Windows XP SP2 has been released.

[Shockeye]

Ok, enough of the toe-licking, transsexual, furry, Rick James news.

Yahoo is reporting that SP2 has been released.

Neowin.net has a little more detail and a link for the download.

[personman]

That's very cute how their download links for SP2 instead pimp spamables.

SP2 is supposed to be on Windows Update in the next few days.  In the meantime for the non-Geekish here is Microsoft's Security Wizard that enables the features enforced more stringently in SP2:

http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.aspx

[Arcadian Del Sol]

My experiences with SP3 for NT4 tells me that now is not the time to install XP SP2, and that sometime closer to December would be a more appropriate time. Your blind faith in Microsoft's QA may vary.

[Shockeye]

I've seen enough "error" screens from SP2 installs to tell me to wait this one out a bit. The only way I can see safely installing this puppy is to slipstream SP2 onto a new XP install disc and then back everything up and do a clean install of XP with SP2 already in.

[SirBruce]

Looks like SP2 wasn't quite ready for prime-time:

Windoes XP Update Delayed Again
IBM tells employees not to install SP2
DEP feature doesn't work on most Intel processors

Bruce

[Righ]

Microsoft has been up to its usual tricks with developers, feeding the in crowd with information, and failing to disclose the requirements, or even consequences of changes such as code signing and new features such as NX to folks more distant than these close partners. The upshot is that applications and libraries built to earlier API models won't work.

A pain in the ass for users certainly, but moreover a support nightmare that will cost billions of dollars to the industry. And since many of the application developers compete against Microsoft and its close pals on this Microsoft OS platform in the same application market, it appears to be highly anti-competitive.

When 40% of the code of an operating system is rewritten, it seems to me to be somewhat duplicitous to call this software release a service pack.

[AOFanboi]

When 40% of the code of an operating system is rewritten, it seems to me to be somewhat duplicitous to call this software release a service pack.

Nonsense: The OS division is doing the applications division a great service by inconveniencing their competitors.

Hence, service pack.

But to everone else, including end users and sysadmins: Here's a DISservice-pack 4 U.

[Nebu]

I checked for SP2 last night and it's not quite ready for XP home use.

Yes, I did just agree with SirBruce.