Yet another reason to install SP2

In the comments to an earlier post, someone noted a screen shot of an ActiveX dialog box that included the “Always trust content from this company” option. He asked the obvious question: Why isn’t there a “Never trust content…” option?

Short answer: There is. But only if you’re running the latest Windows version.

If you’ve installed Windows XP Service Pack 2, you’ll find that the wording in this dialog box has been changed to specifically refer to installing software rather than the confusing “trust content” wording. Here’s what the new dialog box looks like; note that you first have to click the Information Bar to display this dialog box and then you have to click a More Options button to see these settings:

We noted this important change in Windows XP Inside Out, Second Edition and the larger Windows XP Inside Out Deluxe, Second Edition), both of which cover SP2 thoroughly:

In earlier versions of Windows XP, the dialog box used with signed downloads included a check box that allowed you to specify that you always trusted the publisher using that certificate. By selecting this check box, you could automatically install future downloads from your favorite publishers without having to see the Security Warning dialog box every time.

Windows XP SP2 adds the counterpart to that feature—a check box that lets you identify a publisher as untrusted. If you determine that a particular company’s widely distributed ActiveX controls and programs don’t belong on your computer, you can designate that publisher as untrusted, and no user of your computer will be able to install software that uses that publisher’s digital certificate.

If you haven’t installed SP2 yet, this is yet another reason to do so. If you’re holding off because you’ve heard bad things about SP2, please do some more reading starting here. SP2 is quite safe and reliable, and the few known issues are relatively easy to deal with.