Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Windows Service Pack 2
For those of you that use Windows - which I'll wager is most of you, except for the ones in the art departments - the much-anticipated and oft-delayed Service Pack 2 for Windows XP is finally available from Microsoft. If you're running Windows XP, you'll probably want to get your hands on this fairly soon, although I'd recommend waiting at least a week or two to find out if any major issues arise with popular software packages. Service Pack 2 will also install automatically over the next month or so if you have automatic updates enabled in XP.
Service Pack 2 resolves many of the burning security and vulnerability issues that have plagued Windows XP and Internet Explorer for some time (for a mind-boggling list of security vulnerabilities, click here - it's guaranteed to keep you up at night). The update includes a new firewall that is enabled by default and changes to Internet Explorer - such as a popup blocker - that have been part of competing browsers for years.
Service Pack 2 doesn't really do that much that you couldn't do yourself in terms of protection, but it does bundle it all into one neat package. Whether it will do a better job of preventing attacks from hackers and viruses in the future remains to be seen - Windows is a major target for hackers, and I doubt that will change.
Perhaps a more important question is, How many of you are even running Windows XP? I'll wager at least half of the PCs in this industry run Windows 98 or earlier. Unless you've purchased a new PC recently, there just isn't that much incentive to upgrade operating systems. So while Microsoft's update may benefit some users, there will still be plenty of computers left vulnerable. Continue to exercise caution....
Service Pack 2 resolves many of the burning security and vulnerability issues that have plagued Windows XP and Internet Explorer for some time (for a mind-boggling list of security vulnerabilities, click here - it's guaranteed to keep you up at night). The update includes a new firewall that is enabled by default and changes to Internet Explorer - such as a popup blocker - that have been part of competing browsers for years.
Service Pack 2 doesn't really do that much that you couldn't do yourself in terms of protection, but it does bundle it all into one neat package. Whether it will do a better job of preventing attacks from hackers and viruses in the future remains to be seen - Windows is a major target for hackers, and I doubt that will change.
Perhaps a more important question is, How many of you are even running Windows XP? I'll wager at least half of the PCs in this industry run Windows 98 or earlier. Unless you've purchased a new PC recently, there just isn't that much incentive to upgrade operating systems. So while Microsoft's update may benefit some users, there will still be plenty of computers left vulnerable. Continue to exercise caution....
# posted by Unknown @ 12:23 PM 
