I have windows xp service pack 1 how do i get or install service pack 2?I have my automatic updates on?
If you have automatic updates turned on it should automatically download it and install it. You are probably going to have about 40 bizillion other updates along with it if you are still way back at SP1.
If you want to do it manually, you can download the service pack from microsoft’s web site.
It’s hard to believe you could still be way back at SP1. It could happen when people reload from an old installation disk or recovery image. There is so much updating to do to get up to date that it can be a problem for the automatic update.
One big problem could be your connection. If you are on a dial-up, it’s like you don’t exist. It would take forever for Microsoft to perform the update. It might not even try on the automatic update setting. You might have to do is manually by going to the site and picking off individual pieces of updates. Also, I have seen cases where the auto update won’t take certain particular updates. I have no idea why.
If you have a dial-up connection or otherwise slow connection, I advise finding a faster connection for fully updating to this point. After that maintaining might not be too bad as XP doesn’t offer as many refinements as before. You could carry your computer to a friend who has a broadband connection or use WiFi to connect with someone near where you are located. For $30 you could buy a NetGear USB WiFi adapter. Then you have to find an available network that is unsecured or get the password from the owner.
The latest XP Service pack is SP3.
You can download SP3 (which contains SP2 as well) from here. Note that it’s a large file, 315MB! If you really only want SP2 they have that too…
For a set of updates of this magnitude I would suggest turning off automatic updates and visiting the windows update page and driving the process yourself. There will be several cycles of update/reboot - after each of which you’ll need to return to windows update for the next portion. Keep doing that until it has nothing left to offer.
Automatic updates won’t even work with Windows XP unless you have SP3, so the OP has no choice but to do this manually. (Ref)
That site may be perfectly legitimate, but personally I would never load a microsoft service pack from anywhere other than microsoft’s web site.
I wasn’t aware that automatic downloads no longer worked for earlier versions of XP. Thanks for the link.
By the way, if you want to continue running XP and are worried about future updates, you can download SP3 from microsoft’s web site and use it to create a “slipstream” disk (google slipstream for more details). Then you’ll have an installable XP disk with SP3 already on it. Just make sure you download the full stand-alone version of SP3.
Very important point. There is no reason t take a MS update from anywhere other than MS. Even assuming the company can legally redistribute, if MS reissues, recalls, etc. you can get the most currently approved version from MS.
(Yes, I know once SPx is isued, it is frozen. Trying to remember, I think it was SQL, where they had a SP version 3a because of some oops.
It’s not that they don’t work; it’s that they were turned off by default before SP2. Most users never turned them on, but you can do it if you want.
These folks might know. You might want to visit their site:
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How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack**
I’ve used The Software Patch for years without any problems. The main reason I go there is that searching for and finding older XP stuff like that can sometimes be annoying on Microsoft’s huge site. They deliberately hide the old stuff to try and get you to upgrade. Software Patch also maintains multiple older versions of things in case you want to ‘downgrade’ after an upgrade breaks something (MS usually doesn’t make this easy or even possible to do sometimes).
But yeah, doesn’t hurt to go to the horse’s mouth…
Seeing a reference to SP1 nearly made me scream like a little girl (the really annoying kind that you want to slap, shake, and say “calm down! get a hold on yourself!”) But Airplane references aside, do NOT stick with SP1 or even SP2. In addition to huge security issues (we’re still waiting to see, for example, what will play out from MS08-067… maybe nothing, but…), there are functionality enhancements, driver updates, time zone modifications, and the list goes on.
As previously mentioned, keeping a slipstream disc handy is worthwhile, particularly if you spend the extra few minutes to build it for unattended install. That way, if you need to “nuke” the system and want to bring it back up in a reasonable amount of time, you won’t need to sit there for hours clicking the “next” button and rebooting ever 15 minutes.
[Soapbox moment] Running outdated software, particularly at the OS level, is irresponsible. It not only puts the irresponsible party at risk, but endangers the overall community via increased risks of what most people call “viruses” (Og, I hate that term). It’s kind of like telling your wife that you’ve cheated on her 50 times this month, but you were tested for gonorrhea in 1972, so there’s nothing for her to worry about.