Businesses show themselves wary of XP SP2

Despite Microsoft's urgings, research has indicated that over a quarter of corporations using Windows XP are not planning to implement the security-enhancing Service Pack 2 (SP2) this year, with almost one in 10 ignoring it completely.

A survey of 400 UK IT managers found that 28 per cent had no plans to implement the patch until 2005, while a further nine per cent said they would not update at all.

"There seems to be a significant minority who aren't going for SP2 for reasons of application security," Jon Giffard, technical director of survey sponsors LANDesk Software, told vnunet.com.

Those adopting the new service pack gave security as the main reason. Others encouragingly stated that implementing new patches was now standard policy. Of those not using SP2 applications, vulnerability seemed to be the main reason.

"We will have to wait and evaluate the impact," commented one respondent.

"While the security enhancements are welcome, the early information indicates that there are issues, particularly with non-Microsoft applications, which comprise a large proportion of our computing and business environment."

The survey's findings will make grim reading for Microsoft, which has made a particular effort to persuade users to implement the new code.

The company has been working with large partners to isolate any problems and has set up web pages listing fixes for applications affected by SP2.

Giffard added: "Microsoft should be congratulated that they have brought security to the forefront with this patch. It does seem [that], overall, people are paying more attention to security, and that's something that should be encouraged."

Microsoft continues to urge companies to implement SP2. "The software will go on wide release at the end of the month and we would encourage businesses to upgrade as soon as possible," said a spokeswoman.

See also:

Microsoft: Windows XP SP2 downloads 'on target'

Redmond confident of 100 million upgrades by end of next month, despite slow start  24 Sep 2004

XP SP2: the business angle

What IT managers need to know about XP SP2  15 Sep 2004

One third of IT managers struggling with XP SP2

Windows upgrade 'most difficult ever undertaken', claims survey  26 Aug 2004

Windows XP SP2

XP Service Pack 2 provides some security improvements which users cannot afford to ignore, but some existing apps may need to be tweaked to run at their best  17 Aug 2004

Microsoft lists apps affected by XP SP2

Nearly 50 apps will need fixes, warns Redmond  17 Aug 2004

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