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Should You Put Windows XP SP2 Deployment on Autopilot?

I’ve seen reports of people who are shocked! Shocked to hear that there are applications and network configurations that fail to function under Windows XP Service Pack 2. After years of complaining about security problems in Windows, Microsoft finally does the right thing and plugs many of the holes even at the cost of breaking […]

Written By

Larry Seltzer

Aug 12, 2004

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I’ve seen reports of people who are shocked! Shocked to hear that there are applications and network configurations that fail to function under Windows XP Service Pack 2.

After years of complaining about security problems in Windows, Microsoft finally does the right thing and plugs many of the holes even at the cost of breaking functionality of software. I, for one, am not shocked to see them criticized for doing just that. Of course, it’s almost the point of XP SP2 that it breaks these configurations. We shouldn’t be surprised to find issues with Service Pack 2. We shouldn’t take too much time in adopting SP2. But we should test it.

If you’re responsible for a large number of Windows XP systems and you don’t have an explicit test network, you should already have designated a small sample of typical systems as guinea pigs for the release candidates, and therefore the changes in the program should be no surprise to you. Move on to the release code on these systems for final testing and then to a staged deployment.

It’s entirely possible that you’ll find issues in testing. They may not be big problems; the firewall may be blocking a port you use and you might just open it. In other cases you might take the opportunity to rethink an application. I’ve seen one program (DivX video) that breaks on SP2 on systems with support for SP2’s Data Execution Protection, the ability to detect buffer overflows. Their solution? Turn off the protection, at least for their programs. Does this seem worth it to you? In fact, this is the perfect example of the kind of program that will have to change.

Next Page: Why not use Automatic Updates?

How should you deploy SP2? Microsoft has been recommending to consumers to turn on Automatic Updates and let SP2 install on its own. This may be the best way for business networks too. Set up a Windows SUS (Software Update Services) Server, free for those with a license to the Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 Servers on which they run, and use group policies to point the Windows XP clients to it for their updates.

If you’re a network administrator, you should already be testing SP2 deployment. You’ve had lots of time to investigate on the release candidates. The longer you wait, the longer you leave your users in a more vulnerable state than they need to be.

Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer has worked in and written about the computer industry since 1983.

Check out eWEEK.com’s Security Center at http://security.eweek.com for security news, views and analysis.
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Should You Put Windows XP SP2 Deployment on Autopilot?

Larry Seltzer

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