Upcoming breakage in WinXP SP2

If you are involved in writing Windows apps that are network enabled, particularly if they accept incoming connections, you should take a look at this:

http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=15873&category=main

Quite a few apps are going to get broken I think. The biggest change is that if an app wants to listen on a port it now has to register with the WinXP firewall and can only do it when running as an administrator.

There are also some other goodies in there as well, like the fact that Windows file sharing will now only work on local subnets by default (though an admin could change this).

I know that they are making these changes to try and tighten up security, but I don't think it will work. The end result of these restrictions is that more code will get run as admin.

When developers are faced with "fixing" their code to work will the restrictions or just to run it as admin I'm afraid I know which course many will take.

The changes to IE to provide add-on management look good though.

There are a few changes to IE's window.open() etc al that will break lots of rich UI Intranet apps that I have worked on in the past. Yet again there are changes to the MIME type handling when download files output by dynamic ASP/PHP/CGI/etc, which will further complicate an already frought area when dealing with multiple version of IE and their integation with different versions of Word/Excel/Powerpoint.

like the fact that Windows file sharing will now only work on local subnets by default

This is a good idea on paper, and it should have been that way all along from the beginning. But it suffers from the following problem:

Most of Windows' security problems have nothing to do with file sharing.

Cute. That .doc file crashes WordPad for me, and I don't have Office on this box. How ironic that I can't view that file on a Windows XP box, but TextEdit on Panther opened it with no problem.

Dosen't bode well for how SP2 will work

Crashes my WordPad as well. Though it dos say at the bottom of the download page:

System Requirements
Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003

So clearly, those of us with WinXP aren't supposed to be reading the file. It opens with Mac OS X because it's thought the content of the file is positive advrtising to show X users what they're missing.

Anyone know when SP2 is supposed to be released?

I've been hoping it would come soon and fix a bloody problem I have with my CDRW in an external Firewire case always disappearing from the system (Shuttle SS51G) during high-speed read access (on-board or PCI IEEE1394 card doesn't make a difference) Problem didn't happen in my Athlon system running Win2K with the same IEEE1395 card I used to test the Shuttle. If it doesn't get fixed my next plan is to get a different firewire enclosure (the problem doesn't happen with an external 2.5" HD I have)

Bruno

You tried updating the firmware for the firewire bridge chipset in the enclosure? I know somebody with a DVD-RW in an enclosure and it was really flakey until he updated.

The beta of SP2 isn't out yet, so the real thing must be months away.

In reply to:

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The beta of SP2 isn't out yet, so the real thing must be months away

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Well according to a recent article on This Link a beta [Build 2055] has in fact been released. So, SP2 may be a little closer than you think.

SP2 Beta was released on.. 12/18. If anyone cares. I'm running it. Upgraded it from a straight XP install, and have not had any issues. Granted, I haven't tried to install anything SINCE SP2 was installed, however.

Me.

The enclosure uses a Genesys Logic 1394 bridge (perhaps the GL711). BUt I haven't been able to locate any firmware for it anywhere. Not even on the GL site itself.

I did find other people with 1394 XP issues of course. I'll likely first try the enclosure on another similar system I built to see if it has the same problem and then I'll likely try the SP2 beta. I should be able to get it at work. If that doesn't work, you'll see the enclosure in the FS section. And I'll be buying a new one with an Oxford chipset. Maybe the new one will come before the FS post. Just in case.

Bruno