Paul Thurrott over at WinInfo has thrown up a look at what you're going to get when Microsoft release service pack 2 for windows XP early next year.
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is still due in the first half of 2004, but Microsoft this week revealed exactly what's going into the oft-delayed collection of security patches. XP SP2 will ship with all XP security features enabled by default (what a concept), meaning that the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) will be on, and the Windows Messenger service will be off. XP SP2 will also include new features that will let developers write applications that more safely handle email attachments, and Microsoft will release new versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Messenger that take advantage of this technology. IE will be locked down in a manner similar to, but not as restrictive as, the IE version in Windows Server 2003. The company is also reducing XP's susceptibility to buffer-overrun errors, which worms and viruses commonly exploit, by adding support for new code execution features available on newer Intel and AMD processors.
Behind Windows XP SP2
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is still due in the first half of 2004, but Microsoft this week revealed exactly what's going into the oft-delayed collection of security patches. XP SP2 will ship with all XP security features enabled by default (what a concept), meaning that the Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) will be on, and the Windows Messenger service will be off. XP SP2 will also include new features that will let developers write applications that more safely handle email attachments, and Microsoft will release new versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Messenger that take advantage of this technology. IE will be locked down in a manner similar to, but not as restrictive as, the IE version in Windows Server 2003. The company is also reducing XP's susceptibility to buffer-overrun errors, which worms and viruses commonly exploit, by adding support for new code execution features available on newer Intel and AMD processors.
Behind Windows XP SP2
