Day: Wednesday 4 August 2004
Microsoft have just published the updated Windows XP Security Guide, which provides several levels of security guidance for customers interested in hardening deployments of Windows XP for desktop and laptop clients in their environment.
This guide includes settings for Windows XP clients deployed in a Microsoft Windows 2000 or Windows Server 2003 Active Directory domain. The document also includes guidance for an environment requiring an extremely high level of security in which application compatibility or usability may be constrained. Finally, it discusses procedures for implementing Windows XP security settings in stand-alone clients.
At last! Windows XP SP2 will be released this week!
Today I met with Microsoft UK’s Windows Client Product Manager who confirmed that SP2 release to manufacturing (RTM) was scheduled for yesterday (Microsoft had already publicly committed to this month). It has slipped slightly, but will definitely be released this week.
Even once RTM has passed, supply of SP2 will be limited until 25 August, which is the date for the launch of the new Windows Update 5 site. Until then, SP2 will be trickle-fed via the Windows XP Automatic Updates functionality, but business users will be able to download the service pack from the Microsoft Download Center.
Microsoft are aiming for 40% business uptake of SP2 within 12 months (and 60% for consumers), but are warning that this is not an upgrade to be taken lightly, requiring all the planning, and rigorous testing of a major operating system upgrade.
For more details on SP2, see the following posts: