Download the new Sysprep: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Deployment Tools. See these instructions in the Readme.txt file, which has the usual sloppy, uncaring Microsoft writing and editing:
* You cannot run Update.exe within an I386 directory to update a
Windows XP installation to Windows XP SP2. You must run Update.exe
against the entire contents of a Windows CD. If the entire contents
of a Windows CD is not present in your installation share, Update.exe
fails to complete the installation process.
1. Download Windows XP Service Pack 2.
2. At the command prompt, go to the folder where you downloaded the
XPSP2.EXE file, and then type this command:
xpsp2.exe -x
3. When prompted, type the path from which you want the service pack
to be expanded. For example, type:
C:\XPSP2
4. Create a temporary directory on your system and copy the entire
Windows XP product CD to this directory. For example, type:
It's different than that. Version 1.0 releases of Microsoft products often have obvious mistakes. Microsoft is very, very poor at testing, in my experience. Microsoft's new CRM software trashed their database! Or, it was not able to query the database correctly. They should have found that mistake before trying to use the software on their customers.
Someone once said that Microsoft's motto is, "The whole world is our beta test site." In my experience, Microsoft is very sloppy. Steve Jobs of Apple said, "Microsoft eventually gets it right."
"In my opinion, Windows XP is a DISORGANIZED MESS!"
The i386 folder on the Windows XP SP1 Corporate version CD is 504,563,416 bytes. Windows XP SP2 is 278,927,592 bytes. Fifty-five percent of the disorganized mess just got replaced.
What amazes me is that there is plenty of evidence of just plain sloppy programming in Windows XP. There have been 102 vulnerabilities and 1,777 viruses affecting Internet Explorer.
You missed the point. The Microsoft CRM software dialed the number. Before Microsoft got their own CRM software, problems like those described never happened.
More Microsoft CRM stories: Shortly after Microsoft began using its Customer
Relations Management software, we got a call from a Microsoft representative
inviting us to a meeting in New Jersey. This caused some confusion until the
rep said the Microsoft CRM database showed we were based in New Jersey.
(Correct answer: Oregon.) Last Friday we got a call from someone at Microsoft
who invited us to a local meeting. Three minutes later we got another call
from the same person. She didn't realize she had called the same number.
I've found that there are many people who just don't want to believe that there is corruption in the U.S. government. They say completely illogical things in response. Me: There is corruption. Response: You are partisan. You are saying the Democrats are wonderful.
While the parent comment was being posted, I was watching a CBS 60 Minutes segment that discusses widespread corruption in the FBI.
I've tried two other kinds of Notebook locks that are of very poor quality, also. Fellowes was one of them. The other was a no-name Chinese brand from a wholesaler.
I'm very interested in being intellectually honest.
This is not a case of politics as usual. The Bush administration is involved in widespread corruption. As I mentioned above, I put links to 3 movies and 35 books that all say that the U.S. government is more corrupt now than it has been in the memory of living people: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government. Some of the authors are former Bush administration officials.
I'm independent myself, but I like some of those who call themselves Republican. I like McCain. I like Giuliani. I can see both of them have their inner conflict and their shortcomings. I'm not expecting government leaders to be perfect. However, deliberately selling government power to special interests is different than being imperfect.
"They" are the people who want corruption in government. They are a very
diverse lot. Some are nothing but criminals. Some are business people who want
government muscle to help them raise their profits. Many are people who are
highly conflicted, and could not have positions of power in an honest
situation. Many are religious extremists who care about nothing but their
extremism. "They" are people who can accept all the contradictions of being a
Republican, as mentioned in this list that has been circulating by email:
The "stock market" is heavily involved in deliberate government corruption.
The Bush administration has been appointing heads of government agencies who
reduce the role of those agencies. After they destroy the effectiveness of the
agencies, they go back to running their businesses, and the corruption gives
them more profit.
Another way they corrupt government is to starve the agencies of operating
funds.
For a discussion of starving the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
regulates the stock exchange), see this article: Keeping
the SEC on a Starvation Diet. The corrupters don't want their stock
manipulations discovered. They want more of this: Enron fraud, this: WorldCom fraud and this: Tyco
fraud.
They are corrupting the IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service, collects taxes),
too. The corrupters definitely do NOT want their tax returns to be audited, so
they arrange that there is not enough money for audits: Bush Request for IRS Not Enough, Report Says
They are corrupting the patent office the same way. That's why there are so
many crazy patents.
The SID must be changed anyway. That is an entirely separate issue.
I was told by a senior Microsoft technical support engineer last week, and I have been told before, that duplicate SIDs also confuse peer-to-peer networks.
XCOPY32.EXE can copy ALL files on a FAT32 partition. I stand by what I said. ALL the information in Windows XP and Windows 2000 is in files.
DriveImage, and all of PowerQuest, is now owned by Symantec, which, in my opinion, is legendary for bad technical support. Acronis is way better than DI.
An OS installation image is another term for a real backup.
Sysprep, even the Windows Server 2003 version, is buggy.
It amazes me how willingly people accept Microsoft's adversarial behavior.
As I said in my original post, all the facts in it have been reviewed many times by Microsoft technical support people.
I specifically said in my original post: "Some people restore a backup over a working Windows XP installation, but this is said by Microsoft technical support people to be unstable."
Every time I try to talk about this issue, someone tells me I'm wrong! I
even put a warning paragraph at the end of my (grandparent) comment, and still
it happened.
For example: A backup that must be restored to the same computer is not
a backup! Suppose something fails on that motherboard and you don't have any
other motherboards exactly like it?
A backup backs you up! If there are situations in which you won't get all your
work back, you don't have a backup. This is not an isolated situation. The
commercial life of motherboard models is about 9 months now. Try buying an
Intel 845GB motherboard now. Yes, I saw the one listing on Froogle; it is a
mistake.
Over and over again I have said that Microsoft technical support
representatives have verified my statements, and over and over again someone
has other ideas.
NTFS is crippled! Any file system that is designed not to copy all of its own
files is crippled! If you think it is not crippled, try using COPY, XCOPY, or
ROBOCOPY to copy all system files. You will get error messages. Windows 98 is
not crippled; XCOPY32 will copy all system files to another drive and that
other drive will be bootable. Yes there may be minor problems with programs
that use DOS file names. In my experience, they are easy to fix.
Microsoft says: NOTHING that comes with Windows can backup all of a Windows XP
or 2000 system partition, so that it can be a reliable operating system when
restored. Yes, people do it, but there are problems. Yes, people live with the
problems, or don't notice them.
Microsoft employees recommend Ghost. My personal opinion is that Ghost is very
poor quality software with poor support from Symantec.
NTBackup that comes with Windows can NOT backup all the Windows system
drive, only part of it. Windows XP and 2000 (not Windows 98) have crippled
file systems, apparently to implement copy protection.
NTBackup presumes that you are a peon whose time is worth nothing, and you
don't mind loading all of your programs again. Some people restore a backup
over a working Windows XP installation, but this is said by Microsoft
technical support people to be unstable.
The ONLY way to back up a Windows XP and 2000 system drive is to do a sector
by sector copy. See my Slashdot story and a discussion of this: Experiences w/
Drive Imaging Software?. The story gives a method of copying under Linux.
However, most sector by sector copies require that you have complete control
over the drive.
The only solution I've found is Acronis TrueImage. It costs $50,
and it works, although there are some small flakinesses. You can backup a
Windows XP or 2000 system drive while Windows is running and being used. You
can send the backup over a network to a local Linux machine.
To send the backups over the Internet, you would encrypt the Acronis files
with GNU Privacy Guard first. There is a
way to submit the password to GPG in a batch file. Since anyone who has access
to the password has access to the backup files, this is not a security risk.
I'm interested in hearing about any experiences anyone has with this.
Microsoft enthusiasts: Please don't disagree with the facts here, they have
been verified many times by Microsoft articles and technical support people.
Specifically, the NTFS file system is crippled, and NTBackup cannot back up
the working system partition.
"What you don't realise is that most people don't care."
Even people I meet who have no special interest in computers know that Google
is the best search engine. They care, and they don't use the Microsoft
product. They know that Microsoft will try to influence them in a hidden or not-so-hidden way.
There are fewer and fewer people who "don't care", and there is more and more
competition for the attention of the shrinking pool of people who can be taken
advantage of because of their lack of simple knowledge of the Internet.
"Microsoft is highly profitable."
Having a virtual monopoly should not be confused with being good at business
management. If you had a monopoly on water, you would make Bill Gates look
poor in a week, and all the business magazines would say what a great
businessman you were.
Microsoft managers have little ability to learn and appreciate how others see them. Preferring MSNBC over other news sources is seen by them as "branding". It's seen by others as conflict of interest.
Microsoft managers don't realize that we don't want to live in the little
box that they construct for us.
As Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer become more and more bored with their
business, and more and more tired with doing every day what they have done
since they were teenagers, Microsoft is slipping more and more out of control.
There are Microsoft people who aren't actually doing anything for anyone, but
who have jobs there and want to keep them.
There are fewer and fewer top managers at Microsoft who both recognize that there needs to be vigorous re-organization, and have the power to accomplish it. In years past the company was as arrogant as it is today, but more alive.
It's not redundant if you haven't seen it. The Slashdot story makes no reference to the humor. Just because you have seen the movie, don't think that everyone has.
So, here is the link again. Be sure to see the Flash Movie, This Land. It's very funny.
Slashdot Mirror
Download the new Sysprep: Windows XP Service Pack 2 Deployment Tools. See these instructions in the Readme.txt file, which has the usual sloppy, uncaring Microsoft writing and editing:
* You cannot run Update.exe within an I386 directory to update a Windows XP installation to Windows XP SP2. You must run Update.exe against the entire contents of a Windows CD. If the entire contents of a Windows CD is not present in your installation share, Update.exe fails to complete the installation process.
1. Download Windows XP Service Pack 2.
2. At the command prompt, go to the folder where you downloaded the XPSP2.EXE file, and then type this command:
xpsp2.exe -x
3. When prompted, type the path from which you want the service pack to be expanded. For example, type:
C:\XPSP2
4. Create a temporary directory on your system and copy the entire Windows XP product CD to this directory. For example, type:
MD C:\INTSP2 XCopy CDROM Drive Letter:\*.* C:\INTSP2
[Probably should be:]
MD C:\INTSP2
XCopy [CDROM Drive Letter]:\*.* C:\INTSP2
5. After the previous step is completed, change to the directory that contains the Windows XP SP2 files. For example, type:
CD C:\xpsp2\update
6. To update the Windows XP files to include SP2, type:
update.exe -s c:\INTSP2
This procedure results in an I386 directory updated to Windows XP SP2.
Alternatively, see How to slipstream SP2 into your XP CD.
For those who are new to MD5: Here is one place to find the MD5 software.
It's different than that. Version 1.0 releases of Microsoft products often have obvious mistakes. Microsoft is very, very poor at testing, in my experience. Microsoft's new CRM software trashed their database! Or, it was not able to query the database correctly. They should have found that mistake before trying to use the software on their customers.
Someone once said that Microsoft's motto is, "The whole world is our beta test site." In my experience, Microsoft is very sloppy. Steve Jobs of Apple said, "Microsoft eventually gets it right."
You're exactly right, of course. Those who say otherwise have no professional communication experience.
"In my opinion, Windows XP is a DISORGANIZED MESS!"
The i386 folder on the Windows XP SP1 Corporate version CD is 504,563,416 bytes. Windows XP SP2 is 278,927,592 bytes. Fifty-five percent of the disorganized mess just got replaced.
What amazes me is that there is plenty of evidence of just plain sloppy programming in Windows XP. There have been 102 vulnerabilities and 1,777 viruses affecting Internet Explorer.
The i386 folder on the Windows XP SP1 Corporate CD is 504,563,416 bytes. Windows XP SP2 is 278,927,592 bytes. Fifty-five percent is being replaced.
You missed the point. The Microsoft CRM software dialed the number. Before Microsoft got their own CRM software, problems like those described never happened.
As others have said:
WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe, MD5: 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7, size: 278,927,592 bytes
I downloaded the file from Microsoft, and the MD5 checks.
Microsoft says Installing Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) will prevent Microsoft CRM versions 1.0 and 1.2 from running correctly. Version 1.2 is the latest.
More Microsoft CRM stories: Shortly after Microsoft began using its Customer Relations Management software, we got a call from a Microsoft representative inviting us to a meeting in New Jersey. This caused some confusion until the rep said the Microsoft CRM database showed we were based in New Jersey. (Correct answer: Oregon.) Last Friday we got a call from someone at Microsoft who invited us to a local meeting. Three minutes later we got another call from the same person. She didn't realize she had called the same number.
I've found that there are many people who just don't want to believe that there is corruption in the U.S. government. They say completely illogical things in response. Me: There is corruption. Response: You are partisan. You are saying the Democrats are wonderful.
While the parent comment was being posted, I was watching a CBS 60 Minutes segment that discusses widespread corruption in the FBI.
I've tried two other kinds of Notebook locks that are of very poor quality, also. Fellowes was one of them. The other was a no-name Chinese brand from a wholesaler.
I'm very interested in being intellectually honest.
This is not a case of politics as usual. The Bush administration is involved in widespread corruption. As I mentioned above, I put links to 3 movies and 35 books that all say that the U.S. government is more corrupt now than it has been in the memory of living people: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government. Some of the authors are former Bush administration officials.
I'm independent myself, but I like some of those who call themselves Republican. I like McCain. I like Giuliani. I can see both of them have their inner conflict and their shortcomings. I'm not expecting government leaders to be perfect. However, deliberately selling government power to special interests is different than being imperfect.
"They" are the people who want corruption in government. They are a very diverse lot. Some are nothing but criminals. Some are business people who want government muscle to help them raise their profits. Many are people who are highly conflicted, and could not have positions of power in an honest situation. Many are religious extremists who care about nothing but their extremism. "They" are people who can accept all the contradictions of being a Republican, as mentioned in this list that has been circulating by email:
It's tough to be a Republican.
The "stock market" is heavily involved in deliberate government corruption.
The Bush administration has been appointing heads of government agencies who reduce the role of those agencies. After they destroy the effectiveness of the agencies, they go back to running their businesses, and the corruption gives them more profit.
Another way they corrupt government is to starve the agencies of operating funds.
For a discussion of starving the SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, regulates the stock exchange), see this article: Keeping the SEC on a Starvation Diet. The corrupters don't want their stock manipulations discovered. They want more of this: Enron fraud, this: WorldCom fraud and this: Tyco fraud.
This is all part of extremely widespread corruption in the U.S. government. Even the 3 movies and 34 books linked in this article are not enough to tell the story: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.
They are corrupting the IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service, collects taxes), too. The corrupters definitely do NOT want their tax returns to be audited, so they arrange that there is not enough money for audits: Bush Request for IRS Not Enough, Report Says
They are corrupting the patent office the same way. That's why there are so many crazy patents.
The article says, "There isn't such a thing as too much power though..."
This article has no place on Slashdot. It is written by someone with no knowledge who quite likely was paid to say such things.
I've had serious problems with Promise technical support. When they didn't know the answer to random mirror breakage, they gave up.
The CAN-SPAM Act is not a "bust", as the Slashdot story says. The CAN-SPAM Act does exactly what it was designed to do. It helps the spammers.
The CAN-SPAM Act is part of extremely widespread corruption in the U.S. government. Even the 3 movies and 34 books linked in this article are not enough to tell the complete story: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government.
The SID must be changed anyway. That is an entirely separate issue.
I was told by a senior Microsoft technical support engineer last week, and I have been told before, that duplicate SIDs also confuse peer-to-peer networks.
XCOPY32.EXE can copy ALL files on a FAT32 partition. I stand by what I said. ALL the information in Windows XP and Windows 2000 is in files.
DriveImage, and all of PowerQuest, is now owned by Symantec, which, in my opinion, is legendary for bad technical support. Acronis is way better than DI.
An OS installation image is another term for a real backup.
Sysprep, even the Windows Server 2003 version, is buggy.
It amazes me how willingly people accept Microsoft's adversarial behavior.
As I said in my original post, all the facts in it have been reviewed many times by Microsoft technical support people.
I specifically said in my original post: "Some people restore a backup over a working Windows XP installation, but this is said by Microsoft technical support people to be unstable."
Every time I try to talk about this issue, someone tells me I'm wrong! I even put a warning paragraph at the end of my (grandparent) comment, and still it happened.
For example: A backup that must be restored to the same computer is not a backup! Suppose something fails on that motherboard and you don't have any other motherboards exactly like it?
A backup backs you up! If there are situations in which you won't get all your work back, you don't have a backup. This is not an isolated situation. The commercial life of motherboard models is about 9 months now. Try buying an Intel 845GB motherboard now. Yes, I saw the one listing on Froogle; it is a mistake.
Over and over again I have said that Microsoft technical support representatives have verified my statements, and over and over again someone has other ideas.
NTFS is crippled! Any file system that is designed not to copy all of its own files is crippled! If you think it is not crippled, try using COPY, XCOPY, or ROBOCOPY to copy all system files. You will get error messages. Windows 98 is not crippled; XCOPY32 will copy all system files to another drive and that other drive will be bootable. Yes there may be minor problems with programs that use DOS file names. In my experience, they are easy to fix.
Microsoft says: NOTHING that comes with Windows can backup all of a Windows XP or 2000 system partition, so that it can be a reliable operating system when restored. Yes, people do it, but there are problems. Yes, people live with the problems, or don't notice them.
Microsoft employees recommend Ghost. My personal opinion is that Ghost is very poor quality software with poor support from Symantec.
NTBackup that comes with Windows can NOT backup all the Windows system drive, only part of it. Windows XP and 2000 (not Windows 98) have crippled file systems, apparently to implement copy protection.
NTBackup presumes that you are a peon whose time is worth nothing, and you don't mind loading all of your programs again. Some people restore a backup over a working Windows XP installation, but this is said by Microsoft technical support people to be unstable.
The ONLY way to back up a Windows XP and 2000 system drive is to do a sector by sector copy. See my Slashdot story and a discussion of this: Experiences w/ Drive Imaging Software?. The story gives a method of copying under Linux.
However, most sector by sector copies require that you have complete control over the drive.
The only solution I've found is Acronis TrueImage. It costs $50, and it works, although there are some small flakinesses. You can backup a Windows XP or 2000 system drive while Windows is running and being used. You can send the backup over a network to a local Linux machine.
To send the backups over the Internet, you would encrypt the Acronis files with GNU Privacy Guard first. There is a way to submit the password to GPG in a batch file. Since anyone who has access to the password has access to the backup files, this is not a security risk.
Google has more links to GPG.
I'm interested in hearing about any experiences anyone has with this.
Microsoft enthusiasts: Please don't disagree with the facts here, they have been verified many times by Microsoft articles and technical support people. Specifically, the NTFS file system is crippled, and NTBackup cannot back up the working system partition.
Drop "it." from the URL to get rid of
Thanks for the tip. Whoever designed the new scheme probably has to have his wife pick out his clothes for him, so the colors will match.
"What you don't realise is that most people don't care."
Even people I meet who have no special interest in computers know that Google is the best search engine. They care, and they don't use the Microsoft product. They know that Microsoft will try to influence them in a hidden or not-so-hidden way.
There are fewer and fewer people who "don't care", and there is more and more competition for the attention of the shrinking pool of people who can be taken advantage of because of their lack of simple knowledge of the Internet.
"Microsoft is highly profitable."
Having a virtual monopoly should not be confused with being good at business management. If you had a monopoly on water, you would make Bill Gates look poor in a week, and all the business magazines would say what a great businessman you were.
Microsoft: "Not getting it"
Microsoft managers have little ability to learn and appreciate how others see them. Preferring MSNBC over other news sources is seen by them as "branding". It's seen by others as conflict of interest.
Microsoft managers don't realize that we don't want to live in the little box that they construct for us.
As Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer become more and more bored with their business, and more and more tired with doing every day what they have done since they were teenagers, Microsoft is slipping more and more out of control. There are Microsoft people who aren't actually doing anything for anyone, but who have jobs there and want to keep them.
There are fewer and fewer top managers at Microsoft who both recognize that there needs to be vigorous re-organization, and have the power to accomplish it. In years past the company was as arrogant as it is today, but more alive.
It's not redundant if you haven't seen it. The Slashdot story makes no reference to the humor. Just because you have seen the movie, don't think that everyone has.
So, here is the link again. Be sure to see the Flash Movie, This Land. It's very funny.