XP SP2 command line

Frank;

I only have part of the answer;
http://www.minasi.com/sp2info/xpsp2color.pdf - Slide 81 gives the cmd line switches. It is also a good resource (info wise)

As for the turning firewall off, erm...make the install unattended...are you in a domain? if so GPOs batch script? make an MSI for it? there was another one i thought of...cant remember now...hope this is a start!

I would use Group Polict to roll out the update. If done properly you can roll it out to workstations before the user logs in.

I would be careful about running it silently. If your users are like mine they probably on read 20% of your emails. As such if their computer get real slow for no apparent reason they may just power it off and reboot. If they do that in the middle of SP2 they will fry their system. Better to let them see what is going on in my book.

SP2 can also take up to 1.5 hours to install depending on hardware and memory. That is a long time for their system to be slowed down without seeing what is happening.

Microsoft's guide for deplying XP SP2 is what I used to setup roll out through Group Polic. Another doc I used was Deploying Firewall settings. I wanted to automaticallly push out firewall settings in Group Policy so that all PCs would instantly work on my network after getting SP2. Works beautifully.

Deploying SP2 using Group Policy
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/gpdepsp2.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/spdeploy.mspx

Deploying Firewall Settings using Group Policy:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4454e0e1-61fa-447a-bdcd-499f73a637d1&DisplayLang=en

Using these articles I did not have to touch a single PC.