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After installing Service Pack 2 (SP2), you
may wonder what you should do if you decide to rebuild the system
from scratch using a reformat-reinstall operation. In order to
avoid having to reinstall SP2, you can create a quick Windows XP
SP2 slipstream CD using your original XP CD, the network
installation version of SP2, and a special command. Here’s how:

  1. Create two folders in the root directory on
    your hard disk: one called WXP-SP2 and the other called D-SP2.
  2. Use drag-and-drop to copy the entire contents
    of the original XP CD to the WXP-SP2 folder.
  3. Download the network installation version of SP2 and copy it to
    the D-SP2 folder.
  4. Rename the WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe
    file to Wxpsp2.exe.
  5. Open a command prompt window and at the
    prompt type CD \D-SP2
    and press [Enter].
  6. At the prompt, type Wxpsp2.exe
    /integrate:C:\WXP-SP2 and press [Enter].
  7. When the extraction and integration operation
    is complete, you can use drag-and-drop to copy the entire contents
    of the C:\WXP-SP2 to your CD-RW drive and burn the files to a
    CD.

Note: This quick procedure
doesn’t create a bootable Windows XP SP2 slipstream CD. Creating a
bootable CD is a more detailed operation that involves a shareware
tool called IsoBuster and a
full featured CD-ROM burning application such as those from Nero or
Roxio.