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--8-7-04 addition--
Service Pack 2 has been Released To Manufacturer! If you want to get your hands on it before Microsoft posts them on the web then you'll want to go HERE and bring a torrent client of course ;) It's come to my attention that there's been quite a few problems with people slipstreaming the RTM build 2180 of SP2 so I'll offer you guys some alternate instructions. These alternate instructions will be within tags like this paragraph is ;)

I've also found a great application that'll help you guys out HERE called nlite.

--8-7-04 addition End--

I'm writing this today to get you prepared for the SP2 release. You will want to get your install CDs up to date so that you'll be able to install SP2 without having to go through windows update or anything else like that after a clean install of windows. This guide can also be used for updating a Pre-SP1 CD to SP1(substitute SP1 files for SP2)and making your backup windows discs bootable.

What will you need?

Original Windows XP CD (Home or Pro)

SP2 - Today I'll be using RC1 as a demo for you. You can also use these instructions to update your disks to using SP1a. SP2 RC1 weighs in at 273Mb and can be found here. It shouldn't be too much longer before it's officially released.

Good CD burning app such as Nero

ISOBuster can be downloaded here.

Step 1

Open Windows Explorer and click Tools--> Folder Options Then click on the View tab. Show hidden files and folders radio button MUST be selected and hide protected operating system files MUST be unchecked.

Copy all of the contents of your windows CD to C:\winxp

Step 2

Move the SP2 file you downloaded to a folder named C:\winxp-sp2