In my last newsletter I mentioned Windows Service Pack 2 (SP2) as a good idea in the fight against virus and other nasty invasions.

SP2 is Microsoft's 'million band aid' solution to security.

No, it is not an antivirus program.

It is a whole bunch of features built into windows to help protect against virus and malware attack. These features are designed to work with virus protection, but not replace it.

Along with the usual 'hole plugging' SP2 offers some useful tools in the battle against the virus. Perhaps on of the most useful is the 'red shield' that appears in the task bar if conditions on your computer degrade to the point where the system is vulnerable to virus attack. The red shield is accompanied by a bubble warning you what is lacking for you system to be safe (e.g. the virus protection is turned off).

Also useful is the fact that with SP2 windows initializes its configuration to the safest modes possible. That is the safest modes are chosen by default.

SP2 also comes with an easy to use firewall. In fact this firewall is as close as you get to a 'set and forget' firewall.

SP2 is available as a free download from Microsoft. It is however a very large download.

Some programs (like Nortons antivirus) have ant tamper code that may corrupt windows if left running when SP2 is loaded. Hence it is important to install SP2 on a system with no antivirus programs running in the background (or anywhere else).

I have SP2 in disk if anyone needs a copy.