XP SP2 breaks the 100 million barrier

After a rocky start, Microsoft has beaten its target for take-up XP SP2.

When the Swiss army knife of security updates was first released back in August, Redmond announced it wanted the service pack on 100 million machines by the end of the October. By mid-September, when just 20 million had been requested by Windows users, Microsoft claimed that it would make up the remaining 80 million by this month.

And it certainly has made up the total. According to Microsoft's own figures, the software behemoth has cracked the 100 million target and shifted 106 million copies of the update.

Most of the copies have been downloaded by consumers however, with businesses still slow to get on the bandwagon.

For corporate users, likely to be distributing the service pack via Automatic Update, the wait before XP SP2 hits users proper may still be a long one. Microsoft introduced a blocking tool for customers using update management tools that will temporarily halt installation of the pack until 12 April 2005.