Windows XP SP2: The journey from Redmond to your desktop

Windows XP Service Pack 2 - it's Microsoft's stab at patching its security reputation and three years' worth of work for Redmond. With one million CDs on their way and the Microsoft website prepped for the downloading hordes, it's been a long journey.

The history of its birth and eventual release to the public has been a long one. In May of 2003, XP SP2 was being touted as coming "later this year". Over one year later, it's finally arrived. So what has Microsoft been doing with it since then?

Its first beta of the service pack appeared in December 2003, with Release Candidate (RC) 1 in March of this year and RC 2 in June.

RCs are there for testers and developers to work out the bugs, make suggestions and let Microsoft tighten up the service pack accordingly.

However, it's been a drawn-out process to the final release, with Redmond shunting the update several times, and the word from the Gates camp being 'we're taking our time because we want to get it right'. Even in the days leading up to SP2's appearance, rumours abounded of its delay.

Despite the numerous delays, there's no doubt Microsoft has been throwing all its resources at getting the update out the door and into the hands of pack-hungry users. Other updates to security releases have experienced delays as Microsoft got all hands on the SP2 deck.

The update is huge - several hundred megabytes for enterprise users. So big, in fact, it earned itself the name XP Reloaded. It's not just big in terms of size, it's also a heavyweight overhaul of the security procedures for the OS.

Details of what the service pack will contain are here but in short, it's all about security. Firewall, antivirus software, patching, interfaces - security behaviour in general - have all been overhauled in line with Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing initiative and in light of recent virus outbreaks.

For a release that's taken months to escape the Redmond campus - with some users fighting Microsoft to distribute the update - now it's here, the reaction has been, well, a little on the lukewarm side.

IBM, for one, has advised staff not to install the pack until Big Blue has given it a thorough going-over, for fear that it's incompatible with some of its business critical functions.

silicon.com's own CIO Jury were equally unimpressed, with two-thirds of the CIOs not rating installing the pack as a priority, opting for a wait-and-see policy before rolling it out themselves.

It's a stance has obviously had to get used to. For those who want to take their updates at a more leisurely pace, Microsoft has opted to allow users to disable it from Automatic Update. Customers now have up to four months to make up their minds on SP2.

So, it's been delay after delay and months of waiting. Now that Microsoft has done its bit, it could be several more months of waiting before Windows XP Service Pack 2 eventually makes it onto the desktop.