The last thing I want to show is the slightly changed add/remove programs

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This is all a part of the new windows installer that I talked about in my last article. I believe it'll be a great update.

Wireless Network

Here's a few shots of the new wizard interface.

Outro

With RC2 already out the door we're getting closer and closer to a finished product. Even after updating from the previous build there's plenty of noticeable differences in presentation. Alot of the previously absent documentation is now in place. I haven't had any stability related issues at all in more than 3 months of testing which started before RC1 was released. This sucker is about as stable as a MS product gets ;) This service pack is Microsoft finally taking several steps it should have made several years ago. Better late than never.... It's been great watching MS's biggest SP mature over these months. It will truly bring Windows a huge step closer to where it should be.

Microsoft has created an online training course that details the implications of installing SP2 on Windows XP machines. The course covers the impact on existing applications and includes code samples. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/security/productinfo/XPSP2/default.aspx)

Microsoft's Visual Studio .Net is will not be fully function with this SP. The developer tool's remote debugging feature won't work because of the Firewall. Another MS product that'll break is the .Net Framework. It'll only break in the Itanium and AMD64's with memory protection turned on. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things that quit working properly. The only game that I noticed quit working was Championship Manager which needed a simple patch provided by the developer to make it work again.