Monkey Wrench

I went to the "Technology Solutions Center" on campus to buy Windows XP today (see my previous post), but it turns out I have to order on their website and wait for shipping; they don't keep it in stock. Being impatient, I started looking for alternative methods of getting an install CD of Windows XP with SP2 (other than pirating it). I came across this, which I am going to try. Basically, it involves copying the contents of the install CD into a folder, downloading the SP2 update and applying it to the folder, then burning a new CD. First, I am going to try doing it on my new computer in Ubuntu, using Wine and other tools. I would love to be able to say I took an old Windows XP CD and created a (legal?) up-to-date CD using Linux. If I fail (which is likely), the backup plan is to use my laptop and create the CD in Windows. That will be more annoying because I use Ubuntu on my laptop and so I will have to backup files, install Windows, create the CD, then reinstall Ubuntu, i.e., to get Windows on my desktop, which has Ubuntu, I have to install Windows on my laptop, which I want Ubuntu on, so that I can install Windows on my desktop, and then install Ubuntu back on my laptop.