To slipstream a Service Pack into a Windows OS Install means taking a Service Pack installer and applying it to the Windows Install Files so that the Windows Install is now pre-loaded with the Service Pack. This means that you will no longer need to install that service pack after installing the OS. It also means that Windows will take less disk space and be much cleaner because there will not be any backup files, etc.
This document will describe the process of slipstreaming a Service Pack into the Windows XP or Windows 2003 Install.
This document will describe the four steps to slipstreaming a Windows Install:
We will specifically be creating a slipstreamed Windows Server 2003 x86 Service Pack 2 install. To slipstream another service pack or OS, you will merely need to substitute the service pack file and appropriate source CD for the ones mentioned. For reference, here are the Service Packs released to date and their filenames.
In order to update the install files, they will need to be in a writable location. You can use any location you want, but this document will demonstrate the Slipstream Installation using the directory C:\TempOS.
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By default, the Service Pack executable will attempt to install the service pack to your operating system. To work with the service pack in other ways, such as using it to slipstream an OS install, you will need to extract the contents of the Service Pack installer to a temporary directory. We will use the directory "C:\TempSP".
Now that the OS Install files are in a writeable location and the Service Pack install files have been extracted, we can now instruct the Service Pack installer to slipstream your OS Install files.
If you were to burn the slipstreamed OS Install files to a CD right now, the CD would not be a bootable CD and so it would not be very useful. In order to make a bootable CD, we will need to extract the boot image from your original OS Install CD and burn the new files to a CD using that boot image. In the end, you will have a full-featured bootable OS Install CD that has the latest Service Pack built-in.
What about the updates not included in the Service Packs? It would be nice if there was a way - say from WSUS - to slip stream an up to date ISO of the OS including the latest patches and service packs.