Businesses Slow to Adopt XP SP2

A study released by research firm AssetMetrix Monday indicates that even though April 12 is quickly approaching, the day when Automatic Update will attempt to force Windows XP users to install Service Pack 2, less than a quarter of businesses have made the upgrade.

The study looked at 251 North American companies, consisting of about 131,000 computers.

"Microsoft allowed a significant period of time to accommodate companies' demand to test and validate Windows XP SP2 within their IT infrastructure," said Steve O'Halloran, managing director of AssetMetrix Research Labs.

"To date, we have observed that 40% of companies using Windows XP have actively avoided upgrading to SP2, and only 7% have actively accepted it," O'Halloran continued.

"The other 52% of the companies showed no direction or policy towards SP2, and may find themselves having support issues by allowing multiple editions of Windows XP to exist in their infrastructure."

While the upgrade is not going to be mandatory for customers, new products, including Internet Explorer 7, will require that SP2 be installed. In addition, support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 will cease in September 2006.