Windows XP SP2

Blog

I have a Motion M1300 tablet which I use as my primary personal machine and my secodary work machine.  I do all my development on the work laptop, handle email and what not through work, etc; however, personal email, this blog, taking notes in meetings, personal scheduling, etc. are all handled on the tablet.

I have been patiently awaiting the arrival of Windows XP SP2 in order to partake of the “great” tablet enhancements (TIPP and hand writing recogniztion, etc.) as well as the security benefits, but have now run out of patience.  So, I broke down and installed the SP2 Release candidate Preview today while I worked on some documentation.

You have to update to the newest Windows Update software (which it cautions is also beta and may not be as up to date as the official update site), but that was pretty painless.  Once that is installed it will sense you need to get XP SP2 as well.  The install took a while, but it went pretty clean.  Only 1 reboot needed at the end of the install.  The reboot took a long time compared to my normal boot times.  I haven’t done another reboot yet, so I’m hoping that was just a one time deal.  The new Tablet Input Panel (TIP) is pretty nice as you can see what it is recognizing as you write (and can correct it), but it doesn’t seem to “grow” automatically when you reach the end of your line like they advertise….maybe I have to undock it for that to work….

Overall I haven’t seen much difference in anything else, except the fact that windows detects if you have a virus detector operating and gives you “security alerts” (for some reason it thinks my Norton Anitvirus isn’t running, but it is).  The firewall is supposed to be heavily updated to something that would take more than a cough and wink to get through, but since I’m not a hacker I haven’t really looked into that claim.

Anyway, you can get the download here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/sp2preview.mspx

Some more information about the service pack and what you can expect can be found here:
http://www.updatexp.com/windows-xp-service-pack-2.html

Disclaimer: This is BETA SOFTWARE.  I do not recommend installing this on any production machine, or a machine in which you care anything about what is on it.  Once installed, do not depend on the machine to operate correctly.  If you have a problem after/during installation the only support you will get is from newsgroups.  Microsoft does NOT support this release yet.  

With that being said, I installed it without a hitch and if I run into problems I guess I’ll figure it out!