(SS)Slipstreaming XPpro/Why?

SS=slipstreaming

What is the real purpose of SS?

Is it just a way to make life easier when you reformat?
Which I do very often so that would be a good reason.

My main concern though, would be, will SP1 & SP2 be available in the future?
If not, will any of the updates be around?

From what I have read on-line SS is for SP2.
Can you SS all the updates and XPpro to one disc?
If not, can you put all the updates on a disc and install them after a reformat
without going to microsoft?

 

oops - Arie posted while I was looking for a chaining link

Hi Dan and welcome to the forum.

Slipstreaming is a do-it-yourself version of buying an OS CD with a service pack already included.

You can slipstream any service pack you wish into the basic OS version with Win2K or XP. However, it makes more sense to just do the latest one since they are cumulative.

Reasons are two
- it gives a cleaner install than loading the OS and then loading a SP.
- it is lots easier if you need to reinstall - or to install on multiple systems - than doing the jobs sequentially.

You can certainly burn all the post-SP patches/hotfixes onto CD to load from there rather than downloading. You can also usually set them up for Chaining which eliminates the need to reboot after any specific patch. Just load them all and then one reboot.

 

Thank you very much for your time guys.

I am going to attempt to SS.
Then I will put the rest of the updates that microsoft says I need that are not included with SP2 on a disc.

Thanks again for your help.