So you have a Windows XP installation disc. Why not make a new one with Windows XP Service Pack 3 included on it? This way you won’t have the extra step of installing SP3 when you install Windows XP. Here’s how to combine Service Pack 3 with your current version of Windows to create a new bootable installation CD.
1. Download Windows XP SP3 Network Installation to your Desktop.
3. Run the nLite installer. Follow the menus by clicking Next and eventually you will be asked where your Windows XP installation information is. In this example, I have selected the CD-ROM drive that has my Windows XP installation CD in it.
4. After choosing a location for where the install files are coming from, you will be prompted to select a location to save the files. In this example, I created and selected a C:\XPSP3 directory.
5. nLite then copies the files from the CD to the XPSP3 folder.
6. Select the location that you wish to customize. This will be the C:\XPSP3 directory. Click Next.
7. The wizard will prompt for preset information. You can just click Next.
8. Select Service Pack. You can also play with the other options if you wish. We just want to merge the service pack in this tutorial, so we just click Next.
9. Click Select to choose the service pack.
10. Select the service pack installation file we downloaded to your Desktop. Click Open.
11. The service pack files get extracted.
12. nLite will then merge the file in with the files in the C:\XPSP3 directory.
13. The integration finishes. Click OK.
14. The slipstream creation is complete. Click Finish. Now you can burn the files in the C:\XPSP3 directory and you have a Windows XP installation with Service Pack 3 included.
To take it one step further, you may want to make the CD Bootable. Here is an example of how to do this using Nero 8. It’s available for a 15 day free trial.
1. Download the Microsoft Corporation.img file to the Desktop.
2. Start Nero Burning ROM and select CD-ROM (Boot). Set the following settings:
- Image name, Browse to the Microsoft Corporation.img file on the Desktop.
- Kind of emulation, select No Emulation.
- Load Segment of sectors, select 0×7c0.
- Numbers of loaded sectors, select 4.
Click New when you are done.
2. In Nero, select all of the files in the C:\XPSP3 directory and drag them over to the left side to burn. Click the Burn button on the top toolbar when you are ready.
3. Insert a recordable CD into the drive and click Burn on the next screen.
4. The burn process should finish successfully leaving you with a bootable, slipstreamed Windows SP3 installation CD.
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when i try to put in 0x7c0 i get an error that it must be 4 so i let it stay 07C0 do you know what the problem is?
thanks
HOW TO SLIPSTREAM SP2 CD WITH SP3 CD USING NLITE ?
@ new guy
I have both a retail copy of WinXP and an OEM copy. Back when I made a slipstreamed SP2 disk I got half way thru the install and found my product key didn’t work. I’d goofed and used the retail copy to build the slip disk and then tried to reinstall on my machine which had the OEM version. I believe these versions have different code for validating product id’s so be sure to start with the correct disk. For me, I’ll be making two slip disks -one retail and one with an OEM base.
@ Jose
When the SP3 is installed over the original disk it’s basically copying updated files over the old ones for the most part so it will still fit on a CD when burned.
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