Microsoft has made a new, updated beta of its forthcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2 available to testers via its private BetaPlace site.

The Windows enthusiast site Neowin has posted a number of screen shots of the new build, Number 2082, on its Web site.

Service Pack 2 (SP2) — due out around mid-2004, according to Microsoft's timetable — will include so many new features that it is practically a new version of Windows. Some Microsoft executives have admitted as much.

SP2 will include a number of features and fixes aimed expressly at improving the security of the now-three-year-old Windows XP. With SP2, Microsoft is turning on its built-in firewall by default; including new browser and e-mail safeguards; enhancing XP's memory protection features, company officials have said. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates showed off many of these features during his RSA security conference keynote on Tuesday.

Read More From Microsoft on the Security Features Due in SP2

There are the usual types of updates in 2082, testers say, such as updated versions of Windows Media Player, Outlook Express and Internet Explorer code. But the new beta build, Number 2082, also includes a few features not supported by previous beta builds of the service pack.

As previously reported, Microsoft is including its Windows XP Tablet PC "Lonestar" bits as part of the service pack beta. Lonestar is the code name for the next version of the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition that is expected to ship this summer.

The updated build also provides support for another Windows XP spin-off: Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center PC Edition product, according to the notes to testers reproduced on Neowin's site.

Some testers are reporting that Microsoft seems to have slipstreamed into the 2082 build the technologies that it tested as part of its PC Satisfaction trial. Microsoft's PC Satisfaction Trial, the beta of which ended recently, was designed to test Microsoft and third-party anti-virus, firewall, backup and PC-health-monitoring services. Sources said that Microsoft was testing whether these kinds of security services — when provided as hosted, managed services — would appeal to typically less-security-savvy small-business and consumer customers.

Read More About the PC Sat Trial Here

The 2082 build adds a new "Security Center" interface to the beta bits, testers reported and Microsoft confirmed late Tuesday.

"We used the feedback from the PC Satisfaction trial in building the (Security Center) user interface," said Matt Pilla, Microsoft senior product manager for WIndows.

The Security Center is designed to allow smaller businesses and end users to monitor their antivirus software, firewall settings and Windows Update status, Pilla said. Microsoft did not include any actual security products or services that testers worked with during the PC Satisfaction trial in the new SP2 build, he added.

Like the previous beta builds of SP2, the 2082 build is available only to pre-selected testers. It is not a publicly available build.

(Editor's Note: This story was updated to include Microsoft comments made Tuesday afternoon.)