Companies should prepare for automatic release of Windows XP SP 2

When Service Pack 2 was introduced back in August 2004, Microsoft received strong feedback from IT organisations worried about the impact of new features (especially the security enhancements) made available with the udpated software.

Based on this feedback, Microsoft provided the ability to temporarily block the delivery of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) via Automatic Update (AU) and Windows Update (WU). The tools provided included the ability to instruct the Automatic Update mechanism to ignore the Service Pack update when checking for new patches.

The idea was to allows customers to complete testing and implementation of deployment mechanisms for SP2 - mainly for organisations with a large number of computers. This way companies could plan deployment and minimise network traffic.

The blocking mechanism was made available for 180 days, and on 12 April 2005 this will expire and systems with Automatic Update enabled will begin receiving SP2 via Windows Update. Note that this is also the scheduled day for the monthly cumulative release of security updates.

IT organisations should have their plans for final implementation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 in place, and start controlled delivery now if possible, to avoid higher network utilisation when 12 April comes.