Shoutbox

From what I read, its going to be on Windows Update on the 25th August. That's also the date when M$ will be sending out free CDs with it on to all that apply.

And yes build 2180, the RTM version is the final product. Its recommended that everyone install it. Its a big service pack

Timeline:

6th of August - Release of SP2 to manufacturers

9th of August - SP2 released to web (Download Center), SP2 was supposed to be released on this date to MSDN but was released earlier.

10th of August - SP2 will be released to Windows Update but only for systems with an earlier build of SP2 installed.

16th of August - SP2 will be released to Windows Update for every system, even those without an earlier build of SP2 installed. SP2 will also be released to software update services on this day.

25th of August - SP2 will be listed as a critical update and Microsoft will be accepting free CD orders on that day.

It's been reported that downloads will be limited to 2.5 million a day until the 25th of August, as reported by The Inquirer.

i heard somewhere that SP2 would make dodgy versions of windows totally mess up and not work
true?

I heard somebody say SP2 installs a virus that sends your name and adress to microsoft when your XP isn't legalRumor spread so fast these days .

The service pack betas did crash a lot of PC's but hey, that's were beta's are for. The final version supposed to be smooth. If you don't want to take much risk then wait until the 25th and see what it does to other ones PC. But you don't really have much to worry about.

However, SP2 does refuse to install on some (a lot?) of illegal version. To be excact, it blocks certain groups of XP CDkey's if you have susch a key used on your PC it won't work. You can however change your XP key to one that does work but i won't talk about that any further because of the no-warez-policy here.

quote:

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Originally posted by EvilSeph
16th of August - SP2 will be released to Windows Update for every system, even those without an earlier build of SP2 installed. SP2 will also be released to software update services on this day.

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I think that's when I'll be downloading it.

For such a big update, I think it's best to be careful and not install right away... what if this thing still has bugs?

where do i put the uxtheme.dll

Like MenthiX said, lots of rumours always fly around about these things, especially when its Microsoft.

This service pack has undergone some of the greatest internal and external testing Microsoft has ever done for a service pack. So I think its good to go. I installed it last night, and have had zero problems so far. The whole process went smoothly.

Some programs need to be updated to work correctly with XP. These tends to be the big programs like anti-virus, but these can be easy to update with patches from the relevant companies.

There is a guide over on Neowin thats worth checking out for the uxtheme.dll.

I believe it fails to mention renaming the uxtheme.dll to uxtheme.bak in ServicePackFiles or something like that, so chances are it won't work... Windows File Protection will restore the old file upon boot and the replace process will be pointless..I can't remember if I'm right..it's just what happened to me.

Yeah I did wonder about that as well. To be honest I haven't tried that way

The other location its stored as a back up is in C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache. Maybe its worth overwriting that one as well.

The whole topic seems a bit voodoo with people talking about doing different things, copying one file, copying lots of files etc.

Of course you could turn off Windows File Protection (its a service), but I don't really recommend that

quote:

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Originally posted by WDZ

For such a big update, I think it's best to be careful and not install right away... what if this thing still has bugs?

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u don't trust my work? I'm a beta tester, and have had this since it was RTMed. its fine.

the Neowin uxtheme.dll buide can be found here