Win XP SP2

Most Windows releases from Microsoft are followed by numerous service packs, which are meant to fix all vulnerabilities and bugs. Even though everyone installs them, they don't mean much to common users. That's because most updates are highly cryptic in nature, and understood only by power users. This has however, changed with the release of service pack 2.

Immediately after you install it on your machine, you'll start noticing the changes. We've given it on the CD with this issue, so if you're using Win XP, we suggest you go ahead and install it first. Here in the article is a run through of all the new features that we found in the service pack. It's mostly pictorial to help you quickly understand the enhancements and their benefits. 

The focus of this service pack is mainly on security, and the major changes are seen in the built-in firewall, IE and Outlook Express. This is obviously because most security threats have managed to pass through these three elements. Let's take them one by one to see the changes. 

Firewall update



The service pack 2 installation does take a while, as the installable file is 266 MB. It restarts the system after the installation, after which the first thing that pops up is the Windows Security Center. 

The firewall detects all network connections on your machine. So if you have a notebook that has both LAN and WiFi connectivity, it automatically identifies both and starts protecting them. 

Changes in IE 



Two new features can be seen in service pack 2: the Add-on Manager and Pop-up Blocker. As the names suggest, these have been the two most common ways that were used by malware programs to get into your system. Now, with the service pack 2, you'll be notified of any malware programs and malicious scripts that are trying to run on your system. 

Enhancements in Outlook Express



While Outlook Express is probably the most widely used mail client, it's also been the cause for the spreading of spam and viruses, and the new service pack intends to fix these problems. Most viruses and worms come as attachments, which appear as innocent and legitimate mail to ordinary users. Service pack 2 will now monitor such attachments and will be able to warn users in case it finds a malicious attachment. A lot of spam mail comes in because spammers use various techniques to verify e-mail addresses. One of these is sending HTML e-mail with images. When such a mail lands in a user's mailbox, the mail client contacts the Web server of the spammer to download the images, which helps the spammer verify the validity of your e-mail id. Service pack 2 fixes both these problems of virus spreading and spam through an Attachment Manager and HTML Content Blocking feature. You can access both these features by going to Tools>Options menu and choosing the Security tab. Here, you'll find the options shown in the screenshot. 

With service pack 2 installed, Win XP monitors all potential security threats. Note here that the software is immediately blocking an ActiveX control from running and informing you of the same. This is through the Pop-up Blocker feature that can be accessed from the Tools menu of IE. Using it you can define additional settings, change the security level for scripts and identify websites for which you want to disable pop-ups. This is a very interesting part of service pack 2, which warns you of particular programs trying to constantly access the Internet. Most ad-ware and malware programs have a habit of taking you to an unwanted website. You don't need to worry about it after installing service pack 2, as seen from this screenshot.  The Add-On Manager can be accessed from the Tools menu of IE. This shows you a list of all add-on programs to IE, and lets you define which ones you would want to enable or disable

Anil Chopra