Some service packs may not appear to be installed in the Systems Management Server 2003 Software Updates item

Consider the following scenario:

• You use the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) 2003 Inventory Tool for Microsoft Updates (ITMU) to scan for security updates.
• You run SMS hardware inventory.

In this scenario, the Microsoft Windows XP service packs are not listed as compliant in the Software Updates item of the SMS Administrator console.

This is a known problem with the ITMU.

To work around this problem, if compliance reporting is necessary, deploy the service pack as a conventional SMS package and not as a security update. Then, you can run a report to monitor the installation status.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

This problem does not affect the security of the client computer if the service pack is installed.

If the service pack is not installed on the client computer, the service pack appears to be listed as compliant when you run the ITMU. If the service pack is installed on the client computer, the service pack does not appear to be installed or listed as compliant.