Windows XP Service Pack 2 Technical Preview

[Reverend]

Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) provides an enhanced security infrastructure that defends against viruses, worms, and hackers, along with increased manageability and control for IT professionals and an improved experience for users.

To aid IT professionals in planning and testing for the deployment of Windows XP SP2, Microsoft is making available this preview, based on Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of the SP2. Additionally, we have established 11 newsgroups for sharing information.

Note: This technical preview is unsupported and is intended for testing purposes only. Do not use in production environments.

:arrow: View: Release Notes (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/relnsp2.mspx)

:arrow: Download SP2 Preview: English (http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/a/f/5aff45ae-ef27-4821-b666-d2b6530cbe4f/xpsp2.exe) | German (http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/7/9/5791ae7e-4ae4-4e6d-9813-97763a0e8306/xpsp2.exe) (273 MB)

:arrow: View: More Info (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/sp2preview.mspx)

[petard]

Is it me or is this something that you shouldn't really expect from a vendor? Any vendor. I'm reading - "Our product is so bad we need to go the extra mile to save our a$$." Look back and try to recall if any other software vendor did anything to this extent.

[MSNwar]

Thats because no other software developer has "ever" developed and sold a product of this magnitude in the world of operating systems. Not even Apple! Remember, service packs, also provide a path to new or enhanced soft/hardware technologies in addition to bug fixes, etc.

If your automobile manufacturer offered you a service pack that would increase your fuel consumption, enable MP3 on your sterio, etc. would you say no?

[SupaStar]

If your automobile manufacturer offered you a service pack that would increase your fuel consumption, enable MP3 on your sterio, etc. would you say no?

Hey that's a good point :)

[Conan]

I just installed this and all seems well. Some additional security precautions were added to Outlook Express and IE. The built-in pop-up blocker in IE is more sophisticated than Mozilla's. My computer also seems to be a bit more responsive speed-wise.

[SupaStar]

Going to try this tonight...

[EcPercy]

I have the rc1 build 2096 installed and have been testing. I do not agree with the assumption that ie is better than mozilla in any way. I have been running forebird/firefox awhile and appreciate one thing the most. You can right click on images (firebird/firefox) and block them too... ads be gone... lol! I think that sp2 will offer a lot, but I will still not use the default firewall. I don't need it. One thing that is cool though is that you can open ie and go to tools, manage add-ons and see what things have installed in ie. We could really use this where I work since most of the spyware installs itself and you can never figure out where it is.. this feature may help to disable it... The security center is not needed if you ask me. Maybe they should produce a home/pro update having the home version include the enhanced features such as the security center and have the pro version not have everything on by default. Just my thoughts...

[Conan]

I have the rc1 build 2096 installed and have been testing. I do not agree with the assumption that ie is better than mozilla in any way. I have been running forebird/firefox awhile and appreciate one thing the most. You can right click on images (firebird/firefox) and block them too... ads be gone... lol!

It's only now that I became aware of this feature of Firefox. In Outlook Express, I have the options to block images now.