You need to create a slipstreamed XP to be able to repair with SP2 installed on an early version. Information about slipstreaming and repair installs on these sites:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/slipstreamed_xpsp2_cd.htm

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm (nicely laid out)

http://www.simplyguides.net/guides/using_autostreamer/using_autostreamer.html  (useful)

Have fun

Dave

Okay, that took awhile. But most my irritations have been solved. Windows didnt close down anymore, and if i manually rebooted, it shut down, but not allways, and if it actually did restart, it said; "dual channel loaded" whatever that may mean, and "no keyboard, or keyboard not present" so i had to close down anyway lol. But then it booted allways in bios setup.. rather irritating. Then a few other things, like some vague BSOD's if i clicked my Plextor DVD DL writer, but also not allways.. rofl.. .i allways forgot what those BSOD's were, but i had never seen em before. And oh yeah.. i had a dual loadscreen, ie; 2 Windows XP copy's installed (it said) all of a sudden, and not only that, but it said that they both were Windows Xp media center, however, i dont have a dual startup.. Nor do i ever had media center, i never had it, hell, i never even seen one.. Never installed a second copy of any Windows version, (whatfore ?) No, they all of a sudden appeared out of nowhere. And no, i dont have spy/addware/virusses, scan my system for those every week, with several anti spyware scanners and a Virusscanner. And i think im as well protected by my great firewall as anyone could be.

But so far, they have all been solved. It wasnt easy though.. First time it got stuck at 34%, and i had to reboot. After that, it started all over again, but it finnished in like 45 min. okay, my icons where all messed up, again, and it had to install some of my hardware and even some software again, but after like an hour, it was all ok.

So, it actually worked, wich in my case, i didnt really expect. BTW, is there some freeware proggy, or shareware, if needed, that can lock your Icons in place ?... so i dont have to sort them out a lot of times.. only have to click that, and they get set back where they were ?.. coz everytime i update my vidcard drivers, (as an example), they get all messed up again... and i got like 35 or something... i hate that. if anyone has a good idea, it would be welcome.. i could not find anything on google, but then again im not a hero with google, or any other search engine for that matter, if i dont know the exact name of that what i am looking for...

Glad you've solved most of your problems. Can't help you with regard to something to organise desktop icons automatically though.

I can make a suggestion - 72 icons on your desktop us way too many. You can't possibly need to have so many shortcuts on your desktop - you might as well use the Start Menu to launch programs.

Here's what I do:

1. Only keep minimum icons on the desktop.
2. Use folders on the desktop to organise icons.
3. Make use of the Quicklaunch toolbar for most use programs.
4. I have an extra folder called "Working" that has toolbar access. In there I keep my DTP related program shortcuts.
5. Organise Start Menu programs into folder groups that suit me (PC Maintenance, Internet, Media, Security etc

Finally - I delete all the icons for launching hardly used programs that I can launch from other places apart from one or two.

Hope this helps

Dave

If you want all those shortcuts, nothing is wrong with it. But, it was you that raised the "problem". The suggestions I made were only ways to be organised.

Would you like instructions on how to create an extra toolbar for the taskbar? You could group games icons into the folder and access it from the taskbar.

Dave

This may be better as a sticky in the repair Xp section, but I'll leave it up to you.  

I have found a programme which will integrate all MS updates into your xp disc.  I am currently trailing it out with my slipstreamed xpsp2 disc.  

What the programme does is, as the name suggests integrates all updates into your main XP disc which can then be burned as an ISO image.

This is the log file from the integration I have done:
   

So I now have an xp disc current with all updates to Feb 06, there is also the facility to add extra programmes (spyware etc) to be instaled at the same time.  The page for download is here  http://ryanvm.net/msfn/ The page with screenshots is here http://ryanvm.net/msfn/manual.html and the page with the contents of the cab file are here http://ryanvm.net/msfn/updatepack.html
and the addons contents and download are here http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511

I will keep you updated when I next do a re-instal.  As a thought this sort of programme would be usefull for a computer retailer, repairer.  

There is also a well used forum which I am currently going through here http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/index.php

Well.. since i repair pc's for a living, i think this could be very usefull.. just did a new install of XP home edition at a client, and i got like 14 updates in, wich then had to install... shutting the damn think off, didnt work, coz it even went ahead with installing far in the blue shutdown screen...  

U could just have saved me and others a lot of time... and thus money...  

OK I did it and it worked.  I had a slipstreamed SP2 burnt to disc.  I then integrated all the updates using the integrator plus Windows Media Player 10.  I decided to leave the ZA and Avast addons for next time I try it.  How I did it was insert the new cd into the drive and run setup for xp from there using the advanced option to select partition.  35 minutes later XP was on my C partition, loaded my chipset, video, audio, firewall and av.  Loaded my isp and modem went straight to windows updates none required.  Total time just under 1 hour, next time I will try to integrate  ZA, Avast Net framework 2.0.  Totally safe and secure as soon as I was online..   I have saved the integrator main programmes and the addons into their own folder on my D drive and work everything from there, I also have on my D drive at the moment a slipstreamed XPSP2 fully integrated up to March, so if you have a spare partition you can run it from there.  Motto ALWAYS verify backups don't assume that they are OK