Steps and procedures in windows xp installation

Custom installations. Windows Setup can perform a custom installation, also known as a clean installation, which saves your previous Windows installation but does not migrate your settings. The previous Windows installation will not boot after a clean installation. Upgrade installations. Windows Setup can perform an installation that retains your settings and preferences while upgrading your operating system.

The Windows Setup program starts and restarts the computer, gathers information, copies files, and creates or adjusts configuration settings. The following table shows the overall process for Windows Setup:. Specify Windows Setup configurations by using either the Windows Setup dialog boxes interactive or an answer file unattended , or a combination of the two.

Windows Setup configurations include adding a product key and configuring a disk. Apply answer file settings in the windowsPE configuration pass to configure the installation behavior and user experience. Process answer file settings in the offlineServicing configuration pass. The settings are applied to the Windows image before that Windows image boots.

When the computer first boots, any optional components, drivers, updates, or language packs are processed. I'll walk you through a typical installation, but if you've installed any Windows product since Windows 98 you shouldn't be surprised by anything. I'll also describe the basic decision tree you'll have to mull over before committing to Windows XP and the path you'll follow to get it up and running. Along the way, I'll discuss why you might make one choice over another and what to do when the process goes awry.

There are two primary installation scenarios: clean installation or upgrade installation. An upgrade installation retains existing settings and applications. In addition to the type of installation to perform, you must also address the issues of multi-booting and selecting a file system. I'll tell you what to expect when upgrading. Look for the section that applies to you.

Also, check the general discussions about dual-booting and upgrading your file system because they apply in all cases. In addition to this chapter, you should also read two informative text files found on the Windows XP CD. The first is the file Read1st. This file contains last-minute installation information Microsoft didn't publish until it released the final version of Windows XP.

The second is the file PRO1. This file contains detailed release notes covering topics such as installation, customization, and startup. As mentioned in Chapter 1, "Introducing Windows XP Professional," Windows XP also supports installation capabilities attractive to the IS professional, such as push installations and automated installations that require no user intervention.

For more information about these kinds of sophisticated deployment processes and automated installation tools, you should seek the aid of Microsoft's Windows XP Resource Kit.

There, you'll find instructions for creating automated installation scripts. I've provided a short overview of automated installations at the end of this chapter. Let's talk about installing Windows XP. The next major question you must ask is whether to upgrade from an existing operating system or install fresh.

Windows XP Professional supports upgrading from the following operating systems:. Clean installs do not retain any settings or applications. All settings must be re-configured and all applications must be re-installed after the clean installation of Windows XP is complete.

Most Windows veterans know by now that doing a fresh installation is usually the most beneficial approach in the long run, even though it means more work up front installing applications and reentering personal settings, remote access and networking details, and so forth. You probably have some seat-of-the-pants experiences with Windows operating systems becoming polluted over time by wacko applications that mysteriously trash the Registry or erase or overwrite important files, like.

DLL files, that Windows needs to operate properly. With a clean installation, such worries are forgotten. It's like selling off that lemon of a car you've been wrestling with for the last five years. You should attempt to back up as much important data as you can, such as your address books, e-mail, personal documents, and so on, before performing a clean installation over an existing OS.

Windows XP is somewhat self-healing. Because system files and DLLs are protected against trampling, you're going to have a more sturdy system in the long run anyway. If your system is acting a little wonky already anyway unexpected crashes, for example , it's better to do a clean installation. A clean installation will reformat your boot partition that's the one where Windows lives and will just edit your system partition that's the one that boots the system and displays the boot menu.

In those cases where the boot and system partitions are the same, the partition will be reformatted. When you choose to upgrade over an existing operating system, you also run the possibility that some applications won't work properly afterward because they aren't fully compatible with Windows XP.

A compatibility mode is simply a designation for a software platform emulation environment. In other words, when an application is launched with compatibility mode enabled, a virtual machine representing that application's native environment Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or Windows is created in such a way that the application is fooled into thinking that it is the only application present on the computer system running its preferred OS.

Table 3. Your computer has an operating system already, but you're ready to kill it and start fresh with Windows XP. You want to create a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP and your current system. Note that Microsoft recommends using two partitions to do so. You're ready to chance that in some rare cases, applications or hardware won't immediately work as they did under the old operating system.

In any case, installing a "new" or "clean" version of Windows XP does not mean that the drive on which you are installing XP will be reformatted. The XP installer won't format the drive unless you direct it to do so.

You can place a new or clean Windows XP installation on a drive in this case, we'll assume it's the C: drive even if the C: drive already has Windows 98 installed on it. To do this, install XP in a different directory. When the XP installation is complete, delete Windows 98, because running two operating systems in the same partition is not recommended. Ideally, however, if you plan to keep your original operating system intact, you'll want to install XP into another partition.

Dual-booting is a scheme that lets you keep your old operating system and install Windows XP as a clean installation. Windows XP can be installed onto any hard disk volume or partition within a computer; it is not limited or restricted to drive C as is Windows 9x. Thus, by adding a new hard drive and installing Windows XP onto it, you'll retain your original, pre-existing OS. When you boot up, you are given a choice of operating system to start. Notice in this book that we use the term "dual-booting" often.

This usually refers to having only two OSes on the same system. We use this term since most multiple OS scenarios employ only two OSes. But we could have just as easily substituted the term "multi-booting" to include those systems with two or more OSes.

So, when you see "dual-booting" don't limit your thinking to only two OSes. That includes Linux notice that Microsoft doesn't tout that feature loudly? With the aid of third-party partition managers, you are able to multi-boot Windows XP with any OS in existence. There are lots of reasons for setting up a dual- or multi-booting computer, especially if you are in the business of testing computers or you run a wide variety of software and hardware on your computers.

Personally, of the five computers in my office, four of them are dual-booting. The following are a few thoughts about dual-booting that you might want to consider before making the decision:. I multi-boot on a couple of my machines because I run lots of Windows tools, hardware-specific programs like video editing programs, CD-writers or rewriters, and so on.

Also, I'm always testing new programs. No matter how much I would prefer to run just a single operating system, sometimes I need to run other versions of Windows to get a driver or some application to work.

So, it makes sense for me to multi-boot. If you're a gamer, chances are you need MS-DOS, Windows 9x, or Windows just to get certain games to run or even some joysticks or control devices. Most games will function under Windows XP, but you may discover a few cases where things are not exactly as you'd expect.

If you can't live without a game, then create a multi-boot system including the alternate OS needed for your game-du-jour. For the full scoop on compatibility with your favorite games, check with some gaming magazines or the makers of the games in question. If you're regularly testing or running lots of different kinds of software and own an abundance of hardware, or you're a new hardware junkie like me, being stuck with just a single operating system is like being in jail.

Choose to multi-boot, even though this choice can cause some headaches, as described in the following section. If you have doubts about compatibility with your hardware or software and don't want to jeopardize your existing operating system, use a dual-boot arrangement for a while and see what you think. If you become confident that XP is going to work for you, you can either perform an upgrade installation over your existing operating system or move over into using XP only.

That is, you can migrate your data and applications into your XP setup. If you decide to upgrade over your old OS rather than migrate into the clean XP, you can then remove the clean XP test system to free up disk space. If you decide XP doesn't cut the mustard, you can remove it. Regardless of how you do the eventual upgrade, this kind of approach gives you the time to test things out. You'll eventually end up with a single OS in the long run, one you're happy with. While there are steps in the installation process that differ between versions of Windows, the following general steps and guidelines help you install Windows on your computer.

If you're replacing the hard drive in your computer, you need to reinstall Windows again. If you're replacing the motherboard in your computer, you may need to purchase a new licensed copy of Windows and install it. Microsoft has designed current versions of Windows to be tied to the motherboard in the computer when Windows is installed.

So if you change the motherboard, the existing license, or product key, may no longer be valid. If you want to upgrade to a newer version of Windows on your computer, the steps on this page help you with the upgrade process. The Windows installation process should recognize if you have an older version of Windows already installed on the computer and ask if you want to upgrade or perform a fresh install.

The upgrade process installs the newer Windows operating system files over the old ones and preserve your files.

These steps even work for earlier versions e. The floppy diskette version is similar, but it requires additional steps. The install guidelines for Windows for a server have additional steps based on the type of server and version of Windows.

Before installing or upgrading Windows on your computer, check the hardware in the computer to make sure it's compatible with that version of Windows. Microsoft provides a Windows Compatible Products List for checking if the hardware in your computer is compatible with the chosen version of Windows. If one or more pieces of hardware is not compatible with the chosen Windows version, we recommend replacing that hardware with compatible hardware or purchasing a new computer.

Having compatible hardware in your computer helps ensure the Windows install or upgrade process is successful. A genuine Windows product key is included with the installation disc, which is required to activate Windows after installation. If you have an OEM original equipment manufacturer computer, the Windows product key is often on the back or side of the computer. If you have an OEM computer e. Instead, you would reinstall Windows and the software using a hidden partition or a set of restore discs.

The steps mentioned on this page would still work, but you'd need a copy of Windows.