Windows XP Service Pack 2: "A victory for the security guys"
Microsoft has hailed Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) as a "victory for the security guys" and its new features have been welcomed by users at the software giant's annual Tech Ed conference in Amsterdam this week.
A test release of SP2 was issued two weeks ago and the final version is expected to be ready sometime in July, although Microsoft is yet to set a firm date for the delayed update.
At a whopping 300MB, the Windows XP update is being touted by Microsoft as another step towards its goal of 'trustworthy computing'. The security enhancements were demonstrated to developers at Tech Ed this week.
Steve Riley, product manager in Microsoft's security business unit at Redmond, acknowledged that SP2 has taken longer than expected to pull together.
"It takes time to finally get this stuff right," he said.
He nicknamed SP2 "Shorthorn" in reference to some of the features that have been added in from the development of Microsoft's next major version of its operating system, codenamed Longhorn.
