Beginners Guides: Installing Windows XP

Getting started with a new operating system - Version 1.0.1

Installing Microsoft operating systems has never been a particularly trying task,
assuming that your hardware is working correctly. Keeping Microsoft operating
systems from acquiring an assortment of viruses, useless icons, spyware and
garbage programs which eventually clog up your beloved PC like bright green pond
scum is a whole other issue. Thankfully, that's not the focus of this article.
This article is intended to cover simply the various tasks involved in installing
Microsoft Windows XP Home or Professional on a PC. To achieve this, we take a few
things for granted.
1. You have a fully assembled PC with no known hardware issues.
2. You have a licensed copy of Windows XP Home or Professional on CD.
3. You have a basic understanding of computer terminology.
While both WinXP Home and Professional are based on the same core operating
system, which in turn is based on Windows 2000, there are substantial differences in
their individual capabilities.
WindowsXP Pro is a direct successor to Windows 2000 Professional, with all the
capabilities of the former, a business-oriented client OS. WindowsXP Home, at least
in function, is more like a spiritual successor to windows 95/98/Me, a decidedly nonbusiness-centric OS.

The major differences:

Like Windows 9x/Me machines, Windows XP Home computers cannot become
members of a Windows Domain. This severely limits XP Home's usefulness in
professional environments, at least larger ones, since it cannot be easily
administrated centrally. It's completely irrelevant to the average home user though.

WinXP Home lacks the Remote desktop feature found in WinXP Pro, which enables a
single user to remotely connect to the WinXP Pro machine across a network or the
Internet using client software that can be installed on just about any Operating
system. WinXP Home supports only a single processor, compared to WinXP Pro's
support for up to two.
WinXP Home does not have the ability to encrypt files. WinXP Home does not have
the capability to restrict access to specific files, programs and resources on a peruser basis. An administrator of an WinXP Professional computer can specify exactly
which files and folders each user has access to, a level of control which is not
possible in WinXP home edition. WinXP Home does not include Microsoft's Internet
Information Server (IIS) as Professional does, and thus cannot be used to publish
web pages without a third party program.
In terms of upgrading from previous versions of Windows, only 98, 98SE and ME
users can upgrade directly to WinXP Home, while users of Windows 98, 98SE, ME, NT
and 2000 Professional can upgrade to WinXP Pro.
Which flavour of WindowsXP you choose comes down to where you intend to use it.
WindowsXP Home Edition costs less than the Professional Version, and for average
users, it should be just fine. If you are familiar with Windows2000 you'll want to stick
to the WindowsXP Professional version.
Step 1. Basic installation
Start the computer and insert your Windows XP CD. After a few seconds, the screen
will clear and you will see a 'press any key to boot from CD' prompt. Press the any
key..... he he, there is no 'any' key, this is just a test ;)
Press any key to start the install. The prompt allowing you to install will time out
after about 4 seconds, so if you don't hit any of the keyboard keys you will have to
reboot to install.
The installer program will begin copying files from the CD.
Note: if you are installing WinXP onto a hard-drive that is not connected to a
standard IDE port, for example a SCSI drive, or an IDE drive connected to a
hardware RAID controller, you will need to press F6 when prompted at the bottom of
the screen, immediately after the blue 'windows setup' screen appears. After about 2
minutes, this will bring up a dialog which allows you to install drivers for your SCSI
or RAID device from a floppy disk. Many computer motherboards have RAID
controllers built into them, so be aware that this may be a required step.
The 'welcome to setup' screen appears. Press enter to continue. View the licensing
agreement and hit F8 to continue.

The installation program will then search your drives for any prior installation of XP.
If it finds one, you will be given the option to repair it, which essentially reinstalls
most system files while leaving the registry and installed programs intact. Otherwise,
move forward to the partitioning and formatting section of the install.
The initial screen shows the hard disks connected to your system, and any partitions
that may already be created.
A partition is simply a section of the free space on your hard-drive. Operating
systems use partitions to logically assign drive letters. For example, if you have a
single 40GB drive, you can allocate all the space to a single partition, but then you
could only have a single drive (C:) visible in Windows.
If you chose to divide that 40GB into 4 different 10GB partitions, you could have 4
individual drives (say C:, D:, E:, and F:) within your Windows environment.
Essentially, Multiple partitions allow multiple logical drives within a single physical
drive, and can even allow different operating systems to co-exist on one drive if
desired. Once a partition has been created, it must be formatted to be useful.
Step 2. Formatting NTFS/FAT32
Formatting creates a file-system on the drive, so that an operating system can write
information to it. The XP setup utility performs both partitioning and formatting. If
you are starting with a blank hard-drive, you will see the disk and the unpartitioned
space available. Highlight the 'unpartitioned space' using the arrow keys and press 'c'
to create a partition. You will be shown the minimum and maximum amount of space
you can allocate to the new partition, and prompted for an amount in MB. Keep in
mind that 1000MB = 1 GB.
For now, use the maximum size, unless you have a specific need for more partitions.
Once you have created your partition(s), you will return to the original partitioning
screen. Note that the previously unformatted space now appears as 'Partition1 [new
(raw)]' and has a drive letter assigned to it, which should be C: unless you already
have a partition present on another disk. Highlight the new partition and press 'enter'
to begin installing Windows XP onto it.
You will be prompted to format the drive with one of four file systems: NTFS quick,
FAT quick, NTFS, or FAT
For the purposes of this article, you have a choice between FAT (File Allocation Table
32) and NTFS (NT File System). To make this choice, there are several things to keep
in mind.

If your computer already has another version of Windows installed, specifically a

version of Windows 9x/ME, and you think you will need to access files in your new XP
installation from the other operating system, choose FAT32, since computers with
these older operating systems cannot read NTFS partitions.
Note that Windows XP, like Windows 2000 before it, can read either FAT or NTFS
partitions, regardless of how the partition on which the actual OS is installed is
formatted.
If you are installing Windows XP Professional, it is a good idea to use NTFS partitions,
as only NTFS allows the full range of security settings for access to files, folders and
programs, that XP Pro is capable of. In general, unless you have a specific need for
the FAT file system for compatibility, use NTFS.
Choose your desired file system and hit 'enter' The system will now format the drive.
This will take a while. After formatting, the system will copy the information
necessary to install a graphical user interface (GUI) with mouse support which will
handle the rest of the installation. System restarts.
Now that you are in the GUI portion of the install, you should have mouse support.
XP will prompt you for any regional or language options you might wish to set. The
North American defaults are of course English (United States).
You will be prompted to enter your name, and that of your organization. These titles
are strictly cosmetic. XP will use them to fill in the name fields of newly installed
software for purposes of registration, etc. They have nothing to do with Usernames
or authentication, so don't worry about recording what you enter here.
You will now be asked to enter the 25-character product key. This key grants you a
temporary license to install and use XP for a period of 30 days, prior to registering
your copy of XP. More on the registration process later on.
Next you must specify a name for your computer, or accept the pre-generated one
presented to you. The computer name is relevant for networking purposes.
Step 3. Networking Settings
Now it's time to choose a password for the administrator account. The administrator
account is a default account created when XP is installed. It has all possible rights
and privileges within Windows XP on your specific computer. Given that using
Windows authentication, it is quite possible for several people to log onto the same
computer remotely (i.e. over the internet or from another computer on a home
network) using the same user account, It is highly recommended that you choose a
secure password for your administrator account and note it down.

Ensure the date and time settings are correct.

After another installation period, the XP setup will prompt you to specify your
networking settings. These specify the default settings of your network adaptors, and
whether certain Windows services such as file sharing are enabled.
Unless you already have a home network set up with specific IP settings or you know
exactly what you are doing, the best approach here is to accept the 'typical settings',
as these will enable you to quickly configure your cable or DSL internet connection
after the installation is complete, and include the ability to share files over a network
connection if required.
If you are using XP Professional, you will be asked to specify a workgroup or domain
for your computer to join, while users of XP Home will only have the workgroup
option, since XP Home computers cannot join Windows 2000 or 2003 domains.
A workgroup is a simple logical grouping of peer computers close to one another,
while a domain is an enterprise level logical structure supported by servers, which is
way, way beyond the scope of this article. If you have a network in your home, check
the network settings of the other computers for the workgroup name.
Your system will now finalize the installation. Sit back and read the tips.
Eventually your system will restart and load XP for the first time. There are a few
other things that need setting up before installation is complete. XP will now check to
see if your system is already connected to the Internet.
If you are using a cable Internet connection, or you have a home network with
Internet sharing through software or a router, you may already be connected at this
point. Otherwise, fill in the necessary information for your connection. XP will prompt
you to activate it over the Internet. At this point in the install, it is recommended not
to activate it.
Wait until you have used the computer for a few hours and verified that everything is
working. You will get plenty of reminders to activate XP, so skipping it now is not an
issue.
Step 4. Setting up multiple users
Next is the 'who will use this computer? ' screen.
Every name you type in here will create a new user, in addition to the default
administrator account you set the password for earlier. Be aware that every user you
create here is also made a member of the administrators group by default, so a
password should definitely be set for each user. You can't do that now though. We

will cover this in a second. After adding the user accounts, you are prompted to
choose one, and tossed into the XP environment. So pretty...
But First things first Go to the start menu/control panel/user accounts and allocate
passwords to all the user accounts you created during the install process. Paranoia is
a healthy trait.
Product Activation
Windows Product Activation is an anti-software piracy measure that Microsoft has
instituted to prevent casual copying of the Windows XP operating system. In simple
terms, once you have installed XP using your original License key, you have a 30-day
grace period in which to activate this license, after which XP will not be usable until it
is activated. You may initially activate your copy of Windows through the Internet or
over the phone.
Your License will remain activated until one of the following happens:
You re-install Windows XP on the same computer, erasing the hard-drive - In this
case you will have to call Microsoft to re-activate the license, but as long as the
configuration of your PC has not changed, you are allowed unlimited re-activations.
You install the same copy of XP on a different computer - The new installation will
not be activated, and will have the 30-day grace period. At this point, you will have
to telephone Microsoft, since Internet product activation will no longer work after the
first activation. Installing XP on a new computer appears to be a violation of the
Windows XP End-User License Agreement, however.
You change the hardware configuration of your PC beyond a certain amount - When
you activate your XP license, you provide an installation ID, which is generated from
a combination of the Product ID key from your license, and a numeric hash derived
from certain system components.
The video card, IDE controller, network adaptor(s), RAM amount, processor type
(and serial number), Hard-drive type (and serial number), and optical drive(s). It is
unclear what the tolerated amount of change is, although it is cumulative. Once you
have exceeded this amount, XP will require reactivation by phone. Unlike transferring
XP to a new computer though, upgrading the original computer is not a violation of
the EULA, and users are supposedly allowed up to 4 reactivations by phone per year.
When activating XP by phone, the operating system will provide you with a 50-digit
installation ID, as detailed above, which needs to be provided to the Microsoft rep in
exchange for an activation number which is entered into the OS.

That's about everything you need to know about installing Microsoft Windows XP.
Explore it yourself. As you can see it is quite different in presentation from previous
Windows versions.