Can Service Pack 2 Make Windows XP Less Secure?
When Microsoft released Service Pack 2 for Windows XP last year, they claimed that its primary purpose was to make Windows XP much more secure. At the same time though, a quick Google search on the words “Windows XP SP2 Problems” will show you that the long awaited service pack has created lots of problems for some people. As reports of various problems became more numerous, I began to wonder if any of the problems that had been reported could be security related. Specifically, I wanted to know whether there were instances in which installing Service Pack 2 for Windows XP could actually make a system less secure than if the service pack had never been installed at all.
What I found after researching my question was that in the vast majority of cases, systems seem to be more secure with Service Pack 2 than without it. I personally run Service Pack 2 on all of my Windows XP machines, and in most cases I would recommend that you do the same. Although I never found some glaring error in Service Pack 2 that completely undermines your system’s security, Service Pack 2 does have its fair share of bugs and incompatibilities. It's these bugs and incompatibilities that can compromise security in very specific situations.
