News Windows XP Service Pack 2 Arrives

And the majority of the world and it's dog gives an ironic "woohoo", as they still can't get it. This from PCWorld:

Windows XP Service Pack 2--Microsoft's response to many of the security woes that have plagued the company's flagship operating system, Web browser, and e-mail client--is completed and will become available for download next week, the company says.

However, the highly anticipated upgrade is not yet available to end users. Microsoft is announcing only its release to manufacturing, and expects it to be posted on the vendor's Windows download site by early next week. What's more, the company is urging individual users to avoid downloading it, because anticipated traffic jams are likely to produce timeouts or other problems. Rather, users should wait for the update to come to them.

More here

Back of the queue, buddy - and no cutting in...

 

it might not be best to download SP2 just yet.

 

Really only affects corporate users with shed load of installed PCs with third party software. Not so much of a problem for the Joe Average PC user.

But Bill's boffins do suggest you wait for Windows Update to do the patching for you rather than downloading it in one big lump now.

 

wow, its nearly here, about time.......


I jave to say I wasnt to keen on the betas.... Might be better

 

But if they released it on P2P (bit torrent) it would reduce server load, no? This is exactly the sort of stuff p2p is designed for.

 

Like these people?

 

I think I'll just wait for them to mail me my free CD for being a beta tester

edit: Or not. I've just finished downloading it from Microsoft direct. I'll be testing it out on my spare PC first, after the trouble I've had with the betas, I'd rather not wreck this PC too!

 

If anyone is desperate to download the entire Network Install of SP2, and don't want to use Microsoft's servers, try these XP SP2 Mirrors.

 

this link was downloading at 120kbs for quite some time:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

..as taken from the inq.

 

how you like this download rate

 

definitely no need to make that image so large that 56kers have to wait a decade to view. Just crop it all out, bar the progress window.

Also:
what kind of line do you have to get that sort of speed?

 

So, if we are behind a hardware firewall, have multiple spyware and antivirus programs...why download SP2. If you were having problems with SP2 what were they?

 

Well not sure where you are Liquid K9, but where i am we have cable internet and thats what i use.

it's about 3.1mbps down and about 320k up

keep in mind that i am in north america, MS is in north america, thus i have a shorter geographical distance to travel than say someone over seas.

 

Yea i just found that link this morning

Is it worth installing? Is it gonna royally screw up zone alarm and my network connections? Is it gonna go "Ooo sorry, you have to re-activate windows" or something? Is it gonna install DCM stuff?

 

right, i gave it a quick blast last night...apart from being completly bloated (200something mbs) and taking ages to install its actually stable and didnt make my pc die/mess up in any way...i guess...apart from the ms "security centre" which has a go at me everytime i boot into windows now as i have turned off their firewall and windows updates...but im sure soon enough there will be a way of getting rid of that...next patch maybe?

 

SP2 is good for all the noob home users, but its crap for any corporate environment.

Oh and installing it on my computer at work killed the msiserver (windows installer app) service for some reason. Thank god its easy to fix.

 

It won't deactivate your copy of Windows XP, pirate or legit. If you're running a bootleg, then it shouldn't even install (at least that was Microsoft's aim - early betas would work on pirated copies, then MS put a stop to that, then for some reason a few late betas installed fine over the top, I don't yet know if the RTM of SP2 has the PIDs blocked again).

SP2 is "clever" enough to realise you've got ZoneAlarm installed, so it'll leave the Windows Firewall off instead of on by default.

I can't say the same about your virus scanner though, I've had terrible trouble getting NAV 2004 Pro working on my spare PC with the SP2 betas.

I won't be installing SP2 onto my main box until I am sure it will work with (almost) everything I've got installed. Tonight I'll slipstream it into a new XP CD and install it clean onto my spare box... then start adding my software.

And AFAIK, it doesn't add any more DRM to your PC than WMP9 already does. Someone correct me if I'm wrong

 

You can install SP2 with dodgy keys

 

must be a zone alarm thang, as it didnt recognise sygate...

ive slipstreamed sp to 2k before, but not on xp...any pointers or just google?

 

Rather than retyping it,
http://www.petri.co.il/windows_2000_xp_sp_slipstreaming.htm