Microsoft are now wafting the end of the first half of 2004 for release of SP2 for Windows XP under our noses, although rumours are rife that it could be released early in the new year. Along with numerous bug fixes Microsoft are seriously addressing security (security by default) the inbuilt firewall in XP touted using parts of ISA, including enabling it by default and allowing outbound/inbound filtering .Disabling the Messenger service to stop those annoying popups from net send messages. Windows Update is also getting an overhaul to v5 with it also installing critical updates by default.
Something else useful is the overhaul of IE. Whilst MS have confirmed that IE6 will be the last major release of a browser (remains to be seen) with SP2 they’re giving it a number of new features. An Internet Explorer add-on manager will let users view and control what can be loaded into the browser, gone are the days of self installing tool bars and all those nasties that are such a pain to get rid of. If IE crashes as a result of an add on, the user will be prompted to disable the add on. Just like the Google Toobar IE will now feature a popup blocker but the user will be able to allow sites to ‘popup’. Something which could affect web developers is this;
”Script-initiated windows with the title bar and status bar would be constrained in scripted movement to ensure that “important and informative bars” remain visible after the operation completes. Microsoft has made this change to block scripts from positioning Web windows so that the title bar or address bar are above the visible top of the display.”
Microsoft have now released a ‘Change List Document’ for SP2 which is worth a look, HERE
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