Windows 2000 service packs introduce the long sought after ability to be able to apply a service pack to a Windows 2000 distribution point, e.g. I386, and then when you install clients from that distribution point they already have all of the updated files for the service pack.

This is very easy to use as follows:

1. Copy your Windows 2000 CD (Professional, Server or Advanced Server) to a distribution point, e.g. F:\windows 2000\win2kp. You must copy the whole CD and not just I386, in this example it expects i386 to be at F:\windows 2000\win2kp\i386. At a minimum you could just copy over the I386 folder and the CDROM_XX.5 (e.g. CDROM_IS.5 for server, CDROM_IP.5 for professional) and CDROM_NT.5 to the root.
2. Run the update command from the service pack area with the -s switch then the path of the Windows 2000 distribution point, e.g.
   C:\> update -s:"f:\windows 2000\win2kp"
   You need the quotes if there are spaces in the path. Notice I don't use the i386 folder, its needs the root as it checks for the CDROM_XX.5 file
3. It will then update all the files and you are ready to install from that distribution share, easy!

The key files replaced are a new layout.inf, dosnet.inf and txtsetup.sif which are the files that contain checksums for all files and updated with new ones for the service pack files. Also new entries may be added if new files are part of the service pack.

A new driver.cab MAY also be supplied if drivers have been updated which form the cabinet file.

You could then create a CD with this version to be able to install locally without a network connection using instructions in the FAQ for creating bootable CD's.

I get an RPC error trying to install Service Pack 1 for Windows 2000, what can I do?

A number of built-in shares exist on each NT/2000 installation, such as C$ which is the root of your C drive, ADMIN$ which is your NT root, e.g. C:\winnt.

If you receive the error "The RPC Service is not available." this is normally be caused by the ADMIN$ share being missing so ensure it exists, this can be checked with the NET SHARE command.

C:\>net share

Share name Resource Remark

----------------------------------------------------------------
D$ D:\ Default share
G$ G:\
ADMIN$ C:\WINNT Remote Admin
C$ C:\ Default share
IPC$ Remote IPC
The command completed successfully.

If it does not exist then remove the registry key as outlined in the mentioned FAQ or manually recreate

C:\> net share admin$=c:\winnt