Special Edition Using Microsoft Windows XP Professional (3rd Edition)

When you restart Windows after installing the service pack, you will be shown two new screens. The first (Figure A.3) appears before the logon screen, and encourages you to enable Automatic Updates. Unless you are in a corporate environment that manages critical updates in a different way (and in this case you probably won't even have the opportunity to make this choice), you should definitely enable automatic downloading of critical updates.

The choice of whether to have them automatically installed after being downloaded is up to you:

• If you leave your computer on all the time, you leave the default settings in place, and Windows will install downloaded updates automatically at 3 a.m. This will ensure that updates will always be installed as soon as they are available, reducing the window of opportunity for hackers to exploit whatever new bugs have been found. (By the way, Windows will never automatically install a full service pack. You will always be given the opportunity to permit or defer the service pack upgrade.)

• If you don't usually leave your computer on all night, tell Windows to download but not install the updates. You will have to remember to log on as a Computer Administrator periodicallyat least once a weekso that Windows can notify you when new updates are ready to install.

To change the automatic installation time, or to disable automatic installation, you will need to change the default settings.

To learn how to make changes to the Automatic Updates settings, p. 1022.

The first time you log on after installing SP2, log on as a Computer Administrator. Windows will display the new Security Center screen (see Figure A.4). This screen shows at a glance whether Automatic Updates are enabled, whether the Windows Firewall is enabled (and it will be enabled at this point, just after installing the Service Pack, unless you are on a corporate network that uses Group Policy to disable it), and whether or not you have antivirus software that is installed, enabled, and up-to-date.

If you have antivirus software that you disabled before installing the Service Pack, re-enable it now. If the Security Center still indicates that it is disabled, then your virus software needs to be updated to work with SP2. Visit the manufacturer's website for an update.

If you don't have antivirus software, Windows is going to pester you with a pop-up balloon at least once a day until you get some, or until you disable the warning. We recommend that you do get a good antivirus program, and that you configure it to update itself at frequent intervalsout-of-date antivirus software is as bad as none at all.

NOTE

If you don't have antivirus software and you are absolutely sure that you don't want to get it, here's how to disable the annoying daily pop-up warning: Open the Windows Security Center (get there through the Control Panel if it's not already open), and under Resources click Change The Way Security Center Alerts Me. Uncheck Virus Protection, and then click OK.

If you later do install an antivirus package, be sure to re-check this box, so that Windows can periodically check to be sure that your antivirus package is up-to-date.

If you choose to disable Windows Firewall or Automatic Updates, you will get frequent warnings about it. You can use this same technique to disable those warnings.

Now, the Service Pack installation procedure is complete. At this point you might want to make another full backup (onto a different tape or disk file!) and another Automated System Recovery disk. Also, check out Appendix B for a discussion of the changes in SP2.

And, you might still have to deal with some issues with network software.

Network and Firewall Issues

Service Pack 2 differs from all previous Windows service packs in that it changes network security settings to very restrictive values. The new Windows Firewall is automatically enabled, for starters. You may see the effects of this immediately, if you have automatic-startup programs that want to be able to receive network connections from other computers. AOL Instant Messenger and Windows Messenger are such programs. A pop-up dialog similar to the one shown in Figure A.5 may appear.

If this happens, check the name and publisher of the program very carefully. This kind of warning can come from legitimate software such as Windows Messenger, in which case you should click Unblock to let the program do its job. However, the warnings could also come as a result of a Trojan Horse (virus) program that had infected your computer prior to installing the service pack. In this case click Keep Blocking, and find out what the program is.

NOTE

You have to be logged on as a Computer Administrator to unblock programs.

TIP

You can open a Command Prompt window and type the command netstat -ab | more to get a list of all programs that are listening for incoming network connections. (This may take a long time.) This may help you or your network manager find out what type of network service the program is trying to provide.

To learn more about Windows Firewall, p. 840.

For the most part, this kind of pop-up warning does not appear if a system service wants to receive network connections. If you had a service like a mail server, Internet Information Services, or another Web server installed before installing SP2, these services will no longer be reachable by other users on your network or the Internet. If you had a Web server or other network services installed, you must manually make entries to "open" the Firewall so other users can reach the services.

To learn more about opening the firewall for network services, p. 765.

Some services, such as Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop, automatically add themselves to the Firewall list, so you should not need to make entries for these programs. (Remote Desktop, however, will open the wrong port if you've changed its listening port number from the default value of 3389; in this case you will have to manually add an entry for port 3390. See Chapter 18 for details).

Finally, many enterprise applications based on Windows's COM or COM+ networking services may stop working after SP2 is installed, due to tightened network security. Your IT department will have to update this software or reconfigure your computer. Microsoft's TechNet website (www.microsoft.com/technet) contains extensive information on this issue. It's written for software developers and network managers rather than end-users.

If you run into problems after installing the service pack, you might want to check this nice index of Microsoft

NOTE

Knowledge Base articles pertaining to SP2: http://bink.nu/files/sp2kbs.htm.