I run a small computer repair shop out of my home and I have installed XP on
dozens of systems. Lately when I do a clean install with XP or XP SP1 and
then instantly install SP2 from CD, after the systems get the 90+ MS updates
they slow down considerably. I just had an older Dell Dimension 8260 that
restarted after SP2 with a BSD. The second installation of XP SP1 I let MS
update do everything and it installed 60+ updates to SP1 before moving on to
installing SP2. This system is running better than any I have done a
re-install on for the past 6 months.
What is the best procedure for a clean install if you have XP or XP SP1?
Sam Steinhauser wrote:
> I run a small computer repair shop out of my home and I have
> installed XP on dozens of systems. Lately when I do a clean install
> with XP or XP SP1 and then instantly install SP2 from CD, after the
> systems get the 90+ MS updates they slow down considerably. I just
> had an older Dell Dimension 8260 that restarted after SP2 with a
> BSD. The second installation of XP SP1 I let MS update do
> everything and it installed 60+ updates to SP1 before moving on to
> installing SP2. This system is running better than any I have done
> a re-install on for the past 6 months.
>
> What is the best procedure for a clean install if you have XP or XP
> SP1?
Personally - I like to integrate/slipstream SP2 and as many critical updates
as I can into the installation media before using it to reinstall. Then
right after the installation is done - I install all the hardware drivers
from the manufacturer's support web pages and 'tweak' the system (getting
rid of unnecessary startups/services/a bunch of the really useless XP
prettifications, Internet explorer TIF settings, etc.) Follow that up with
getting the rest of the updates and installing antivirus/antispyware and
then the applications and all their updates.
Slow system with SP2 and updates 
Linear Mode
