The full English-language version of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (“for IT Professionals and Developers”) is now available for download. It’s huge — 266 MB, so make sure you have a fast connection to get it. This includes every update for every version of Windows XP.
If you have a slower connection, turn on Automatic Updates or wait for the Windows Update version, which will tailor itself to your exact installation.
Go get it!
[Updated April 23, 2006.]
Have I got a deal for you!
One of the greatest secrets in Microsoft’s catalog is the Student and Teacher Edition of Office 2003. You qualify for this software if you or any member of your household is a full-time or part-time teacher (K-12 or any accredited educational institution), a full- or part-time K-12 student, or a full- or part-time college student taking at least six credit hours. That’s a pretty broad standard of eligibility, and you don’t have to fill out any forms, show any ID, or jump through any hoops to qualify. Anyone can buy it, and anyone can install it.
The Student and Teacher Edition includes Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint. It can be legally installed on up to three PCs. And best of all, it’s dirt-cheap.
Amazon sells this software for $125 with free shipping. That’s a smokin’ deal. For anyone currently using an older version of Office, this is a good excuse to upgrade. If you want to buy it from Amazon.com, use this link:
I make a few bucks that help offset the cost of keeping this Web site running.
Oh, and feel free to pick up a copy of Special Edition Using Microsoft Office 2003 Student-Teacher Edition, too. It’s new for 2006. Woody Leonhard and I provide a good overview for all four of the programs in this Office version. This ain’t no Dummies book!
835935 – Release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 2
Good reading while you wait for the downloads.
The official notice: Microsoft Releases Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies to Computer Manufacturers:
Microsoft Corp. today announced the release to manufacturing of Windows® XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies. This free service pack delivers the latest security updates and innovations from Microsoft, establishes strong default security settings, and adds new proactive protection features that will help better safeguard computers from hackers, viruses and other security risks.
If you have Automatic Updats turned on, the service pack bits will download automatically to your computer beginning in a few days. This download will consume between 75 and 95 MB of disk space, depending on your Windows version.. When the download is complete, it will launch automatically, although it won’t do so in the background.
At some point before the end of this month, you’ll be able to download a full SP2 package that you can burn to CD. This download will be significantly larger–probably in the 270MB range. You can also order a CD from Microsoft.
As before, if you have any questions, send me a note. I’ll answer as many questions as I can here.
PS: Microsoft says they expect to deliver 100 million copies of SP2 through Automatic Updates in the next few months. Wow.
No Windows XP SP2 yet. Apparently there was a last-minute glitch that needed to be fixed.
Meanwhile, I recommend you check your Automatic Update settings, and make sure it’s set to automatically download all Critical Updates. Windows XP will automatically download this big update in the background, without disturbing your work.
I’m collecting all my SP2 questions and answering them on this site. Got a question? Send me a note. I’ll try to answer the most interesting questions here.
Ken Gardner asks:
What is the difference between “automatic download” available on August 4 (today) and SP2 being available on August 25 at the Windows Update site? Where do I need to go to get an “automatic download” if somewhere other than Windows Update?
Well, my guess is that the “automatic download” refers to Windows XP’s Automatic Updates feature, which downloads in the background if AU is turned on. I’ve never really checked to see whether patches appear on AU before they appear on Windows Update for manual download. But that’s the implication of this report.
I’ve seen nothing official on Microsoft’s Web site yet, so this is still just a guess. Paul Thurrott has a story on WinInfo this morning that agrees with the broad outlines of Neowin’s report but has a different set of dates:
As with previous service packs, Microsoft will stage the release of SP2. First, the product will be made available for download to its premier customers and then the general public via the company’s Web site (the so-called release to Web, or RTW), and Microsoft will begin taking orders for the free CD-based version of the product. Two weeks later, SP2 will be made available to customers through Windows Update and Automatic Updates. And by early September, PC makers will begin shipping new PCs with the software installed.
Adam L. Penenberg has an excellent essay in Wired News: What, Me Register? He tells how he (and others) circumvent the annoying registration requirements of Web sites, mostly news-related ones:
Depending on my mood, I’m a 92-year-old spinster from Topeka whose hobbies include snowboarding, macramé and cryptology; the CEO of a successful high-tech firm in Bumblebutt, New York, whose company has a market capitalization of four cents; or an Alaskan mango grower. What magazines do I read? Soldier of Fortune, Modern Bride, Granta and High Times. Date of birth? Dec. 7, 1941. July 4, 1976. Jan. 1, 1901. My name? Jed Clampett, Mustang Sally or Freddy Fudbuster.
Much more creative than my collection of fake identities, I admit. But I agree with his point completely: I strongly suspect that most of the information people are submitting is bogus, so why perpetrate the fiction? Why annoy everyone to collect dubious information for the sake of advertisers?
Update: See this post for some other suggestions on how to avoid annoying sign-in requirements on Web sites.
Well, well, well. Microsoft has removed the beta versions of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP from its Web site.
The note on the site says they’ve been removed to make way for the final release. That must mean that Neowin.net was right in its report that the service pack will be released very soon. The specific dates they reported were August 4, for automatic downloads, with manual downloads available on Thursday and files on Windows Update around August 25.
I’ve been using various test builds of SP2 for roughly a year, and I recommend it highly. It goes a long, long way to repairing the major security issues that have plagued Windows in recent years.
If you have any feedback on SP2, send me a note. Unless you specifically request that I keep your message private, I’ll consider the contents of any messages eligible for publication here.
I’ve been away on vacation for the past few weeks, and now that I’m back I’m knee-deep into my next book project. I’ll have some interesting announcements in the next few weeks.
You might also note that I’ve disabled comments. Partly that was a practical decision. I don’t have a huge problem with comment spam, but typically I was getting 5-10 crap comments per week that snuck past my filters and had to be manually deleted. I couldn’t do that while I was away, so I killed comments.
I don’t plan on bringing them back, either. If you want to comment on something I’ve written, please do so on your own blog and use the Trackback feature to ping my site. (Or sign up with Technorati, and I’ll get notification automatically when you link to an entry here.)
What? You don’t have your own blog? Go to blogger.com and set one up on BlogSpot. Takes a few minutes. Costs nothing. Who knows? You might discover that you have more to say than just a random comment to me.
Scoble points out an interesting blog, Spyware Warrior, which I had not seen before. It’s been around six months and seems to be a good source of info for security experts.
