Windows SP2 help

[penguin]

not being able to upgrade the work computers to sp3 means that it wont get any new security updates by itself.. just curious if theres a way i can still update things manually without having to get sp3 AND does anybody know any sites with a tutorial or something similar on how to upgrade/update stuff for servers.... is it basically the same as a computer? ... can i just plug in a monitor to it and see whats going on?

[midnightservice]

1. why can you not upgrade to sp3. this being asked if you dont you can not or will not be able to update anything again on them.
2. yes updating a windows is the same as updating a windows computer.
3. the monitr part really depends on the type of server you are using.

[penguin]

we use adobe acrobat, fusionpro and some other programs for setting up printable files... with sp3 installed files cant be pdf'd or duplicated or worked with in any way without freezing the computer... seems to screw with the printers we have as well

[Archangelus]

You can use Microsoft/Windows Update to update the machines. There may be some updates you can't get because they will be dependent upon XP SP3.

Also, if you have a lot of machines to update, you may want to look into WSUS. However, it very well could be more work than you really need to go through to update a smaller number of machines (< 20)

[penguin]

for some reason it wont allow me to turn on the auto update on the computers... its greyed out.. i keep checking back and forth on the website.. but it always tells me i have to get sp3... the boss is just worried because a friend of him sent an email about an security update that windows just put out on the 22nd.. or 23rd

im trying to convince him that we should just upgrade to vista and get it over with.. but im not sure if everything we use is compatible with it and what new problems it might bring.. not too mention some of the machines here are 6-8 years old and probably couldnt handle it... sometimes its tough to justify spending that ammount of money for a smaller business like this.. but its gotta be done eventually

[Archangelus]

Don't go to Vista. Windows 7 is coming out 1st Q 2010. XP is in extended support until 2014.

Just figure out how to get on XP SP3.

What do you get when you go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com (must use IE)? If you can update from there, you should be fine. Otherwise I suspect someone has put a GPO in place to prevent Automatic Updating.

[PinkRabi]

what is a GPO?

just cos my vista machine wont update itself, whenever i check for updates i get a Code 80070490 error. Looked on google but help seemed very limited besides "reinstall"

[penguin]

on my machine at home when i tried to install i got a strange error to pink, ended up tracking it back to a custom boot.ini for a strange login/bootup screen i had from using stylexp.. just had to go back to the original boot.ini.. restart and it worked like a charm

[penguin]

wow arch, when i went to that link... rather than just telling me to upgrade to sp3.. it had 28 different updates, i take it thats not the same one you get when you type "windows update" in google... hopefully that works out =D thanks

on my machine at home when i tried to install i got a strange error too pink, ended up tracking it back to a custom boot.ini for a strange login/bootup screen i had from using stylexp.. just had to go back to the original boot.ini.. restart and it worked like a charm

[PinkRabi]

hmmmm... where abouts was said file peng?

[penguin]

i just did a search for "changing boot.ini" and it gave me the default looking one.. copy/pasted... be REALLY careful when you do it.. if you screw up one little thing you'll never get your computer to reboot