It seems this week Microsoft have opened up and let the world know about what exactly SP2 will include and when it will be ready. According to Paul Thurrott, "Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) is still due in the first half of 2004" and will ship with all XP security features enabled including:
In real terms this means there will be a new version of ICF (Internet Connection Firewall, which will be enabled by default). This new version will be able to control outgoing data to the internet and not only incoming. Changes to DCOM and the RPC interface will mean a greater restriction on buffer overruns to stop incidents like MS Blaster ever happening again. A new Internet Explorer and Outlook Express will be included to "lock-down" IE in a way that is included in Windows Server 2003.
Not much has been mentioned about the issue of having concurrent sessions under SP2 when operating Fast User Switching (FUS). Which incidently, will allow more than one user to remotely connect to a machine at the same time.
If you"re interested in testing SP2 and have a Tablet PC then Microsoft wants you! Check out the post made by a Microsoft Rep in the microsoft.public.windows.tabletpc newsgroup.