Ask the Microsoft Experts

Q. Some of our PCs show KB823980 under an SP1 registry key and some show it under an SP2 registry key. What is the significance of this difference? The registry key shows: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Updates\Windows XP\SP1\KB823980 on some PCs and HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Updates\Windows XP\SP2\KB823980 on others.

A. The machines that show "SP1" in the registry key for KB823980 have the "Gold" (v1.0) version of Windows XP installed. Those that show "SP2" have the SP1 installed. For Windows XP, we have two source code bases today – the "Gold" source (pre SP1) and the SP1 source (pre SP2). Each fix we build has two versions – one that installs on the "Gold" code, and one that installs on SP1 machines. Microsoft has standardized on the notation which prescribes that once the Gold version is released, the next fix is an "SP1" fix which goes in the SP1 branch; once SP1 is shipped, the next fix is "For SP2" so it goes in the SP2 branch.

We highly recommend that you upgrade to SP1 the machines that show SP1 in the KB823980 registry key.
You can view a Knowledge Base article that describes this in greater detail at https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328848