PC Magazine is [url=“http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1631268,00.asp”]reporting that Windows XP Service Pack 2 has went gold and has been released to manufacturers. It will soon start going through windows update and there will be a website to order the CD (2 of them) if downloading is not an option.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9BE921B3-585E-47D9-BCC1-980879B69B34&displaylang=en oooooooo shiiiiiiney… Maybe this will sort out my fan problem downloads
I’m not so sure. It is Build 2149 and still RC2, and the final should be available via MS’s servers in a few weeks. Doesn’t hurt to try though 
"Aug 2, 2004: Windows XP SP 2 Release Candidate 2 (RC2) Removed from the Web
This signifies the end of the pre-release distribution program in anticipation of the final release of SP2. Windows XP SP2 remains on schedule for release this month.
**We recommend that you not install the RC2 version of SP2 on computers that are running the latest security updates. ** Instead, install the final version of Windows XP SP2 when it becomes available. Installing the RC2 version of SP2 on computers that already have the latest security updates installed can cause incompatibilities. The final release of SP2 will be compatible with all previously installed security updates. "
Guess I’ll be reformatting my PCs…again 
You can download RTM versions of XP2 now: http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=23138&category=main 
It’s not officially from MS yet, so you may want to wait a bit if you feel like not taking the risk and checking the MD5 sum to make sure that the file is authentic.
I’m going to wait though :evil:
downloads I’m buying a new hard drive so I’ll have to reformat if it messes up anyway Wish me luck 
[edit] I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes [/edit]
Here is the official download from the Microsoft servers:
Well after some testing I’m not really impressed… On the net, when I click a link the computer is taking about 5 seconds before it actually tries to load the page from the net. Also, when I recieve e-mails with pictures they wont display for some reason. Booting windows takes some time and generally the computer is running slower. The fans are calm though
[edit] Oh, however, before I used to get explorer crashing all the time especially when I was running Flash MX 2004 or WinMx but that hasn’t happened once… yet [/edit]
Is this the same computer that once had the SP2 Beta installed on it also? I think MS recommends people to not install SP2 over the SP2 beta.
Yeah it did at one point have SP2 Beta installed… it was uninstalled prior to this installation. Do you think that would make a difference?
Maybe. I read on other computer/hardware forums where users had similar issues such as yours when installing SP2 over an installed or even uninstalled SP2 Beta version. That’s why I am not planning on installing the final SP2 until I do a clean format…which won’t be for a while
Just to see what would happen, I installed SP2 final over SP2 Beta, and everything continues to work well So I am not sure why you were having those issues fiery. Hope you got your Japanese language issue with XP resolved!
I just slipstreamed XP Professional with SP2 and did a reformat… it’s running great, I’ve noticed almost a 30% increase in performance over SP1. I’ve heard SP2 has better memory management and most (if not all) of the main Windows files have been recomplied so that could be why.
Specs are P4C 3.0GHz, 1GB RAM PC3200 Dual-Channel, R9800 Pro @ XT
I’m planning on slipstreaming an install in a few days. Paul Thurott (winsupersite) wrote a pretty good article on slipstreaming, so those of you who don’t know how to install XP SP2 on a clean format along with Windows may want to give that a shot
My computer is completly fooked, have to reformat at some point. I’m starting to think theres a possibilty that I wrecked one of my RAM chips… lets not go there…
I going to get the cd, im sure its free the last time I checked. Im not going to dlowd it when its 260mb on 56K, eshhh. I going to definitely reformat im computer some time soon, too much crap.
well i just installed it, and things are much faster
startup was better -
and the application core seems to be better -
will check in if anything weird happens.
has anyone slipstreamed it?
i did it yesterday and installed it today to a new install. and during the copying of new files it said a few files were missing and i just pressed esc to continue. everything seems to be going well.
this firewall is very cool.