For corporations, Messenger can be a gateway for viruses and a great opportunity for “WA” (work avoidance). I use Messenger when it is useful, but other times I just put my status to “Busy” or “Away”. #2 Messenger is disabledĪlthough I love technology, I am not a Messenger fanatic. I have heard that Microsoft installed an auto-dialer when they enabled ICF. If you are in charge of the Help Desk at your company, be sure you get some extra support to man the phones the first day this is rolled out. ICF also comes with a new interface, as shown in Figure 1, as well as some new features such as exceptions and ICMP controls.įigure 1: New Internet Connection Firewall interface with SP2 Some of the applications that I have already seen fail with this new security setting include: Virus updates, remote administration tools, and network printing. Of course the failures are expected, since the firewall is protecting the computer from communications on the ports that these tools use, which are ill-intended. The firewall is enabled and there will be many applications, tools, and services that fail because of this. This will change the way that Windows XP functions in almost every environment. #1 Internet Connection Firewall is enabled Of all of the changes, here are the top 10 security modifications that you will soon be experiencing. Some are going to be very visual and take immediate affect, while others will sit in the background helping without you even realizing they are there.

There are plenty of security setting changes in this service pack. The latest release date is scheduled for early August, which is about the time you should be reading this article. We are sitting on RC2 now, which has been out since early June.

The product has been in Beta and Release Candidate (RC) for about a year. Have you been awaiting the new Windows XP Service Pack? Did you even know Microsoft was working on a new service pack for Windows XP? Well, it is almost here and the changes that you will see once it is rolled out should help protect the clients, as well as the entire network.

Visit Derek’s web site dedicated to Windows Auditing and Security Tools, articles, books, forums, and more…

Windows xp service pack 2 support tools