A lot has been written about the Windows XP’s new Service Pack. After having rolled out Windows XP SP2(Service Pack 2) on a handfull of systems and after monitoring them for more than a week this my review of SP2.

Though I had installed and tested the Beta version of SP2 before, the final version is much smoother and the betas I tested.

Security Improvements

Main security improvements to me are

* Improved firewall
* A new security centre Dashboard
* Pop-up blocker for IE

A lot has been said and written about these security improvements. But surprisingly everything seems to work better than any other software that Microsoft has released in the recent years.

The ‘security centre dashboard’ for example was able to interact with my AVG anti virus(Personal Edition) and report that an update is due. I tried it with a couple of other anti-viruses and it seems to work perfectly with every anti-virus.

Now that the pop-up blocker is available by default with IE, those dodgy people on the net will be thinking of newer methods to force their adverts on you. There are already many alternate methods for these adverts. But personally I am interested in seeing, what tactics the advertisers will adopt from now onwards.

Performance Imporvements

To me the noticable improvements to ‘performance and usability’ are

* Wireless configuration
* Bluetooth support
* Automatic updates

I am not sure if the wireless configuration has become easier or not. But XP SP2 seems to pick up access points and signals much better now. The result is faster connections to your wireless networks. Also if you are like me who roams around all the time, then there is a better support for multiple profiles for the different wireless networks you might use.

While it is hard for a person like me, who advocates Linux all the time, to accept the fact that this SP2 is arguably the best piece of software to get out Redmond in recent years, I have to congradulate Microsoft for their work on SP2. However there is still a lot to be done if Windows XP has to stay out of reach of hackers, trojan horses, worms and viruses.

This SP2 to me is the first step in the right direction.