It was just a year ago, in fact, that Microsoft was pushing everyone to install the Automatic Updates service to automate the distribution of patches and fixes. Shortly after, Gates and company bowed to the wishes of their corporate customers and instituted ways to delay the release of the patchwork update to the Automatic Updates service that Microsoft has been touting as a major security improvement to its operating systems. It all began when Microsoft released a document advising that 'The best way to ensure you get Windows XP Service Pack 2 when it is released is by turning on Automatic Updates today' (see editorial link below). See the editorial link below for a list of apps that may experience problems.Īnother Microsoft article discusses what to do if an application or service fails after installing SP2 (see editorial link below). Microsoft has released a list of more than 200 software applications (many games, lots of anti-virus and spam-filtering tools but also standard business software such as PageMaker, Arcserve - and Microsoft Office) whose default behavior will be broken by the installation of SP2. What I find remarkable is that this conglomeration of patches is causing more consternation in the tech community than the security flaws the patches were designed to overcome. The uproar and consternation surrounding the release of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP continues.

Windows xp service pack 2