Well, well, well. Microsoft has removed the beta versions of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP from its Web site.
The note on the site says they’ve been removed to make way for the final release. That must mean that Neowin.net was right in its report that the service pack will be released very soon. The specific dates they reported were August 4, for automatic downloads, with manual downloads available on Thursday and files on Windows Update around August 25.
I’ve been using various test builds of SP2 for roughly a year, and I recommend it highly. It goes a long, long way to repairing the major security issues that have plagued Windows in recent years.
If you have any feedback on SP2, send me a note. Unless you specifically request that I keep your message private, I’ll consider the contents of any messages eligible for publication here.
Ed Bott 