| Installing Windows XP |
Starting the Setup Installing Windows XP is really simple. Setting up Windows XP is made faster than any other previous version. To begin the installation, you must first put the Windows XP CD ROM in your CD Drive. Then you must enter your system’s BIOS setup. The BIOS Setup is the base operating system that only manages hardware settings. Only advanced users should change settings in this setup. Incorrect settings might harm your computer. To enter the BIOS Setup, usually you must press delete, before the system boots, but that can differ from a mainboard model to another. Also the steps for changing settings in the setup are different, so we recommend consulting the instruction book of your mainboard, before you try to modify these settings. From the BIOS Setup, you must set the booting device order. The CD ROM should be the first one, so you can be able to install Windows XP.
Fig. 1
After you change the settings in the BIOS Setup, and reboot your system, Windows XP Setup will automatically start, and check if your computer meets the minimum system requirements. After this some files needed for starting Windows Setup will be copied. After all of this, you will see a screen like the one represented in Figure 1. Here you can chose between installing Windows XP, and repairing Windows XP, using the installation recovery console. Even if your computer might have a small problem, we recommend installing a fresh copy of Windows. After Windows has been installed on your computer for a long time, it might be possible that it might not work as fast as it used to, or errors might occur very often. This is because the registry settings had been modified a lot by installing too much programs. Windows can also be infected by viruses. Even if you have antivirus software, and your files had been cleaned, we recommend installing a fresh copy of Windows after cleaning all your files. From the screen like the one represented in Figure 1, press Enter, to continue with the Windows XP installation. Then, the USER LICENSE AGREEMENT will appear. It is like a contract between you and Microsoft Corporation. All software products have this kind of license.
Fig. 2
If you agree with all the terms and conditions, you must than press the F8 key, so you can continue. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions in the agreement, you must press the Escape key. If you do not agree, you can not continue with setup. After you press the Escape key, setup will automatically close, removing all information that has been added during installation. After you agree, you will be asked where to install Windows XP. Your hard disk should be partitioned first. If you have a new computer, that does not have an operating system installed, you must first partition and than format your hard drive. Partitions A partition or a drive is an amount of space on your hard drive that you want to use for something. For instance you can make one partition for music, or another partition for documents, and so on. Of course storing only one kind of files on a partition is not obligatory. This was just an example. Think very well before you assign the space for a partition. You can also assign all the space available on your hard disk, thus creating only one partition. Creating only one partition is not recommended. It is better to have two partition, or more if you have more space. The first partition, C:\, should be for Windows, and the second one, D:\, should be for your documents. So if anything will happen to Windows, all your documents and files will be safe on D:\, so you can quickly format C:\ and install a new copy of Windows. It’s best for most users if C:\ has a minimum of 10 Mb. If your hard disk is bigger, you can assign more space for C:\. If you know you use more programs, or you use programs that demand more resources, make a bigger partition. Also note that the drive should be at least 10-15% free all the time. A fuller drive will slow down your system’s performance. Setup will display a screen like in Figure 3 that enables you to select or manage partitions on your hard drive. The steps are really simple, and setup provides detailed information about each step. If you do not have any partitions on your drive, you will see an “Unpartitioned Space” label on the table, or if you do have partitions, you will see them listed with details in the table (Fig. 3). To create a partition press C and then a screen will appear asking you if you want to use all the space available on the disk drive for the partition. If you select no, you will be asked for the amount of space in bytes for the partition. To create a second, or third, partition, repeat the procedure. After setting the partition’s size, you will be back to the screen represented in Fig. 3. From here you can repeat the procedure again, selecting the “Unpartitioned Space” label, using the arrow keys. NOTE! Windows XP always reserves 8Mb of unpartitioned space. This is necessary for Windows to store information about your active partitions. So do not worry about this space…
Fig. 3
After creating the partitions, you will have to format them. Formatting a partition means assigning it a certain a file system. This process will erase all data on the drive. A file system is the system that instructs how to store and manage files. Windows 95 used the FAT file system. Than Windows 98 used FAT32, a more powerful and smart file system. Of course Windows 98 can also run in the FAT file system, but Windows 95 can not run on FAT32, because it’s newer system. After FAT32, Windows 2000 and XP came with the new NTFS file system. It manages and stores files easier and better, plus it supports a lot of new features. Sometimes some aspects of this system can seam slower for some users, because of the systems stores the creation, modification, and last time accessed date and time of files, but this can be fixed with some registry settings. You can also fix this after installing Windows, with the registry tweak provided on the CD that came with this book. Look for NTFS Optimization.reg, on the CD, just open the file and a question box will ask you if you want to add the information to the registry. Click Yes. Although Windows XP can also work under the FAT32 file system, it is best to select NTFS. After you select the partition you want to set up Windows on, a screen like the one in Fig. 4 will appear, asking you for what file system you want to format your partition. You can choose between NTFS (quick or normal) or FAT32 (quick or normal). The quick option is to format the partition faster, while the normal option is for formatting the partition slowly, enabling detection of any bad sectors of the hard disk. It’s best to use the normal option.
Fig. 4
If your drive is already formatted, you will also have an option for “Leaving the drive intact – No changes”. You can select to format the drive, if you did save all the important information on another drive on the hard disk, or on other removable media (Floppy, CD, ZIP, etc.). Selecting format will enable you to install a fresh copy of Windows XP on a fresh formatted drive. If you do not format the drive, you will install over other Windows versions you have installed. Installing two operating systems is not really a good idea. Be sure that before you decide to format, you created all your partitions with the correct sizes you want. You will not be able to make changes, only if you lose all the information available on the drives (deleting the partitions and creating new ones).
Fig. 5 | Fig. 6 | Fig. 7
After completing all the operations, your computer will reboot. After your computer will restart, do not forget to immediately enter the BIOS Setup and change the device boot order. Usually this is Floppy, HDD, and CD. This means that first the compute will try to boot from floppy, than hard disk, and than CD ROM. You can also change in anyway you wish, but it’s better to leave the CD last, because you might forget CD’s inside the drive, and next time you will start the system will try to boot from CD. The second part of Setup After you will reboot, setup will automatically start. You will see a screen that looks like the one in Fig. 8:
Fig. 8
This part of the setup recognizes the hardware devices that are installed on your system, and installs the appropriate drivers for them. Just wait until any dialog will appear on the screen. In this part of setup, it is normal for your screen to go dark for less than 3 seconds and than come back again. This can happen 2 or 3 several times. So if you will encounter this, do not worry! your monitor is OK! Other settings After your screen has blinked several times, you will have to give setup some information in order to set up Windows the way you want it. First you must provide setup with Regional and Language options. These determine your location, and the language in which most Non Unicode programs should run. Your location is important for internet settings and providing you with news, weather, and other information on the internet.
Fig. 9
After configuring the Regional and Language options, you will have to provide setup with your personal information (Fig. 10), in order to personalize your copy of Windows XP. After providing your personal information, you will have to enter your Windows XP Product Key (Fig. 11). It is printed on the back of the case of your Windows XP CD. This 25 character long code is important for identifying your unique copy of Windows XP. Do not use this code, as it is very important. Entering an invalid code will unable you to continue with setup. Be very careful when entering the product key.
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Now you must provide setup with a name for your computer and an administrator password.
Fig. 12
If you are on a network, the other users will see you computer named the way you enter it here. Setup creates a default account called ADMINISTRATOR. This account can change important settings, on your computer. So entering a password here would be a very good idea. This will prevent unauthorized users on the network access your computer and modify settings or manage files on your computer. You must enter the password two times, so that setup will be sure you did not mistype it. Do not forget this password, as it is important if you want to repair your computer or change some settings using the ADMINISTRATOR account. Next you will have to provide the system with the correct date and time (Fig. 13). You also have to select your time zone so that Windows can know how to configure time on your system.
Fig. 13
After completing all these steps, you will have to wait again for setup to detect the network connections or internet connections on your computer. When setup has finished detecting your network connections, you will see a screen like the one in Fig. 14 (if you have any network adapters on installed on your system).
Fig. 14
You can select Typical settings if you are on a small network or Custom settings if you are on a larger network and need to apply more advanced settings. For more information about the network settings, contact your network administrator. If you are not connected to a network, you must also select typical settings. If you select typical settings, you will be automatically prompted to enter the name of the workgroup or domain name you belong to on the network. If you are not connected to a network, just leave the default value, workgroup, but if you are on a network put the name your network administrator has assigned you with.
Fig. 15
You can assign workgroups depending on the area the computers are situated in. For instance, if the computers are in building no. 100, you can assign the workgroup name 100, and for the computers in building 325 you can assign the workgroup name 325. Computers in a certain area work better if they are all in the same workgroup, rather than having all different workgroups. A domain name is for larger networks. Usually you would use a workgroup on your network. You are almost done! After completing the network settings, Windows will copy other files and configure your system. You only have to wait. Then, setup will restart your computer (Fig. 16).
Fig. 16
After your system will restart, you will just have o enter some information about who will use the computer, internet settings, and you will be asked if you want to register Windows XP. Then you will be able to see your Windows Desktop (Fig 17).
Fig. 17