by Arie Slob

Hello Windows users, This week Microsoft (finally) announced the release of Windows 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Windows 2000 SP2 includes the updates contained in Windows 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1), so if you did not install SP1, there's no need to install SP1 before you install SP2. Windows 2000 SP2 is not considered a required upgrade. To determine whether to install Windows 2000 SP2, Microsoft recommends that customers review the Windows 2000 SP2 documentation found on the Windows 2000 SP2 Web site. Windows 2000 SP2 Encryption Windows 2000 SP2 automatically upgrades your system to 128-bit encryption. It is not possible to disable or uninstall this feature. If you remove Windows 2000 SP2 after installation, your system will continue to use 128-bit encryption; it will not revert to back to 56-bit encryption. For more information on 128-bit encryption, please read the High Encryption Market Bulletin. The Readme file provides installation instructions & and other information, while the Release Notes provide most up-to-date information on Windows 2000 SP2 release notes and known issues. As usual, there are compatibility issues with some firewalls (BID & ZA), caused by the way these programs are written. Microsoft issued two Knowledge Base Articles about these issues, Q292642 (Firewall Filter Does Not Install During BlackIce Defender Setup) and Q269676 (Security Utility (or Firewall) Settings After Installing Service Pack 1), the last one applying to Zone Alarm. There are two ways to get Windows 2000 SP2. You can download it directly from this Web site, or you can order the Windows 2000 SP2 CD. SP2 is available as an Express or Network Installation. The Express installation detects your system components and installs only those updates that are necessary for your computer. For example, files for Windows 2000 Professional will not be installed if your computer is running Windows 2000 Server. This method is recommended for customers who want to reduce their download time. This is for single computer installation only. If you want to install on more than one machine, choose the Network Installation. According to Microsoft, using the Express Installation on a typical Windows 2000 Professional machine will be around 10MB, while a Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server will be around 22.3MB. The full SP2 Network Installation is 105MB. The Network installation includes all of the Windows 2000 SP2 files needed for installation on Windows 2000 Professional, Server, or Advanced Server. This is an ideal download mechanism for IT professionals who require a downloadable copy of Windows 2000 SP2 that they can use for network deployment. Give your comments on this article. Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview Blank E-mail Update Microsoft has released a fix for the Public Preview of Internet Explorer 6. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, using Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview is known to cause incoming e-mail messages to display a blank subject line. Sometimes the message text is affected by this issue as well. If you are experiencing this problem, Microsoft recommends that you install the Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview Blank E-mail Update. Download (271KB)

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