With most of the brouhaha over XP Service Pack 2 behind us, the time has come to ask yourself: What happens the next time I need to reinstall Windows?

After all, XP is starting to show its age, having been through not one but three service pack updates (SP1, SP1a and SP2). If your system came with the original version of XP, that setup disc is severely out of date; if you ever have to reinstall the operating system, you'll have to install XP first and then install either SP2 on top of it, or, if you don't want to use the latest service pack, SP1a. That not only means you'll have to do another lengthy download if you don't have a copy of the service pack handy, it also roughly doubles the installation time.

Wouldn't it be great if you could merge your original XP disc with the downloaded service pack to create an updated installation CD? That way, a single install would bring your system almost completely up to date, barring any recently-issued patches from Microsoft, of course.

Slipstreaming lets you do just that.

The slipstreaming process

The ability to slipstream a service pack was introduced with Windows 2000. You can slipstream Windows 2000, Windows XP Home and Professional, and Windows Server 2003. If you're using Windows XP, you can slipstream any of the three service packs issued so far.

In large organisations where the tech department performs automated Windows installations across the network, the slipstreamed operating system is stored on a hard drive on the network. For home and small office users, it usually makes more sense to burn the slipstreamed Windows onto a CD, so a permanent copy is always available.

Creating such a CD is a six-step process:

  1. Copy the files from your Windows setup CD into a folder on your hard disk.
  2. Download the network installation version of the service pack you wish to slipstream.
  3. Extract the service pack's contents to a folder on your hard disk.
  4. Update the original XP files with the service pack files.
  5. Create a bootable CD image file of the slipstreamed operating system.
  6. Burn the image file to CD.

Some of these steps can be quite fiddly. Fortunately, a little piece of freeware called nLite does away with almost all the tricky bits and automates most of the process for you.

This articles shows you how to slipstream Windows XP and XP Service Pack 2 using nLite. The steps are almost identical no matter which version of Windows and which service pack you use.

Don't mix and match
Don't try to slipstream a service pack designed for one version of Windows with another version of Windows. It won't work. Service packs intended for XP are only for use with XP; those for Windows 2000 won't work with XP.

What you'll need

To slipstream XP and SP2 you'll need:

  1. Click Start -> Run, type cmd and click Open.
  2. At the Command prompt type md \XPCD and press Enter.
  3. Type exit to close the Command window.
nLite
Slipstreaming is only a very small part of nLite's capabilities. This clever little program also lets you pick and choose which components of Windows you wish to include in creating a Windows setup disc – how about leaving out Windows Media Player or even Internet Explorer, for example? It also lets you set automatic installation options, so you can create a Windows setup routine which requires no interaction on your part once you insert the disc.
If you like nLite, consider donating to the author.

Slipstreaming

Once you've gathered all the components for slipstreaming, you're ready to roll:

  1. Place your original Windows setup CD in the drive. If the Windows setup screen appears, close it.
  2. Start nLite and click Next when the initial screen appears.
  3. Click the Browse button and locate the drive in which you've placed the Windows setup CD, then click OK.
  4. A second Browse dialog will appear immediately, requesting the location where you'll store a copy of your Windows files. Select the XPCD folder you created earlier and click OK. nLite will copy your Windows setup CD files to the XPCD folder. Once the copying has completed, click Next.
  5. Click the Browse button in the Integrate Service Pack section and locate the copy of Service Pack 2 you downloaded. It should be called WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe or something similar. Select the file and click Open. nLite will extract the contents of the service pack and then update the original files in the XPCD folder.
  6. Click OK to close the Integrated Install Complete box.
  7. You're now ready to create a bootable CD image file, which you'll then burn to CD. By default, nLite sets the CD volume label to WinLite, which you'll see displayed in quotation marks in the Make Bootable CD Image box. It makes sense to change this to match the volume label on your original Windows setup disc. The easiest way to check what that is, provided your setup disc is still in the CD drive, is to open My Computer and check the volume label displayed on the drive. If the setup disc you're using is the original full version of XP Home, for example, change "WinLite" to "WXHFPP_EN". Then click the Make ISO button, choose a location for the image file – the desktop is fine – rename the image file to match the volume label (in our example, it will be WXHFPP_EN.ISO) and click Save.
  8. Once the image file has been created, click Cancel to exit nLite. (nLite has many other features, but you don't need them in order to create a standard slipstreamed Windows.)
  9. The last step is to burn the iso image file you've created to CD, so place a blank writeable CD in your CD burner, then use your CD burning software to burn the iso image. The process differs depending on the burning software you use.

That's it, you're done. Label your disc appropriately and store it safely.

SP2 over SP1?
Service packs are cumulative. If you install SP2, there's no need to install SP1a or SP1 first. On the other hand, if the Windows setup disc supplied with your computer came with SP1a already included, you can slipstream SP2 over the top of it.

Visual guide: Slipstreaming with nLite

1. Create a folder to store your Windows Setup files. Once you've finished slipstreaming, you can delete this folder to reclaim space.

Using the md command to create a folder

 

2. nLite's automated slipstreaming does away with the need to issue commands and adjust parameters in your CD burning software.

nLite automates most of the slipstreaming process

 

3. Changing the volume label is not essential, but it will help you keep track of your slipstreamed CDs.

Consider changing the volume label to make it more descriptive

 

4. Check whether the slipstreaming 'took' by browsing the contents of your newly created CD and checking the file dates. Original Windows files are dated 2001; SP2 files are from 2004.

Check file dates to ensure the later SP2 files are integrated

 

5. To burn an iso image using Easy CD Creator, use the Disc Copier and select the image file.

Use Disc Copier in Easy CD Creator to burn an iso image

 

6. Nero Express, often pre-installed on systems or supplied with some CD burners, is a cut-down version of Nero Burning Rom. Its Disc Image option lets you burn iso image files.

You can also burn iso images in Nero Express

© 2005  Rose Vines

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