Installing Service PacksWhen performing either a clean or upgrade installation it is, under most circumstances, vital that one of your first actions is to go to the Windows Update website and install any available service packs for the XP operating system. This section explains several methods you can use to upgrade a system to be SP2-compliant. Several methods are available for installing SP2 on existing Windows XP computers:
Note If Microsoft introduces any additional service packs for Windows XP, the procedures described here should be applicable to their installation. Microsoft will publish any changes on its website. Manual Installation of SP2You can download SP2 from the Microsoft website or order it on CD-ROM. The download is in the form of an ISO image (an image file representing a one-to-one copy of the files or folders, which can be burned to a CD-ROM using commercial CD burning software). The CD is available for free and upgrades any version of Windows XP. Its use is a simple means of upgrading computers when only a small number of computers are involved. Perform the following procedure to manually install SP2:
Using Automatic Updates or Windows Update to Download SP2You can configure your computer to automatically download updates from the Automatic Updates tab of the System Properties dialog box (right-click My Computer and choose Properties). After you have done this, your computer will download SP2 automatically, including only those files required for your specific installation. You will receive a notification that SP2 is ready to install; the installation procedure is similar to that described for manual installation from the CD-ROM. You can also download and install SP2 from the Microsoft Windows Update web page (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com). This page checks the version of Windows running on your computer and provides a list of available updates that will include SP2. As with Automatic Updates, only the required components of SP2 will be downloaded. Again the installation procedure is similar to that already described. Using Group Policy to Deploy SP2Group Policy is an efficient means of deploying SP2 to a large number of Windows XP Professional computers in an Active Directory domain. You can deploy SP2 to all computers in the domain or an OU by creating a software installation policy that assigns SP2 to the required computers. Use the following procedure to prepare an installation share and create a GPO for SP2 deployment:
After you have completed this procedure, users merely need to shut down and restart their computers to install SP2. The SP2 installation process takes several minutes on each client computer, after which the computer automatically shuts down and restarts. For detailed information on the use of Group Policy to deploy SP2, refer to the article "Managing Windows XP Service Pack 2 Features using Group Policy" at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/mangxpsp2/mngintro.mspx. Using WSUS to Deploy SP2WSUS is the successor to Software Update Services (SUS), which is installed on a server running Windows 2000 Server SP4 or Windows Server 2003 and provides patches and other software updates to client computers on the network. You can either download the SP2 files from the Microsoft website or copy them from the SP2 CD-ROM to make them available to all client computers that have been configured to obtain their updates from the network SUS or WSUS server. For detailed information on the use of SUS or WSUS to deploy SP2, refer to the article "Deploying Windows XP Service Pack 2 Using Software Update Services" at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/xpsp2sus.mspx. Uninstalling SP2Should you find that some component or application fails to work properly after installing SP2, you can remove it from Control Panel Add or Remove Programs. Perform the following procedure:
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