B said:
When I tried to update my second computer I received an "access is
denied" error message. I had unplugged all peripherals and
terminated the firewall and antivirus program.
Thank you to all those who answer.
Since you should have nothing to lose (installation of a pre-release
software should only be done on a system you are willing/able to
format and rebuild at a moments notice - virtual machines with a
revert capability are great for this) when trying to install the
pre-release software (Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate 2)
simply format and perform a clean install on your test machine
that you are trying to install SP3 RC2 upon.
You also could try booting into Safe Mode and performing a
System Restore to a point in time before you installed Service
Pack 3 Release Candidate 2...
Before trying the pre-release software again on this obviously
crowded test machine - try a cleanup of said test machine. Similar
to one you might do before installing any major service pack full
release. The only real difference is that being a test machine - it
is not as important you backup anything...
- Uninstall unnecessary software.
- Update the hardware drivers from the hardware manufacturer's support
web pages.
- Use Disk Cleanup to clear all but the last restore point and to free up
some space not being used by much more than junk.
- Check for viruses/trojans/worms...
- Check for adware/spyware/malware...
- Use CHKDSK to check your hard disk drive for errors.
- Use DEFRAG to cleanup the drive a bit - tidy it up.
Then - once you have your test machine cleaned up - you could make a new
image of it (or however you plan to restore it each time you are done with
whatever tests you use it for) and you'd have a better testbed machine for
it.
Note - being a pre-release product - there really is not a direct support
option available. You have a few options, however:
Start here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsxp/0a5b9b10-17e3-40d9-8d3c-0077c953a761.aspx
Which can lead you:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=103822
and the forums set up specifically for the pre-release product:
http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2010&SiteID=17
And of course:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2b2-aab1-b969a62c68a7&DisplayLang=en#filelist
Where you can download it in different languages OR download a script that
sets a registry key on your system so you can get Windows XP SP3 Release
Candidate 2 from the Windows Update web page directly.
Hope that helps!
