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Date: Monday, June 21, 2004<br>
To: itpartners@mit.edu, winpartners@mit.edu,
sw-release-announce@mit.edu<br>
From: Deb Bowser <bowser@mit.edu<br>
Subject: Windows XP SP2 Release Effort Underway<br>
Cc: is&t@mit.edu, itag@mit.edu, kakapo@mit.edu<br><br>
<br>
Good day,<br><br>
With the upcoming release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP (SP2) by
Microsoft expected this summer, IS&T has begun the process of testing
and evaluating the Service Pack within the MIT environment. As this is a
major patch for a widely supported operating system, IS&T will be
supporting it. The value we can add is to test and share a list of known
issues to the MIT community. <br><br>
Unlike hotfixes and security patches, we recommend that you wait for our
recommendation and list of known issues and work-arounds before upgrading
to SP2 on production machines and encourage those of you with test
environments to test the service pack once it is released by
Microsoft.<br><br>
In that effort, we would greatly appreciate your assistance in reporting
any problems (and solutions) you have or will uncover with SP2 and the
applications and services you use.<br><br>
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is currently in beta and provides
enhanced security measures that will hopefully improve defences against
viruses, worms and hackers, along with increased manageability and an
improved experience for users. In addition to security and bug fixes, it
will change many default settings to improve security.<br><br>
We will maintain the list of problems and fixes on the Windows XP SP2
Release Notebook at:<br>
<a href="http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/winxpsp2/" eudora="autourl">http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/winxpsp2/</a><br><br>
New Features:<br>
SP2 changes Windows XP significantly. One major change is the
Internet Connection Firewall (ICF) as was previously known in SP1 is now
named "Windows Firewall" and has its own icon within the
control panel. Windows Firewall is on by "default" and
can block outgoing as well as incoming network traffic.<br><br>
Another addition is the "Security Center" to the control
panel. This setting allows users to enable/disable the Firewall,
check Automatic Update settings and inform the OS as to whether you
already have Anti-virus software installed. Preliminary findings
show that SP2 works for the most part on stand alone Windows XP
Professional workstations. <br><br>
You can check out the release notebook for additional information
concerning known issues and their fixes. If you choose to install SP2
before a recommendation is made, please test it on one or two
non-production machines before deploying to more machines. If you
install the beta version of SP2, you must uninstall it before you install
the commercially released version of the service pack.<br><br>
We do not recommend installing any beta software on non-test
machines.<br><br>
Readme for the beta version of Windows XP SP2:<br>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/readmesp.mspx" eudora="autourl">http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/readmesp.mspx</a><br><br>
We will report back our findings in about a month.<br><br>
SP2 contains 300+ bug fixes and security enhancements. A complete list is
available at:<br>
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/relsprc2.mspx" eudora="autourl">http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/relsprc2.mspx</a><br><br>
<br>
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 Release Candidate 2<b> </b>Fact
Sheet:
<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/WindowsXPSPFS.asp" eudora="autourl">http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/newsroom/winxp/WindowsXPSPFS.asp</a><br><br>
<br>
If you have any questions or discover any problems with SP2, please send
e-mail to winxp-release@mit.edu.<br><br>
Regards,<br>
Deb Bowser<br>
MIT IS&T<br>
Software Release Team<br>
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