upgrading from XP SP1 to XP SP2

I am at a friend's house and I am trying to install a wireless router for his rather olde e-machine desktop. Currently only XP SP1 is installed. I need SP2 to use the router (and I would like to upgrade for him anyway.)

When I go to MS's website to upgrade, they basically force me to download the Window's authentication that this a genuine copy of XP before they let my upgrade to SR2. His OS is a genuine copy of XP, but I have heard so many bad stories about that authentication software causing problems that I would like to avoid it. I won't let them download it onto my own computers (which came with SP2) no matter how many times they ask (and they ARE persistent!)

Does anyone now how I can avoid this? Or would you say don't worry about it and just download the authentication software and move on to downloading SP2?

 

There were problems with WGA causing issues. But MS cleared them up (or at least most of them) some time ago.

All 3 of my compys are XP SP2 and I've never had any problems with the WGA. If you suspect that their OS or any of their MS software is possibly not genuine, then there could be issues. WGA just won't let you upgrade if the OS (or othe software) you're updating isn't valid. You can install and run a questionable OS to your heart's content - just not apply any upgrades when available.

Since you're upgrading someone else's computer, I'd do the "real deal" and not any work arounds or someone else's version of SP2. If the system gets borked, you don't want to be the one with egg on your face.

 

Thank you. I know this is a valid copy of WIndows... there is no question of that. I was just worried about installing WGA before installing SP2. I would not use a 3rd party's version. I was just wondering if I could get around MS's requirement of WGA before upgrading to MS' SP2, not a 3rd party's version.

But it is good to know that it seems that MS fixed the bugs on WGA.

 

Sounds like you're good to go. Installing WGA shouldn't cause you any problems (no guarantees, though).

Only other suggestion I'd throw out is to be sure to have a recent backup of their files and programs. Sounds like you have experience with doing this though, so probably already covered.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

 

I was looking at that but it is deigned if you are downloading to more than one computer. It says not to use it if you are downloading to only one computer. This desk top has a celeron 2.3 Ghz processor, and I don't know enough, but if the version for IT professionals designed for more than one computer has any bloat or anything like that... I am concerned that it will slow down what is already a very slow computer.....

 

xp.sp2 is the most stable and efficient version. the first thing i always look when a system is having issue, that if it has SP2 already installed

cheers ...

 

I don't think you quite got what I am concerned about. I want to upgrade to SP2, I don't want to download WGA first -- which MS seems to be forcing me to do now, and the IT version of SP2 is huge and will be too much of a bloat. You posted on this thread here... where another poster is complaining that WGA has just declared their legal copy of XP is illegal overnight and they can't do anything about it... So you see my problem...

 

Just download WGA and use it, big deal.

 

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/Windows-XP-SP2-RTM.shtml

Softpedia is a pretty dependable site; not the best, but you shouldn't have any problems. I've never had any problems downloading anything from them that is. Just make sure to scan it for a virus first, but I highly doubt this will happen.

 

I saw the thread Justitia mentions. With the complexity of software, there's never any guaranty that anything will run perfectly every time.

But your chances of having WGA issues are pretty slim. And if it happens, a phone call to MS takes usually takes care of it. Most of the WGA issues arose in the initial release in June 2006. A number of genuine MS products were returning false positives.

MS has since cleaned it up and this very rarely happens any more. Not saying it doesn't or won't happen, but it's not nearly as problematic as it was last summer.

If you do run into issues, there's a diagnostic tool and and a button to allow you to try to validate again here:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/selfhelp/Support.aspx?displaylang=en

Additional troubleshooting tools here: http://support.microsoft.com/ph/9860

And a search for wga in the WinXP Experts forum provides additional details:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/...er.mspx?dg=microsoft.public.windowsxp.general

May need to use IE for that last link.

 

u should not have any issue (famous last word) with WGA if the licence is legit. I haven't got any trouble with it myself, so i do not see the issue. A few of users have the issue, adding to reading blogs of m$ bashing and u have a panic in hand. One forgets million other users out there with no issue

cheers ...

 

The best way to upgrade to SP2 is to download the network install file and execute it from your computer. After the upgrade is complete, visit Windows Update and download the huge amount of post SP2 updates.

 

Yeah, that's the way I do it when upgrading my SP1 PCs to SP2 since I have an SP1 CD. You don't even have to be connected to the internet to install that, you just need that exe file and it will install SP2, to get more update after that it will need to be on an internet connection.

 

Yea, if it's a genuine copy you should not run into any issues at all.

 

I recommend Autopatcher XP to get Windows completely up to date in one shot after you install Service Pack 2. (it contains all the post-sp2 patches/hotfixes)