Aug 4, 2004

Windows XP gets serious about security

In this weeks edition well take a sneak peak at the upcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. It’s set for release this summer and will of course include all of the various critical updates and security patches that have been available via Windows Updates, but it will also give us some new and improved functionality in Windows XP, primarily in the areas of security and wireless networking. I’ve been running a pre-release version (Release Candidate 1) for a few weeks and have been very happy with it. Here are some highlights of the improvements.
  • Major overhaul for XP’s built-in firewall. The original was VERY basic but the new one is much more sophisticated and is highly configurable. For starters, it can look at both inbound and outbound network traffic and it will ask your permission before letting certain connections in or out of machine. It’s also turned ON by default now.

  • Includes a new “Security Center” window to give you a “digital dashboard” for many security aspects of your PC. It will show your Windows Update status, firewall status, and third-party anti-virus status. You’ll get a notification in your system tray if it detects a security hole in your system – such as a missing critical update or your anti-virus software has been disabled.

  • Several enhancements to XP’s built-in wireless networking support. The original XP wireless interface was pretty weak but with Service Pack 2 the interface has been much improved and should make it easier to configure and connect to your wireless networks.

  • The first major update to Internet Explorer since version 6.0 was released in 2001. What is the best new feature?? BUILT IN POP-UP BLOCKER!! Sweet! The pop-up blocker is also configurable so you can add sites to your “safe site list” if they have legitimate reasons for having pop-up windows that you want to see.

  • Also improved in Internet Explorer is the way it handles “Add-ons”, meaning all those little ActiveX controls and browser plug-ins that certain websites want to install on your machine that can sometimes cause problems. You can easily pull up a list of these add-ons right in IE and then disable anything that shouldn’t be there.

3 comments:

Cara mengatasi jantung bocor said...


given article is very helpful and very useful for my admin, and pardon me permission to share articles here hopefully helped :

Cara mengatasi mata kering
Obat katup jantung bermasalah
Obat penyakit jantung bawaan
Obat telinga berdengung ampuh
Cara menyembuhkan kolera
Obat benjolan di anus ampuh
Cara menyembuhkan faringitis

giaonhan247 said...

Thanks for sharing, nice post! Post really provice useful information!

Giaonhan247 chuyên dịch vụ gửi hàng đi mỹ giá rẻ, chúng tôi là công ty gửi hàng đi mỹ uy tín hiện nay với gửi hàng đi mỹ bao nhiêu 1kg hay cước phí gửi hàng đi mỹ bao nhiêu, là đơn vị chuyển hàng đi mỹ giá rẻ nhấtchuyên vận chuyển hàng đi mỹ uy tín nhất hiện nay.

Idaho Moving Companies said...

Thiss was lovely to read

Autopilot White Glove error message We couldn't find any Provisioning Packages

I was testing out the Windows Autopilot "White Glove" feature this week.  This is a new feature of the Intune AutoPilot service th...