Due to the November settlement between Microsoft and some of the parties suing the company, there’ll be a Service Pack for Windows XP this summer that will introduce a few interesting options into the configuration of the operating system. News.com has a good article that explains the four new options that provide varying visibility to Microsoft “middleware” (Outlook Express, Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Windows Messenger, and even the Microsoft Java VM). Furthermore, there will also be an anti-piracy “fix” — all the people who are using a specific stolen corporate WinXP install key will be unable to install any future Service Packs, effectively freezing their machines at their current states of updates.