The release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) in August 2004 provided a number of critical security patches and updates – as well as new functionality, setting itself apart from 2002's Service Pack 1 (SP1) update. All basic updates included in SP1 were rolled into SP2's release, giving comprehensive protection against a range of viruses and other security threats.
A new Security Center dashboard, was one of the flagship changes. The facility launched itself automatically to warn of weaknesses in the system (i.e. firewall, anti virus or automatic updating being restricted or turned off). This gave more control for the user and allowed greater management of these critical features. In a related move, Windows Firewall was automatically turned on as its default setting.
Internet Explorer was given added security, for the first time introducing a function that stopped pop-ups and drive-by downloads. In addition to the security-focused alterations, SP2 introduced a number of multimedia updates – including the Windows Media Player 9.
All the above is pretty good stuff – but there were major compatibility issues with existing software on SP2's release. Also, the Internet Explorer updates conflicted with websites using certain scripts (such as Active X controls). There were also questions as to why features such as Trojan scanning and anti-virus were not included.
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