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XP2 should be available, to the home user soon.

You can learn about XP2 here

Any beta testers here? Cause you guys are the lucky ones getting it so early.

Well I guess SP2 is out.

Click Here

EDIT: Well its downloaded now and I'm going to try and install this.

How did it go Naoki?

I'm kind of reluctant until I start hearing some good personal experiences.

well ive jusat the second installed it and all seems fine uptil now B)

Well everything went really fine. Computer kinda ran a little slow after the installation but nothing like a simple Defrag of the system would do the trick. I'm still currently browsing through some of the new functions this service pack has to offer. The pop-up blocker in Internet Explorer is very useful so no more third party programs for that as it basically works the same like any other. And the new firewall is pretty good as well. May not be obviously as advanced as programs like Zonealarm but its much better than the previous version, as you might has seen mentioned before by many beta testers. It more or less works the same but this time it allows you to control which program lets incoming connections through. Although there doesn't seem to be anything to block outgoing so a third party firewall would still be needed. I haven't encountered any compatibility problems yet, and so hope I do not.

So in all, everything is running fine and dandy at the moment. It wouldn't be surprising if I'd go onto the Windows Update site, there are going to be some fixes to fix this fix.

EDIT: Well have tried going to Windows Update and the only thing that needed updating is its own scanning software itself. I guess I was anticipating too quickly for Microsoft to release any little fixes. Perhaps maybe in a few weeks time, if not, then Microsoft have definately done a good job with this.

Our friends across the road seem to give it the thumbs up.

PC Advisor
PC Advisor

Well done you two brave men.

Games, security software and popular business programs are clashing with Microsoft's long-awaited security update for Windows XP.

Included in the list are games such as Unreal Tournament, Photoshop Elements and most file-sharing programs.

Full story

There's a full list of games that SP2 clashes with over at Gamespot, they are:

• Age of Empires II: Age of Kings
• Chess Advantage III: Lego Chess
• Combat Flight Simulator 3
• Command & Conquer: Generals
• Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2
• Conflict: Desert Storm
• Dead Man's Hand
• Earth & Beyond
• Elite Forces Vietnam: Special Assignment 2
• Freedom Force
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
• Medieval Total War
• Midnight Outlaw: Illegal Street Drag
• Moto Racer
• NASCAR Racing 2003
• NBA Live 2000
• Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
• Roller Coaster Factory
• Scrabble
• Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
• SimCity 4
• Star Trek: Starfleet Command III
• Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
• Starcraft
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
• Tribes 2
• Unreal II
• Unreal Tournament 2003
• Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Collector's Edition

Which is a fair few games in anyones book...

Tis available to d/l now for all us mere mortals,
if you would care to that is.

Tools/Windows update.

Thought I'd download it - in order to keep up-to-date and all that jazz..

And now I'm stuck with 'Classic Windows' stlye - and any attempt to load others results in an error - 'The visual styles could not be loaded because the file failed to load' - which is nice.

Also, although the Windows Security Centre would have been a nice touch if I was new to all this, all it does now is get in the way - and inform me that I'm not automatically updating Windows, and not using Windows firewall..

Not impressed.

How to Uninstall Service Pack 2

If you're one of the unlucky ones and Service Pack 2 caused problems that you can't live with, you can uninstall it in one of several ways. The first thing you should try is using the Add or Remove Programs applet in Control Panel. Here's how:

1) Click Start, Control Panel and select the Add/Remove Programs icon, or click Start, Run and type appwiz.cpl in the Run box.
2) Check the Show Updates checkbox at the top of the window.
3) Navigate to Windows XP Service Pack 2 and highlight it.
4) Click the Remove button. This starts the Service Pack 2 Removal Wizard.
5) Click Next to start the removal process.

After you run the wizard, you should go to the Windows Update site and install all critical updates.

If you're unable to use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall SP2, you can run the spuninst.exe program, use the System Restore process, or (if you can't boot into Windows), use the recovery console. For instructions on how to use these options, see here.


Here's how to configure Auto Update behavior:

1) Click Start, Control Panel and click the System applet (in Classic view) or choose Performance and Maintenance and then select System from the icon list (in Category view).
2) Click the Automatic Updates tab.
3) Select the desired option.
4) Click OK.

Helpful post Ordep...

However, I had already done such things in order to get my PC back to the way it was - especially when Desert Combat started to crash (and ran fine beforehand) - it's just not on...

Its had some problems for many Mohaa players, as yet i havent and dont intend to install it..

If it made my PC run faster then i might, but it wont so i wont...

PC Advisor will be issuing the SP2 disc free next month on a cover disk...maybe that is worth waiting for..well at least no download..

PC Advisor have new forum dedicated to SP2. Quite a hit n' miss affair it seems as to whether or not you'll have problems with this 'upgrade'.

Personally, I'm in no rush to install it unless there is a very pressing reason why I should. The so called security enhancements don't appear compelling enough. Security doesn't worry me too much, as I have a very good AV (Sophos) which is updated daily and Zone Alarm's excellent firewall... So can anyone convince me why it should be installed ??