Posted on 09/07/2004 4:47:44 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Reg Review We evaluated the security features of Windows XP SP2 on a test machine, following a clean install of XP Pro with no configuration changes and no third-party software or drivers installed. We installed XP with the NTFS file system, choosing all of the factory defaults, then patched it with each recommended security update including SP-1 (required), before installing SP2.
While we found that there are indeed a few minor improvements worthy of acknowledgment, in particular, some rather low-level improvements that don't show to the admin or user, overall, SP2 did little to improve our system's practical security, leaving too many services and networking components enabled, bungling permissions, leaving IE and OE vulnerable to malicious scripts, and installing a packet filter that lacks a capacity for egress filtering.
The new Security Center utility with its frequent Security Alert popups will certainly give users the impression that SP2 is a security-oriented package, as Microsoft's PR boilerplate promises. However, The Security Center does little beyond warning users that the firewall is disabled, that automatic updating is disabled, or that antivirus software has not been installed. It may look impressive, but the SP2 package fails to provide several of the most important, basic modifications required to run Windows safely on an Internet-connected machine.
(Excerpt) Read more at theregister.co.uk ...
One of my machines is running XP/SP2 and thus far, I have not seen a problem, save one. My printer was blown away on that machine after the upgrade. Not a big deal to add it back..just an annoyance not knowing why it was blown away (okay, too damn lazy to spend the time figuring it out). Other than that...the XP machine is my sons and he hit's the puppy hard with the games. The machine has acted pretty damn well.
great sales pitch for an os when the recommended procedure for an upgrade is a a complete reinstall of the OS followed by the upgrade.
I wonder if that's included in the bogus TCO studies micrsoft puts forward???
I have just recently installed win xp (upgrade over win 2000 which was an upgrade over win 98)
Failure.
So, I defraged the hard drive again, then I clean installed win 2000, and then before I configued anything, installed the win xp upgrade, which I purchased.
I lost my printer, and my scanner, (there are no upgrade drivers for the scanner for xp). The printer I had to hunt down a driver for.
So, after endless hours of windows security patch downloads, I came to the SP2 patch.
It won't even work, it keeps saying my windows is a hack.
thus, I haven't had the displeasure of finding out what is wrong with it as far as firewalls and anti-virus programs go.
If you want a good pop up stopper, just use the google toolbar.
yes, that is another problem. if you shut down, sometimes on restart your hard drive shuts down (like in sleep mode) and your system crashes. There was a patch for that, but it doesn't work.
Go to Firefox.... has that and much more.....
Microsoft has really done a job on itself.... if they have messed this up.
firefox rips...Love the extensions you can plug in on the fly as well..
I dl'd and installed SP2. No Prob's so far.
Article mentions many things that should be dis/un-abled but does not say how to do it. I hate nerd oriented articles. Tell us how to do it or shut up.
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