Sp2

[ErnieK]

MS has decided to allow pirated/cracked versions of XP to be able to install SP2 and thus try and cut down on the latest run of viruses. See link below for full story.

http://computertimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,5104,2292,00.html

Is this as simple as it sounds? If your version of XP is cracked you cannot (to my knowledge) install SP1. Does this mean that you do not have to install SP1 to run SP2? If this is the case then MS is opening the door even further to illegal XP OS's

[Erik]

It is possible to get SP1 on a cracked version of XP. They make a crack for everything, no matter what Microsoft does to stop pirated software a workaround will be found, and used by those who so desire. I think Microsoft realizes this, and is choosing to benefit the security of the general computing community by allowing everyone to have the benefits of SP2. A determined cracker will find a way around any restriction. Others who are lazy or don't know how to get the crack will just run the less secure OS.

Of course this still won't stop the spread of viruses by people who buy legitimate copies of the OS but don't bother with updates or any type of security software.

I downloaded SP2 RC1 and ran it for about a day before it got me so annoyed I made it go away. It has a new "security feature" that blows bells and whistles about not running any AV software (I run AVG and it wasn't regognized" and not using automatic updates. I tried to run a manual update and it caused an error, hopefully this will be corrected by the official release. I don't like being forced into turning automatic updates on, it wastes resources and I am not always connected to the internet. I also like to choose which updates I install.

[rond36]

If you want to download and install SP2 RC1 you can get it here (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/sp2predl.mspx). It is 273MB so if you have a dial-up internet connection it will take 20+ hours