All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

If you haven’t heard of nLite, it enables you to do create a custom Windows XP CD slipstreamed with SP2, hotfixes, and let it all run unattended. You could tweak it further, but it’s a little tricky if you go bonkers on the check boxes. But basically, it helps you save time by not requiring you to sit through the install process, manually installing SP2 and applying a ton of hotfixes. Sure, you can do this manually, but this has a GUI to make it easier.

I haven’t heard about RyanVM’s Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack until today. It looks awesome. Whether or not you use nLite, you can still use it. Sweet!

The purpose of this pack is to replace files on the Windows XP install CD (with SP2 integrated) with the updated files from hotfixes issued since the release of Service Pack 2. This pack provides many advantages over other methods of hotfix integration:

1. Direct integration means that all hotfixed files are integrated into your CD from the start. No need to worry about your computer being insecure in the time prior to the installation of hotfixes.
2. This pack adds the necessary registry entries Windows Update and qfecheck look for when checking if a hotfix is properly installed.
3. This pack installs the needed Security Catalogs for the hotfixed files so that Windows File Protection recognizes and protects them.
4. This pack requires little extra space on the CD, especially when compared to other integration methods.
5. This pack does not require an unattended installation CD in order to work.
6. This pack is supported by nLite 0.99.9+ for automatic integration.

Geek talk, nLite users only: I just might do another clean install to implement this. Plus, I think SFC check wasn’t disabled, because I get that prompt that asks you to insert the Windows XP CD when installing drivers and software. (See “Windows File Protection” forum post)