Windows XP SP2 Goes Gold

writertype writes "PC Magazine reports that Microsoft has released Windows XP SP2 to PC OEMs after a two-day delay. A package of stories, complete with an exploration of the new update, is here. The best way for users to get the update, according to Microsoft, is to have Windows Update turned on; a CD version will be made available." Reader Critical_ writes "With all the news of SP2 being delayed, it seems like Microsoft may have pulled a rabbit out of its hat by releasing RTM on its WindowsBeta site. Neowin has a screenshot of the download page and MSFN has the release information. The final build is 2180. For those who can't download it for whatever reason, Microsoft is giving away free CDs here. Happy installing."

Comments

Holy Crap!

[z0ink]

Microsoft (almost) made it close to an original deadline? Whats next ... Linus will turn out to be secretly controlled by evil corporate overlord masters?

Go back to green

[setzman]

http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/06/2 015257&tid=201&tid=128

Re:Go back to green

[jrockway]

Hmm, back on my Linux box (which has two old CRT's with the brightness almost all the way down) it.slashdot.org looks fine, but here on my new Powerbook (with an _uber-bright_ LCD) I can't see a damn thing. As a subscriber, I petition the editors to CHANGE THE COLOUR SCHEME.

Hell, do we really need an IT section? It is what it is? Can we go back to the real slashdot PLEASE?

In other news

[sparcnut]

Hell reportedly experiencing record low temperatures.

So

[Anonymous Coward]

does anyone know what incompatibilities it introduces yet?

I'm a sysadmin mulling over exactly when 'enough people' will have tested it to deploy and roll out myself.

Jabba the Lawyer

Re:So

[0racle]

I'm waiting 2 weeks. There should be enough people running many different apps in many different situations that a major problem should have popped up by then, of course they better make it public when(if) they do.

Re:So

[wfberg]

According to that msfn.org site, Microsoft has now announced that SP2 will install on all but the PCs that were also blocked from SP1.

So, if SP1 will install, so will SP2.

In the interest of preventing other people from getting their computers hacked into to form a botnet and DDOS the planet, check out how to change the CD key and a list of CD keys.

Re:So

[LurkerXXX]

You are a sysadmin and you don't have any test boxes?

Re:So

[hazem]

Yeah, but why rush to wreck them when you can let other people do it! If anything, it's a waste of time to test it when you can wait to find out problems may affect you. Hopefully the rest of your infrastructure is secure enough to weather another 2 weeks without SP2. If not, you have bigger problems!

Re:So

[LurkerXXX]

Rush to wreck them? That's the whole purpose of the machine, to test if things work you your environments specific conditions or go boom. If it goes boom, you re-ghost it. It doesn't take long at all.

Re:So

[typhoonius]

I installed the beta of Windows Update v5 on a computer with a warezed copy of Windows XP, and while it installed fine, it wouldn't let me check for updates because it detected the pirate product key.

Interestingly, I tried to connect just now, and it downloaded the final version of Windows Update v5 and let me download an critical IE security patch. It looks like they've softened their stance again (throughout SP2's long and storied development cycle, they've been back and forth over whether they'd allow pirated copies to grab the update).

Re:So

[roror]

I'd post it anonymously if I'd post it all.

So

[allio]

Who's going to be the first to test it on a slightly less than legal CD key? :D

So who pays,

[DoraLives]

if this dog eats your homework?

Is it really golden?

[rpbailey1642]

Just because MS makes it available doesn't mean they've worked out all the bugs. They may have taken care of a number, only 1/5 or 1/20 or even 1/100 have problems, but that is still a huge number. I know I'm not deploying the patch at my site for at least a couple of weeks, until I see the articles of the after-effects.

Re:Is it really golden?

[geekoid]

Besides there reputation and history, why would you even think that?

Michael's Admission

[Anonymous Coward]

I-think-I'll-let-you-install-it-first dept.

Hmm...Does this mean Michael, Microsoft hater extraordinaire runs Windows in his spare time?

Why would he let me install it first unless he has windows himself to install SP2 later?

I think I've just exposed Michael has a hypocrite and windows user.

Re:Michael's Admission

[ejaw5]

A group of sysadmins gather in conference to debate who to deploy SP2 first. After hours of deadlock, a solution was devised:

The sysadmins arranged their seats in an inward facing circle. A secretary is called in to randomly play, pause, and resume a Windows Media Audio file on WMP9. The sysadmins randomly throw to each other the 1 SP2 cd burned last night, exclaiming "SP2! SP2" as the disc is hurled to the next holder. Each time the music stops, whoever holds the cd is eliminated from the circle and the game continues. The last person holding the SP2 update CD is the victim^H^H^H^H^H^H first admin to deploy XP SP2 in his/her department.

Time to do away with this “Service Pack”

[VidEdit]

Now that the latest major release for XP is out, it is time to do away with this "Service Pack" nonsense. This versioning is confusing to end users and has always seemed like an attempt by Microsoft to pretend that their software wasn't bug ridden, it just requires regular maintenance the way a car needs an oil change. Hogwash.

Windows Beta site getting hammered

[Zerbey]

The Windows Beta site is really getting hammered right now and giving 500 errors so don't be surprised if you can't get in. I managed to download it from eMule and I'm sure torrents will appear soon. The filename is called:

WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe

Re:Windows Beta site getting hammered

[RonnyJ]

Here's a little more info about the file. Size: 278,927,592 bytes MD5: 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7

Re:Windows Beta site getting hammered

[Schmucky The Cat]

Why is it so important to download it right now?

It will show up on your machine automatically with the automatic updates feature. Whats the rush? It's not like this is a new Pokémon card.

Re:Windows Beta site getting hammered

[prockcore]

Whats the rush? It's not like this is a new Pokémon card.

I beg to differ. Windows service packs are exactly like new pokemon cards.. their worth is dubious yet people have the strange urge to collect them all!

SP2 I choose you!

Re:Windows Beta site getting hammered

[Anonymous Coward]

With all due respect, why would somebody trust some random "RonnieJ" user to provide an MD5 checksum of the file?

Re:Hmmm

[Tony Hoyle]

..then make sure you don't have 'automatic updates' on otherwise all hell will break lose.

We got wind of the decision to push it out via that channel just in time to switch windows update off via a group policy. Which is lucky otherwise we'd be looking at a lot of dead machines on monday morning (putting up a eula is *not* going to stop users installing it... most of them click blindly on anythign they're asked).

What will SP2 do for Linux's server dominence?

[mind21_98]

Hmm, if it really does fix the majority of the security problems in Windows, will this remove most of the motivation towards installing Linux or another OS? This seems like a possiblity.

Torrent Links

[calebb]

276 Seeders, 1300 downloaders

60 seeders, 300 downloaders (Requires fileshack.org account)

6 seeders, 60 downloaders

1 seeder, 10 downloaders

p.s., I still hate the color scheme on it.slashdot.org

Parent post is accurate.

[TiggertheMad]

I am still running Dos 5.0, because I'm pretty sure that Dos 6.2 has a number of outstanding bugs, and a possible security hole. I figger sometime around 2007 it will be safe to make the jump. Win 3.1 should be safe move around 2011.

Re:Hmmm

[YU Nicks NE Way]

No.

As to the famous "3 out of 5" comment, this post explains that problem better than I can. Basically, the guy who published the original article appears to have installed spyware on his system, and then he's blaming MS because his spyware doesn't work.

Re:Torrents---which one is "right" ??

[Anonymous Coward]

One has a trojan and DDOS zombie built in while the other lacks those features.

Caramba !

[apankrat]

I'm so excited and I'm just can't hide it;
I'm about to lose control and I think .. holy crap, 266 MB ?!!

Please join me for a minute of silence in a memory of our dialup friends.

Oh sure

[geek]

Release it on Friday night after all the tech support people have gone home. Nice one MS, bloody classic.

Re:Time to do away with this “Service Pack

[DaHat]

And saying... Red Hat 7.3, kernel: 2.6.x.y, gcc: 3.4.1, etc... is less confusing?

Re:Torrents---which one is "right" ??

[WillDraven]

The 271 MB Torrents are .rared up into multipart archives while the 266 MB Torrents are the raw exe (maybe with a .nfo or other small file). Links are to a suprnova mirror.

MD5 checksum for SP2

[thalakan]

According to a post on neowin:

Filename: WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe
MD5: 59A98F181FE383907E520A391D75B5A7

The one I'm getting on a torrent has a SHA1 hash of:

GOUP55QNJCXB6LCP52RHCENPLTWKHRHW

RC2

[dfj225]

I've had the SP2 RC2 on my box for some time now. I'm actually surprised by how stable it has been. I've even been able to play Doom 3 with no crashes. I can't really say how the security improvements are, but the one thing that I have noticed is that wireless networking seems to have improved much. Also, it doesn't seem like the firewall was working too well (at least for outbound traffic).

I waiting for..

[zulux]

I going to hold out at wait for the service pack for SP2.

(kidding)

Trickle-down downloads

[SilentChris]

I found this line interesting:

"Microsoft will use metered downloads to update users steadily without bogging down the entire Internet."

*Strokes chin* How do they do this, exactly? By IP? By Product Key? What determines when someone will get it?

Hopefully we'll see SP2 on Torrents soon.

Hmmm...

[rtilghman]

Price for a laptop? $1500.00
Price for Win XP Pro? $299.99
Price for SP2? Free

Resinstalling Windows XP, all your programs, and all your data after SP2 renders the computer unusable? Priceless

-rt

MD5 Sum from WinBeta

[Airw0lf]

This is the MD5 sum from WinBeta. (Found at neowin.net)

WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe 59A98F181FE383907E520A391D75B5A7

Here's how they are going to do it

[WhoDaresWins]

As per the Windows XP SP2 RTM press release this is how they are going to do it -

The timing for customers to receive the Service Pack 2 download through Automatic Updates depends on a number of factors, including the customer's Internet usage, location, language and the level of Internet demand for Service Pack 2. Automatic Updates uses spare Internet capacity to progressively download updates without interfering with daily PC use. Microsoft expects to distribute Service Pack 2 to approximately 100 million PCs through Automatic Updates over the next two months.

The progresive download feature being talked about refers to the "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" BITS. BITS transfers files using leftover bandwidth. For example, if you are currently using 60 percent of your bandwidth, BITS will only use the remaining 40 percent. BITS also maintains file transfers when a network disconnection occurs, or a computer needs to be restarted: When the network connection is re-established, BITS will continue where it left off.

**Congratulations to our 1,000,000,000 visitor!**

[BlueJay465]

Microsoft has been slashdotted.

I'm going to DISNEYLAND!!

The Firewall

[hawaiian717]

From one of the PCMag articles:

Microsoft has included a programmatic interface for Windows Firewall that allows an application to do things like set FirewallEnabled to FALSE, add itself to the list of AuthorizedApplications, or change the configuration of GloballyOpenPorts. Our concern here is that a malicious application could turn off Windows Firewall or, more likely, mark itself as an authorized application. Corporate administrators can disable some or all local configurations, which will prevent programs from making changes; but ultimately, Microsoft maintains, individuals still have to be smart about what apps they run. Even the best deadbolt won't protect your house once you've let the bad guys in.

I agree with PCMag on this. Microsoft still doesn't get it. To continue the Microsoft analogy, they gave the bad guys a key to the deadbolt.

Looks like I'll be continuing to ignore the built in firewall in favor of a real one.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1631256,00.as p

Re:Hmmm

[YU Nicks NE Way]

It isn't a missing or currpted Windows file, it is a report of a missing file named 'winserv.exe'. That file isn't a part of Windows but rather spyware with a (surprise) deceptive name. It shouldn't be on the system at all.

Well, to be sure...

[halivar]

You'll want to use the --deep option to make sure all your dependencies are in order like so:

emerge -uDv sys-kernel/windows-xp-sp2

Oh, wait a sec... I'm not even supposed to be here, am I?

Forget Gold

[superpulpsicle]

Usually when M$ goes gold it doesn't mean a damn thing. For any M$ patch or software, it has to go...

alpha

beta

release candidate 1

release candidate 2

release candidate 3

release candidate 4

IRC warez beta

msdn

gold

release candidate 5

GA

release to manufacturing

blue screen

release candidate 6 .. ..

Re:Forget Gold

[farmhick]

I see you have gold and blue in there. But you forgot about the final one...

They've gone plaid.

Lots of errors

[Pan T. Hose]

The Windows Beta site is really getting hammered right now and giving 500 errors so don't be surprised if you can't get in.

Wow. That's 96 more errors than I got last time.

Hmph

[bmetz]

Put SP2 on two machines
on one of my laptops, it worked fine. Done.

On my desktop, I can no longer see the contents of my second NTFS drive. Uninstalling SP2 leaves me still unable to see it.

Ugh, and it seemed like a decent upgrade besides that.