Winders XP Service Pack 2 Install Instructions

Here is the what I did for my Winders XP SP2 upgrade.
Winders provides this most excellent feature called "Automatic Updates". "Automatic Updates" comes on all new computers and nags you to download and install security patches on your new computer.

1. Automatic Updates pops up when you turn your computer on and informs you that updates are "Ready to Install".
2. Ignore the nagging pop-up for 2 months
3. When you have nothing else better to do, turn on your computer and click on the Automatic Update button to commence installing Service Pack 2. Microsoft makes it very easy to begin this installation because they want you to be upto date.
4. Follow the instructions during the install process, clicking "Next" when all the disclaimers are displayed.
5. After about 45 minutes, you are notified that you computer will need to be re-booted for the update to take effect.
6. Choose the reboot now button.
7. When the Re-boot stops at the black DOS screen informing you that Windows cannot load properly, don't panic.
8. Choose the "Run Windows in Safe Mode" option on the DOS screen. You will need to use the up-down keys because the mouse driver is not loaded.
9. The Re-boot may hang when trying to run Winders in Safe Mode. Avoid the temptation to panic and have some Tea.
10. Try rebooting in different safe modes (With Curser, With Networking, etc..) . If this fails, have some more Tea.
11. Try rebooting with "Last Known Good Configuration". This will not work because you over wrote your entire operating system already - but it's worth a try anyway.
12. Lose some sleep.
13. Bring computer into work to have 2 network engineers evaluate problem.
14. Go to "Live Chat" with Computer manufacturer, explain problem.
15. Wait 1 hour for the live chat to begin.
16. Take a quick break to go to the bathroom because of all the tea you've been having lately.
17. Return to workstation to find the Live Chat person has logged on, given the solution and logged off. The solution is to boot in Safe Mode and uninstall service pack 2.
18. Get frustrated because computer can't be booted in Safe Mode.
19. Throw up your arms.
20. Put Manufacturer XP Recovery Disk in the CD ROM drive.
21. Choose option that Backs up Disk to a directory on your hard-drive.
22. Reinstall Windows.
23. Very Important... Disable "Automatic Updates" Service.
    
24. Reinstall Wireless networking, Apache, Tomcat, PHP, mySQL, Mozilla, Thunderbird, etc...
25. try to retrieve any data on the backup directory.
26. Write blog entry.
27. Have a good nights sleep.