This should help solve problems with the Windows Update service, which has proven to be unreliable. IE will offer explicit download links to protect users from accidentally downloading and installing potentially malicious programs, while Outlook Express will no longer download external content by default and better handle attachments, according to Microsoft.įurthermore, as part of Microsoft's efforts to make it simpler to download and apply software fixes, SP2 will install Microsoft's Software Update Services (SUS) 2.0 client. IE will also get a pop-up and pop-under blocker, bound to make surfing the Web more enjoyable, Microsoft said.

In addition to reducing the attack surface of Windows XP, SP2 also provides updates to Internet Explorer (IE) and Outlook Express that are meant to make browsing the Web and receiving e-mail safer. The service, not the same as the Windows Messenger instant messaging client, also contains a serious security vulnerability for which Microsoft provided a patch in October. SP2 will also turn off the Windows Messenger Service, a network administration tool that has been exploited by spammers to barrage Windows users with pop-up messages. Vulnerabilities in RPC and DCOM were exploited by the Blaster worm which wreaked havoc earlier this year. The RPC (remote procedure calls) service will run with reduced privileges and the distributed component object model (DCOM) gets more access control restrictions, Microsoft said. A final version of SP2 is due out in the first half of 2004.Īmong the security improvements are an updated version of the Internet Connection Firewall, which has been renamed Windows Firewall and will be turned on by default, as well as changes to some Windows parts that have proven attack prone. The plans were first announce by Chief Executive Office Steve Ballmer in October. Microsoft has previously talked about many of the security enhancements it intends to deliver in SP2.

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