How to Deploy XP Service Pack 2?

[Claudius]

I want to upgrade certain security improvements to my computer. I have heard about Windows XP Service Pack-2. How do I deploy it?

[JonathanD]

I would suggest you to use SUS (Software Update Services) to deploy Service Pack 2 in Windows XP.

Key benefits of using SUS to deploy Windows XP SP2

1. Allow administrators to control the deployment Windows XP SP2 (as well as other updates) across their Windows systems.
   
2. Allow customers to safely disable direct Automatic Updates (AU) or Windows Update (WU) access from individual systems, while allowing these systems to get the necessary critical security updates and other administrator-approved updates.
   
3. SUS will automatically and silently install Windows XP SP2, while installation of Windows XP SP2 via WU or AU requires user or administrator interaction on each system.
   
4. Dramatically reduces network traffic into the organization, since updates only need to be downloaded to one or a small number of servers within the organization, instead of being downloaded separately to each system requiring the update.

[chroma]

Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) contains major security improvements that is designed to provide better protection against hackers, viruses, and worms.

Windows XP SP2 also improves the manageability of the security features in Windows XP and provides more and better information to help users make decisions that may potentially affect their security and privacy.

Microsoft strongly urges customers with Windows XP and Windows XP Service Pack 1-based systems to update to Windows XP SP2 as soon as possible.

Customers are encouraged to use a corporate update management solution such as Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 or Software Update Services (SUS) as a best approach to implement a managed rollout of Windows XP SP2

[Glenny]

Factors to consider when using SUS to deploy Windows XP SP2

• Number of Windows XP systems configured to use a SUS server
  
• Bandwidth capacity of the SUS server machine’s network card or network connection
  
• Whether the SUS server machine is running other services (e.g., domain controller, file & print, etc.) and if so, the estimated bandwidth required by these services
  
• Available network bandwidth for deploying Windows XP SP2 (if this is less than the bandwidth capacity of the SUS server machine)

Pros and Cons of using this technique:

Pros:

• Easy to implement – requires approving the SP2 update, un-approving it after the calculated time period, and repeating the process the next day, until the number of machines left to be updated is less than 2000
  
• Server-side mechanism eliminates the need to make configuration changes on SUS client machines
  
• Works even where Active Directory-based Group Policy or another scalable administration mechanism (scripting, etc.) is not in place to control registry settings on Windows XP machines
  
• No testing required

Cons:

Requires daily SUS administrator intervention, until the number of Windows XP systems left to be updated is less than 2000