Question about XP through Bootcamp

[dre1919]

First off, my apologies if this topic has already been covered. I just bought a new 20" iMac and I would like to install Windows XP Professional on it. I have a full 32 bit copy of XP Pro, but I believe it's only SP1. I think I remember reading in the Boot Camp guide that it needed to be SP2 or greater. Is this true? And if I install it, will their be problems or catastrophe? Thanks for the help all.

-dre

[zarmanto]

You will indeed have difficulties if you try to install from an SP1 disk -- but there is a solution: If you have access to an existing Windows computer, then you can simply "slipstream" SP2 into a new installation CD, using your existing CD as the source. There are several sources (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=slipstream+xp&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) for instructions on how to do this.

Side note: If you don't have access to an existing Windows box, then one way to get it done would be to download a free demo of either VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop, install Windows from your SP1 disk into a virtualized machine running in the demo, and create your SP2 disk from within your newly created SP1 installation.

[specter]

Side note: If you don't have access to an existing Windows box, then one way to get it done would be to download a free demo of either VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop, install Windows from your SP1 disk into a virtualized machine running in the demo, and create your SP2 disk from within your newly created SP1 installation.
This sounds rather interesting...
Anyway, it is much better to get SP2 as soon as possible, because it eliminates a few issues with viruses etc.
Once I had a big problem with SP1. My windows PC rebooted 30 seconds after I started Windows. I tried to find solution and understood that my PC was infected. The only way to disarm the virus was SP2
________
Mexico city hotels (http://mexicocityhotel.info)

[zarmanto]

This sounds rather interesting...

Glad you like my little suggestion; it's the type of thing I used to do all the time when I was still in tech support. Microsoft doesn't even bother to send out actual media to their larger "enterprise" customers, so rather then go to the trouble of going through the person who was authorized to download disk images from Microsoft's server, I just routinely slipstreamed my installation disk from the original XP disk which we had already downloaded.

Anyway, it is much better to get SP2 as soon as possible, because it eliminates a few issues with viruses etc.
Once I had a big problem with SP1. My windows PC rebooted 30 seconds after I started Windows. I tried to find solution and understood that my PC was infected. The only way to disarm the virus was SP2

Yeah... that's only because Microsoft finally figured out that firewalls should be turned on by default. (DUH!) SP1 also included a firewall, so if you had ensured that your SP1 machine was not connected to the internet until after you turned on the firewall, then you'd most likely be fine -- but then, pretty much the only people who actually think about those things are desktop support technicians and serious computer geeks.

Of course, even with that, there is still no better solution then getting a reputable third-party anti-virus package installed with up-to-date virus definitions. After all, considering that it's Microsoft's track record with vulnerabilities that put Windows users in this mess in the first place... would you trust a Microsoft firewall?

[specter]

pretty much the only people who actually think about those things are desktop support technicians and serious computer geeks.

After all, considering that it's Microsoft's track record with vulnerabilities that put Windows users in this mess in the first place... would you trust a Microsoft firewall?
When it happened a was too unexperienced in computers to know that Firewall ever existed...

Currently I use Kaspersky to protect my BootCamp/Parallels Windows partition. It came with the Christmas Parallels Premium Edition for free, that's why I'll use it until the license ends (1 year). On top of it they also included Acronis True Image there - a good app to back up data.
________
EXTREME Q VAPORIZERS (http://vaporizer.org/reviews/extreme)