How to slipstream Service Pack 3 in Windows XP Installation

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This is a guide to walk you through the procedure to slipstream Service Pack 3 in to your Windows XP installation.

There are two ways to slipstream Service Pack 3 in Windows XP Installation, the easy and short way - using nLite, and the normal way - using CLI. We will look in to the former, simply because it is much faster and easier as well as less time consuming.

Slipstreaming SP3 with your XP Installation CD means integrating Service Pack 3 with your default XP Install CD so that you dont have to install SP3 everytime you reinstall Windows XP. It saves up on time and space.

You will need the following to do this :

Microsoft Windows XP Setup CD / Image
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 Setup
nLite
A Blank CD / Image software

Procedure :

Initial Windows XP, SP3 and nLite configuration

Insert the Windows XP Installation CD in your disk drive and copy the folders and files inside it to a new directory on your Hard drive (C:), namely XP (You can name it anything you want) such that C:\XP has the files and folders of the Windows XP installation CD - i386, SETUP.EXE etc.

Keep your Windows XP SP3 installation file handy, It should be named windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe by default.

If you don’t have the Windows XP SP3 installation file, you can download it from microsoft.com. Here is the direct link - Microsoft Windows XP SP3 Install

Now just install and start nLite (remember you will need .NET framework 2.0 to run nLite. You can download it here - Microsoft .NET 2.0 FrameWork ).

Note: NLite is a nifty and light XP Bootable CD editing and creation tool. You can get it here. There is a similar utility for Windows Vista called VLite.

Integrate SP3 with XP

At the startup screen, select your language and press “Next”. Then browse to the path of your Windows XP installation ( C:\XP in our case) and click “Next”.

When you reach the task selection window, select “Integrate - Service Pack” and “Create - Bootable ISO” and click “Next” again.

In the next Service Pack selection window, select the Service Pack 3 installation file - windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe. nLite will extract and start integrating the SP3 setup with your Windows XP Installation. This can take quite some time, about 4-5 minutes on slow computers.

Burn it to an ISO / CD

When it is done, a Dialog box will popup informing you that the “Integrated Install has completed successfully”. Click “Next” and you will be greeted by a Bootable ISO Creation window. Select “Create Image or Direct Burn” and burn the Windows XP with SP3 setup to a CD or Image file. Give it another label if you prefer to (like XPSP3). After selecting all the proper options, just click “Make ISO / Burn” and save it to any location you want. Click “Next” and your Windows XP with Slipstreamed SP3 setup CD is done.