Windows Update Will Be Late, Microsoft Says

12 Jul, 2004 at 10:31am ET Article published in Tech

Microsoft said Monday that the long-awaited update of Windows XP will be sent to manufacturing in August, a month later than expected.

Windows XP Service Pack 2, or SP2, will contain a number of new features. Most of the improvements deal with security. One new feature, for example, is a Security Center that provides a view of a PC’s key protection settings. An improved firewall and other tweaks are also planned. This is the second time that Microsoft has delayed SP2, which was originally expected in June. Earlier this year, Microsoft said that the update would be delayed until July.

Source: C|Net

Comments

12 Jul 2004 ~ 2:38pm edcentric So unexpected ............
12 Jul 2004 ~ 2:44pm Leonardo

a Security Center that provides a view of a PC's key protection settings

That could be a very convenient feature - much more efficient (perhaps) than manually opening the menus at different places. But of course, those security settings aren't so important for me any more- Mozilla has been a good step forward in computer security for my home systems.
13 Jul 2004 ~ 5:17am EyesOnly Does this mean more trouble for people not using ICF or will it be disabled as easily then as now. Hope so because i don't want 2 firewalls contending in my rig. The one in my router is working just fine.
13 Jul 2004 ~ 10:43am Spinner

EyesOnly wrote:

Does this mean more trouble for people not using ICF or will it be disabled as easily then as now. Hope so because i don't want 2 firewalls contending in my rig. The one in my router is working just fine.

It is even easier than before to disable, it's just on by default this time. You have nothing to worry about mate.
13 Jul 2004 ~ 10:56am TheBaron

EyesOnly wrote:

Does this mean more trouble for people not using ICF or will it be disabled as easily then as now. Hope so because i don't want 2 firewalls contending in my rig. The one in my router is working just fine.

its also been greatly improved upon - its no longer ICF, but now Windows Firewall, with application filtering, among other things
13 Jul 2004 ~ 3:49pm FAH_WW XP SP2 has one massive problem however which is especially annoying for me due to the location of my PCs.

When you update to SP2, the Firewall gets enabled. This of course blocks remote desktop. That therefore means you have to have physical access to the box to disable the firewall again... Oh joy.

Now no doubt you can push this onto a machine regardless and do something to stop it, but I haven't found anything as yet..
13 Jul 2004 ~ 4:07pm gibbonsl that kinda make sence

needing access to the machine, to disable the firewall, to get remote access to it
13 Jul 2004 ~ 4:34pm Thrax I don't care how long it takes to release. It means Microsoft is spending more time on something, and isn't that what most people have been asking for?