More on Window XP SP2

Here are some links for information on Windows Service Pack 2 for Windows XP.:

Post-Gazette
PCWorld
Microsoft
News.com
Ask-Leo
FlexBeta
Microsoft

Help Desk adivses that you run the SP2 upgrade from the free Microsoft CD (see an earlier Blog entry) rather than trying to download it.

New Firefox Browser

Mozilla has released a new web browser called FireFox that Bryan Powell recommends.

Possible security hole in WXP SP2

A Dutch website has identified a possible security hole in Windows XP, Service Pack 2. We have not checked this out, but here it is.

New Windows security hole: JPEG files

This is from the latest issue of the Internet Tourbus:

"Microsoft released a series of patches earlier this week that [hopefully] closes a rather nasty security hole in how Microsoft products process JPEG images. Over a dozen Microsoft products are affected, including:

- Windows XP and XP SP1 [but not SP2]

- Internet Explorer 6 SP1

- Microsoft Office XP [Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage, and/or Publisher]

- Microsoft Office 2003 [Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, FrontPage, Publisher, InfoPath, and/or OneNote]

Long story short, if you have a new-ish computer running any of a host of Microsoft's newer software applications, your computer is probably vulnerable to attack through this JPEG processing vulnerability...even if you have a firewall and an up-to-date antivirus program."

Windows XP SP2 now on CD-Rom

This is forwarded from Patrick Douglas Crispen's very useful Internet Tourbus of September 9, 2004.

"I mentioned back on August 9th that you can get Windows XP Service Pack 2 [XP SP2] either by downloading it from Microsoft or ordering it on a free CD-ROM. The catch was that the CD wasn't yet available.

"But it is now. To order a free copy of XP SP2 on a CD-ROM, just hop on over to either

http://tinyurl.com/6g675

or

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx


"Both addresses take you to the same page, and that last address needs to be on one line. The English language version of XP SP2 is available today, and versions written in other languages will be released over the next three weeks.

"Even if you plan to download [or have already downloaded] XP SP2 directly from Microsoft, I strongly recommend that you also get XP SP2 on CD-ROM. Why? Well, if you ever have to erase your hard drive and start from scratch, having a copy of XP SP2 on CD-ROM will speed up your computer's recovery. Why wait for it to download again when you can just as easily pop in a free CD-ROM?

"I also recommend that you order the XP SP2 CD-ROM today and then put it away until Halloween. DON'T install it. Yet. As I've mentioned in my last few Tourbus posts, you really should wait a few weeks before you upgrade your computer to Windows XP SP2. Why? Well, there are bound to be problems with XP SP2 that no one expects--like, for example, 40 different programs that "seem" to stop working once you install XP SP2 [see http://tinyurl.com/4uvng ]--and I would MUCH rather these problems happen to someone else's computer instead of yours. By waiting a few weeks [or even months], you give Microsoft and the other software vendors time to fix these unforeseen problems.

"You need XP SP2. Just not until Halloween. And when Halloween comes around, I promise to send out a post telling you everything you need to know in order to [hopefully] make your upgrade as painless as possible."

Norton for Macintosh Virus Definitions

A listener reported that Norton for Macintosh Virus Definitions were not automatically updating. We suggested that perhaps the caller had let her subscription to Norton lapse without realizing it. See this Symantic page.

Cakewalk Music Creator

A listener reported problems with Active X and Cakewalk Music Creator. Try this.