Windows XP SP2: A No-Brainer Upgrade? Security At-a-Glance Joseph Moran
Security At-a-Glance
The next major enhancement of SP2 is the Windows Security Center, which is an attempt to make users more cognizant of the security status of their computers. After all, the term "out of sight, out of mind" accurately describes the approach of a great many people when it comes to such matters.
Rather than leaving it to the user to find security settings scattered pell-mell around the OS, Security Center aims to highlight this information and focus the user's attention on possible risks. Security Center displays the status of the Windows Firewall, the Automatic Updates setting, and any anti-virus protection you have installed using the familiar green, yellow, and red color-coding (a new shield icon in the Windows tray) to convey security status at-a-glance.
The Security Center is a good idea in theory and will be helpful for many users, but it can also be somewhat problematic in practice. A case in point — SP2 doesn't actually include its own anti-virus utility. Instead, it attempts to determine if you have anti-virus software installed on your system, and if so, whether it is up-to-date and functioning correctly. If the answer to any of these questions is "no," the user is alerted to this fact.
SP2 is supposed to be able to communicate with anti-virus software from major vendors like Symantec, McAfee, and TrendMicro, but it may not always work exactly as Microsoft intended. Upon installing SP2, we were notified that our Norton AntiVirus software was installed, but Windows could not determine whether the software was updated and working properly, even though it was fine according Symantec's own status dialog.
After subsequently performing a LiveUpdate of Norton Internet Security, the Norton software displayed a dialog asking if we wanted to report anti-virus program status to other applications (the recommended and default choice was "no." We nevertheless elected to allow it, and once we did the Security Center accurately reported the status of our anti-virus software. (At that point, it also gave us a green light for the firewall, recognizing that we were using the Norton firewall.) However, the fact that Security Center and Symantec software were initially at odds and each recommending contrary advice illustrates that the attempt to simplify things for the user may in some cases cause even more confusion, at least initially.
