SP2 And The Damage Done

The results of a study released last week offered still more proof of just how unenthused IT administrators are about Microsoft's Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP. According to AssetMetrix, fewer than 24% of over 136,000 Windows XP PCs in 251 North American corporations surveyed had SP2 installed.

The study was published only a few days before Microsoft removed the "blocker" mechanism that had temporarily disabled the delivery of SP2. This past Tuesday, Microsoft made it official that PCs must have SP2 in order for Windows XP updates and security patches to be downloaded.

The study did not cite the reasons why IT administrators had not installed SP2 on a significant majority of the PCs in the survey. Was it because the admins, who are so often overworked and understaffed in today's corporate world, did not have the time to do the necessary updates? Were they unaware of what Microsoft says are necessary security features in SP2? Or are they just plain lazy?

After speaking with IT administrators down in the trenches, the answer is "none of the above". The main reason so many IT administrators do not opt for SP2 is concern about the system damage it can cause. This can even lead to the infamous "blue screen of death", when Windows will not even boot up (see Windows XP a Goner? First Aid for your Windows PC for ideas of what to do when that happens).

Microsoft even acknowledges the risk in its documentation for professional Windows users.

"There's already been wide trade-press coverage of compatibility issues discovered - embarrassingly, rather late in the beta process - with Microsoft's own CRM software and the popular Halo game," Microsoft says. "Fortunately, these issues have already been resolved (see the products' respective websites), as have a few other snags with third-party firewalls and other tools. But the lesson remains: IT pros need to be cautious and methodical when rolling out this, or any new software update."

Incompatibility problems are nothing new since Microsoft released SP2 in August 2004, and users have proceeded with extreme caution. For those who have successfully installed it, the issue has often been securing the necessary drivers from peripheral or software vendors to solve the compatibility issues. For the average user needing to get his or her digital camera to work, or to play games like Halo - yes Microsoft's own Halo did indeed have compatibility problems with SP2 in the beginning - all that is usually required is to go to the vendor's site to download the requisite drivers. However, consumer users have reported more serious problems upon SP2's installation, such as system crashes.

For IT administrators dealing with often hundreds or thousands of different PCs, the problem is exponentially compounded compared to the issues a consumer faces. Legacy middleware software specifically configured for a given network often poses particular compatibility issues, and system failures have been reported. For many, the decision to block SP2's installation given the system risks was not a hard decision to make, which also helps to explain the lack of PCs with SP2 in the AssetMetrix study.