Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Installing Windows XP Service Pack 2
Recently, I've had to install Windows XP Service Pack 2 on computers that had errors connecting to Windows Update. Sometimes the only way to fix the Automatic Updates part of Windows XP is to uninstall the service pack and reinstall it. The problem is that after uninstalling, you still cannot get to the Windows Update website (some undocumented error message, for example). Buried deep within Microsoft's website, is a link to download Service Pack 2 in a way that avoids the Windows Update website. Here, is the link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
This page was found by searching the Microsoft site for "service pack 2" and then following links for "IT Professionals" to deploy to multiple computers.
Even though the linked page has a bold uppercase line telling you not to install it on single computers, I've done this and it worked. This line is likely there because the download is large to include every possible file your computer could need, even for features you don't have, just so that it will work for everyone. Microsoft probably just doesn't want everyone using up too much bandwidth from their website. Sometimes this is the only way that works.
This page was found by searching the Microsoft site for "service pack 2" and then following links for "IT Professionals" to deploy to multiple computers.
Even though the linked page has a bold uppercase line telling you not to install it on single computers, I've done this and it worked. This line is likely there because the download is large to include every possible file your computer could need, even for features you don't have, just so that it will work for everyone. Microsoft probably just doesn't want everyone using up too much bandwidth from their website. Sometimes this is the only way that works.
