Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 will shortly be available to the general public, but is it going to be worth the hassle of installing it?

SP2 is a major update to the Windows XP operating system, lots of things have changed and some new things have been added.  But is it worth it?  If you read some of the popular technology news sites you will have read all about the software that does not work after SP2 has been installed - including Microsoft's own software!  The scare stories are certainly dominating the media and may put off administrators from using SP2 on there networks.

So what is in the service pack?

• A new improved firewall that is automaticaly switched on
• A Security Control Center that alerts users about potential security problems with there computers
• A new method for configuring Wireless networks and managing WEP keys
• A completely re-written memory core that will help to prevent the popular buffer overruns that have been used to spread worms across the internet
• A pop-up blocker built into Internet Explorer
• Some Security enhancements for Outlook Express and Messenger
• All the hotfixes and patches that have been released via Windows Update

In my opinion this service pack was designed for the average home user as it seals many of the holes that are left open from a standard XP install.  It also aims to get users more responsible for ensuring there computer is up to date.  The security center is broken down into 3 sections Firewall, Automatic Updates and Virus Protection. When all of the options are activated and Windows is happy the bars turn a calming pale blue with the magic words "ON".  If Windows thinks that you need to enable something, then the bar is displaying in brick red and information is displays telling the user why the feature needs to be enabled.

The Firewall works in a similar way to most other commercial firewalls, when a new application attempts to access the internet, the firewall will display a prompt asking if the application should access the internet.  There are options to allow the application, ask later or block the application.  The firewall may confuse first time users but there is plenty of help available, the firewall also has some advanced optioned so that ports can be opened for games play and P2P file sharing.  The is even greater support for Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), where an application is able to open ports in the firewall without any user intervention (Messenger does this).  The firewall has also stoodup to a Shields Up test virtually hiding the PC whilst on the internet.  The firewall is good, but I would still recommend using a hardware firewall.

So what about SP2 on networks?  Microsoft have also designed SP2 for the corporate environment too.  With networks in mind, Microsoft have released some updated Group Policy templates - there are apparently 609 new options in group policy that control the firewall and other aspects of the new security center.  I think that SP2 will work well on networks, internal private networks don't need to have the firewall enabled, but unlike the old XP firewall filesharing and windows networking protocols are enabled by default so it shouldn't cause too many problems.

The Windows Messenger service has been disabled with SP2, this means that network broadcast messages wont work - this could be a problem to some networks, but this can be enabled again using GPO or local group policy on the machines.

Proof is in the pudding?  Well I have taken the bold step of installing SP2 on my home PC, so far I haven't noticed anything not working, the firewall poped up some messages about applications wanting to get onto the internet and thats all.  I haven't really gone looking for bugs, so we shall see what happens over time.

Should you install it?  On a home PC, yes definately as you will benefit from the extra security, although you may have some problems with games and other applications.  On your network, no not yet.  I would be looking to test it on a few workstations before unleashing it on the entire network.

If you want to find out about more about SP2, visit the Microsoft XP SP2 Support Center

Having used Service Pack 2 for a number of weeks, I  have noticed a slow down of using my broadband connection, especially when P2P software is running.  It turns out that there is a change to the TCP/IP stack that limits the number of half connected tcp/ip connections, when the magic number of 10 half connections has been reached, Windows will start to queue up the the connection attempts, resulting in the TCP/IP stack failing connections more frequently.  This is a good security feature to have on most peoples computers and should not cause an adverse effect on school computers, but if you use P2P, web-radio, instant messaging and over connection intensive applications the restiction will hit you.  The tale tale signs are a new message in the event logs.

This feature was incorporated to help prevent/restrict the poliferations of worms and virus on the internet.  You will be pleased to know that the good people on the internet have already created a hack to remove the limitations from the TCP/IP stack, although you would have throught that Microsoft would have made something available to resolve the problem.  So my opinion now?  Install SP2, most users will benefit from the extra security, although connection intensive applications will suffer a little.