ActiveSync software for a Pocket PC. Thankfully, you can easily make exceptions from the Control Panel to allow through programs you know and trust.
Windows XP SP2 makes improvements to Internet Explorer, too, including a long-overdue pop-up ad blocker. Like the new Windows Firewall, IE's pop-up blocker is turned on by default--part of what Microsoft is calling its new "shields-up" defense for Windows XP. Similarly, SP2 questions e-mail and IM attachments more rigorously and warns you against opening suspicious file types such as executables (EXE files).
One-stop shopping: the new Security Center gives you control over your PC's security settings from a single, easy-to-use interface.
SP2 also introduces the Security Center, which organizes all of SP2's myriad security features and provides a snapshot of your system's firewall (either Microsoft's or a third party's), Automatic Updates, and third-party antivirus app. The center keeps you abreast of the status of each security tool and alerts you to any needed updates.
The new Automatic Updates feature gives you more say on how and when to download and install updates from Microsoft's Windows Update service.
Windows XP's Automatic Updates feature gets a few tweaks of its own in SP2. You now get four options for how you'd like to receive updates from the Windows Update service: download and install immediately, download and wait for you to initiate the installation, just alert you to updates available for download, or turn it off completely. Microsoft hopes that this more flexible control will encourage more people to use Automatic Updates to install the latest patches.
There's also an update to Outlook Express that lets you block images from HTML e-mail, which will be helpful in blocking pornographic images sent as spam. It will also keep spammers from identifying an active e-mail address whenever such images are downloaded from the spammer's server.
Other SP2 goodies include Windows Media Player 9.0, Bluetooth Client 2.0, DirectX 9.0b, and a new wireless LAN client with an improved interface. In addition, tablet PC users who download SP2 will receive the latest OS for such devices: Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. Similarly, SP2 will upgrade first-generation Media Center PCs with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004.
Downside: For one thing, this service pack is late. Had it arrived just three weeks earlier, the world may have been spared damage from Sasser and other viruses. And the download isn't small. For someone who hasn't downloaded a Windows update for eons, the file can top off at 270MB, but Microsoft estimates that most downloads (for folks who have been good about running Automatic Updates) will come closer to 100MB.
As with any service pack, we wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of compatibility issues between SP2 and some apps already installed on your PC. Microsoft assures us it's doing everything it can to combat app compatibility issues, but we suggest exercising caution and waiting a few weeks to see if there are any major problems with SP2 before installing it.
You're likely to experience a wait for the service pack anyway. Microsoft is encouraging everyone to enable Automatic Updates (if you haven't already done so) and wait to be asked to upgrade to SP2. The company estimates that it will roll its updates out over the course of a couple months. (We suspect that if every Windows XP user rushed to Microsoft's Download Center at once, Microsoft's servers might catch fire and explode.)
Outlook: What's not to like? Microsoft Windows XP SP2 is a free download and fixes many security concerns that Windows XP users have. We see no reason why you shouldn't join the rest of us in the queue for SP2. We wouldn't rush to download it from Microsoft's Web site; it would be better to wait until the company has had a couple weeks to identify any major problems. By the time the offer for SP2 arrives via Automatic Updates, however, Microsoft should have a handle on any problems that crop up. Also, with Longhorn not likely to debut until 2007, if you are running an older version of Windows, now might be the time to switch to XP.
[addsig] | |
|
thebman919
Joined: Feb 15, 2004
Posts: 140
From: Limassol, Cyprus, My Computer
PM |
Well its about bloody time! I really cant wait 4 it to be avaiable on windows update though ill just download as soon as it comes out  and theyre finally adding the bluetooth support  no more com ports and wotnots  |
marceta
Joined: Mar 08, 2004
Posts: 394
PM |
yay, the fall of the com port! |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
PM, WWW
|
From today home users will be able to get hold of Microsoft's long-awaited update for Windows XP.
The version of the SP2 security update for the Home Edition of XP has become available via its auto-update service.
However, users of XP Professional Edition must wait until 25 August to get a version intended for them.
Users who prefer to get a CD of the key update may have to wait a few weeks because the software was only recently released to disc manufacturers.
[addsig] |
themarques
Joined: Jan 26, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: London, Tokyo,
PM |
Personally anything M$ is never full proof, I mean come on the day they announced that they were to release SP2 the hackers had already created a patch, that alot of people have already SUCESSFULLY INSTALLED.
P.s I have used the BETA version of longhorn and thas even worse and a very long wait away. I believe its sometime next year, and according to Mr Jobs the new OSX will incoperate everything that Longhorn is trying to do and better. |
mince-inside
Joined: May 09, 2004
Posts: 452
From: Made in Alnwick living in Scot
PM |
Great... I'm looking forward my customers starting to installing it themselves then stuck as we're gonna need port 23 (telnet) and 138 139 for Samba open to allow them to login/browse to their UNIX servers.
- oh the joy of a Windows client
|
Jools
Joined: May 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
Microsoft has released a list of about 50 games and other packages that clash with Windows Firewall, which SP2 turns on by default. More seriously, it has released a list of 210 applications that "behave differently" after users install Win XP SP2. The list of applications with compatibility problems with Win XP SP2 includes games (e.g. Unreal Tournament), security packages (e.g. McAfee VirusScan 7) and even some flavours of Microsoft's own Office applications.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=842242
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=884130
Meanwhile, eBay has warned users that SP2 breaks some of its applications. Elsewhere, German security firm Heise Security has reported a pair of possible vulnerabilities in SP2's bolstered security defences. Microsoft says these bugs are not a security threat, but it has already had to issue a fix to resolve a separate bug with SP2. So SP2 has already been patched ahead of its widespread availability. ®
So, looks like Microsofts bug-testing department are still on holiday as usual!!! |
mince-inside
Joined: May 09, 2004
Posts: 452
From: Made in Alnwick living in Scot
PM |
ho hum
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];884020
|
Jools
Joined: May 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
PM |
Windows XP SP2 here:
http://www.microsoft.com/down[....]45-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
...if you really want to install it!! |
axxxr
Joined: Mar 21, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Londinium
PM, WWW
|
Key Windows update fully rolls out:
Computer giant Microsoft has fully rolled out its crucial security update to computers running its Windows XP.
Last week, it "soft launched" Service Pack 2 (SP2) security update, making it available for some home users but not all, through its auto-update service.
But from Wednesday, PCs running XP's Home and Professional software will be able to get the auto-update.
The update is supposed to provide more protection against malicious viruses and make it easier to manage security.
The SP2 update, Microsoft said, should make it harder for virus writers and malicious hackers to compromise a computer's operating system.
It makes some changes to the way XP works, but also lets PC users monitor and adjust security setting from one place.
A Microsoft spokesperson told BBC News Online that it was a "major and significant security update for Windows" and that it was essential PC users running XP updated their software
He said it meant 100 million would be automatically updating systems.
Extra features
"We have improved web browsing experience in Internet Explorer," he said: "It now has a pop-up blocker by default.
"Also some sophisticated work in Internet Explorer has been done so it is impossible to write windows that hide behind others."
This is often a ploy used to deposit spyware onto and malicious code onto people's machines without them realising.
He stressed it was crucial that XP users, business and individual home users, switched on their auto-updated so that machines could download SP2.
At 80Mb, it is a large file to get for many; on broadband speeds, it could take over an hour. Dial-up customers would need longer.
But, said the spokesperson, added features to the software meant that users could start the download, and "forget about it".
"Service Pack 2 will be downloaded in the background; it is aware of how much bandwidth you have so if you are in the middle of downloading e-mail it will let you do that," he said.
"We have also enabled a check point restart which means if you break the connection in the download, it remembers how far you got."
The SP2 update for those using the Home Edition of XP was made available last week as a "trial", said the spokesperson, but Microsoft did not make it available automatically to all until Wednesday.
The corporate version of XP was delayed because many large networks wanted more time to prepare for the disruption to other programs the updates might have caused.
SP2 can also be ordered on a CD or found on cover CDs with some consumer technology magazines.
_________________
<<<+TIMELINE+>>>
[ This Message was edited by: axxxr on 2004-08-25 18:54 ] |
mince-inside
Joined: May 09, 2004
Posts: 452
From: Made in Alnwick living in Scot
PM |
Just installed SP2 on home PC and happy to say nothing staggering to report. I can telnet and ftp into customers machines OK so no TCP port hassles!
Only noticed a new systray icon and frontend for wireless networks so far.
|
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
I've only noticed two problems in the week I have been running SP2
the first is windows messenger. Whereas it used to to tell me how many new hotmail messages I have for the passport I have signed into windows messenger with, not it doesnt display that and indeed there is no email option above the list of friends etc. Further, the option on one of the menus to go to my inbox now takes me to my outlook inbox!
I have read a few people complaining about that but so far no solution
the second is that my vaio has built in wifi and now when I turn on on resume from suspend etc and have the wifi switch off, it always gives me a system tray message telling me that my wifi is off!
|
Ayush
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Hyderabad, india
PM |
I think you've to separately install the email add on.
This message was posted from a T610 |
masseur
Joined: Jan 03, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Sydney, London
PM |
yes, thats what you normally do and indeed previously, as soon as you first clicked the email option above the list of friends etc it would ask you if you want to install the add-on.
I did have that installed prior to SP2 but now there is not even an option to click like there used to be and there is nothing in the settings or options that lets you actually specifiy whether you want your inbox to be considered as your outlook inbox or your hotmail inbox
|
Ayush
Joined: Sep 12, 2003
Posts: > 500
From: Hyderabad, india
PM |
Maybe you can download the add on from messenger site? You could try.
This message was posted from a T610 | |
|
Access the forum with a mobile phone via esato.mobi
|
Posted: 2004-08-07 10:30
