Three and a half years after my previous Windows XP slipstreaming guide (), we're back again with what I assume will be my last XP slipstreaming guide, this time covering Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3). I first covered slipstreaming on the SuperSite, for Windows 2000), the first Windows version to support this functionality. Not surprisingly, the process hasn't changed much and the end result is still a version of the current Windows Setup CD that's been integrated with the latest updates. What is a tray icon. (Microsoft promises a more elegant method of slipstreaming with Windows Vista, but that's been pushed back to Vista SP2, so for the foreseeable future, we're still using the old but reliable method documented here.) As a brief refresher, slipstreaming was originally designed to help Microsoft's corporate customers integrate the latest updates into their network-based OS install images so that they wouldn't have to waste time deploying an OS image to multiple PCs only to later have to wait around while enormous numbers of updates were installed. With slipstreaming, you can keep an OS image reasonably up-to-date and keep post-install updates to a minimum. And for whatever its worth, Microsoft uses this process to create updated integrated installation media of its own each time a Windows service pack is released.

This will allow you to find the CD product key or serial if you have lost it so you dont have to buy another CD. May 7, 2008 - For example, if the name of the disc is WXPVOL_EN, use that. Do not enter your product key during Setup: I've heard from readers and have.

Kak napisatj pismo sponsoru obrazec. Of course, what I'm documenting here will be of interest primarily to individuals and, perhaps, small businesses that don't have access to Microsoft's volume licensing programs whereby they would receive up-to-date install media on an ongoing basis. And as anyone who has installed Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) in the last year or so can tell you, there's nothing like the monotony of installing the OS and then having to install 100+ more updates over multiple reboots. It's just not right.

But integrating your Windows XP with SP2 Setup disc with SP3 will make everything OK, at least the next time you do a fresh OS install. And instead of 100+ updates to install after the OS install, you'll just have a handful. (Though that number will of course continue to go up over time.) Disclaimer: While I will try and help readers who encounter problems integrating XP with SP3, understand that you proceed at your own risk. Be sure to fully backup everything on your system before wiping it out and reinstalling, whether with an integrated XP SP3 disc or otherwise. Understand that you will need to abide by Microsoft's production activation requirements and that these technologies could require you to activate XP by phone after an OS reinstall. Be prepared to go back to your previous XP Setup CD if things don't work out.