January 22, 2006
- Insert Microsoft Windows XP Setup CD into your CD/DVD drive.
- Boot from your CD/DVD drive.
- Press ENTER when you are greeted with this screen. This will perform a clean installation of Windows.
- Do the right thing by reading the long licensing agreement. Press F8 to continue with the installation.
- The following section on disk partitioning maybe a little tricky for first-timers.
The screen below may look different from what you see on your PC. Depending on your previous hard disk configuration, you may already have several partitions, or just one. Select the disk partition that you wish to have Windows installed on. Ensure the partition size is greater than 5GB. Press ENTER. Press F on the next screen; and go directly to Step 7.
If you are installing Windows into a fresh new hard drive, your screen will be similar to the one below. Press C to create a new partition.
- Enter the size of the new partition in megabytes. Please ensure to enter any number greater than 15000 (15GB) to allow sufficient space for other desktop applications like Microsoft Office, etc. Press ENTER.
Note: Your brand new hard drive would probably have more than 40GB of space. Microsoft’s technical support team would suggest separating your drive into several partitions for performance reasons. But my reason would be for the sake of the future: since Windows would only be installed on one partition, your second (or third, forth, etc.) would serve as a data drive. If you have to reinstall Windows again, the data stored in your second (or third, forth, etc.) partition(s) would be intact (unless there was a mechanical hard drive failure) because you would only be reinstalling Windows on the partition where Windows was originally in.
- Select Format the partition using the NTFS file system (Quick).
If you have reasons to believe your hard drive contains bad sectors, you are welcome to select Format the partition using the NTFS file system option. But again, I’d recommend purchasing a brand new hard drive. From my experience, hard drives with bad sectors, usually from a platter scratch, will die in a month or so, depending on usage.
Stay away from FAT file systems. They are obsolete non-journaling file systems used in Microsoft Windows 3.1, 9x and Me. Remember the irritating pop-ups of ScanDisk after a shutdown failure during the days of Windows 9x? Not anymore, thanks to the nifty journaling feature of NTFS.
- A progress bar will then appear next to indicate the progress of partition creation and formatting. A quick format would most likely take less than 5 seconds.
- Windows Setup will now transfer required files to the newly created partition before a quick reboot. The following screen will appear following a successful reboot; installation will continue.
- After about 5 minutes of boring file transfer, the following dialog box will appear for you to set your regional and language options. If you are based in the United States, you can click the Next button right away, otherwise click Customize…
- In the next dialog box, select your preferred language under the Standards and formats frame box; and your country under the Location frame box. Select the Languages tab after that.
- Under the Languages tab, you may want to install additional East Asian languages support. If so, select the appropriate checkbox. Click Apply; and then OK when Windows Setup reminds you that an additional 230MB of hard drive space is required for the installation of these new languages. Select the Advanced tab after that.
- Select the preferred language under the Language for non-Unicode programs frame box, usually the same language selected in Step 11. Click OK.
- Windows installation will proceed for awhile after that, before displaying the following screen.
- Enter your name and company information into the appropriate text boxes. Click Next.
- When presented with the above screen, enter the Product Key. The key consists of alpha-numeric characters, usually found at the back of your CD case or a piece of Windows sticker attached at the bottom of your laptop or the side of your desktop casing. If you rob Microsoft programmers’ lifelihood by getting hold of a pirated edition of Microsoft Windows XP, the key would most likely be printed on the CD. Press Next.
- The following screen will appear. Enter a unique name for your computer in the network (if applicable). If it is a standalone PC (directly connected to the Internet), you are free to enter any name here like FAJITA, EVEREST, CYPHER, etc. Be creative.
Note: The computer name is used to identify your computer in a network. For example, you might have a network of computers at home: bro’s desktop (BART), dad’s laptop (HOMER), your desktop (MAGGIE) and a network router (ROUTER) to manage the Internet connection. The network name is SIMPSON. How does it affect you? Your computer name would be officially MAGGIE.SIMPSON, while bro’s desktop would be named BART.SIMPSON, etc.
- Enter the Administrator’s password in the appropriate text box; again to reconfirm on the text box beneath. Click Next.
Note: Administrator is a default login user in all Windows NT-based machines, which includes Windows 2000/XP. Technically, I do not understand the purpose of having the password set over here since the Administrator’s account generally would not be used. In fact, I will have them removed during the post-Windows setup.
- In the following screen, check the time and date to ensure it is correct. Select the appropriate timezone you are in. Click Next.
- Network components will be the next agenda on the Windows installation setup. This will take awhile before the next screen appears. I would recommend the selection of Custom settings, only because I like to have total control of the components installed on my computer.
Remember: Typical settings-kind of setups are only reserved for computer users who cannot control their index finger from incessant tappings on the mouse button, like installing programs with third-party advertising agents. I have received enough complaints of people wondering how these casinos and pornographic pop-up banners got into their PCs in the first place. Today, you are an improved citizen of the computer user race. So, use the damned Custom settings/installations option whenever possible.
- In the following screen, highlight QoS Packet Scheduler; click Uninstall.
This component uses 20% of your computer’s network bandwidth for Quality of Service (QoS) management. This component is barely used unless you have QoS-aware applications installed and that you are installing this PC in an enterprise network. Otherwise you are advised to remove this component.
- If your computer is connected to a network domain, managed by a domain controller, select Yes to the following screen, and then enter the domain name of the network (e.g. simpson.com). Otherwise, stick with No. A Workgroup is Microsoft’s way of grouping computers in a network. Usually I would leave it as default, which is WORKGROUP as its Workgroup name. Click Next.
- Installation continues. This will take probably about 20 minutes. So sit back and get yourself a cup of coffee, which by then when you return, your PC would have rebooted and Windows cordially welcomes you with the following screen. The background music is kinda catchy too. This screen usually appears on new OEM machines on first boot. Click Next.
- Microsoft suggests the activation of their Automatic Updates service in the next screen. I personally do not like any software downloading stuff off the Internet behind my back, except for antivirus applications. No exception to Microsoft-based products. Here’s why.
- Select the appropriate option for your computer to connect to the Internet. If your computer is directly connected to a router, select Local area network (LAN). Only select the above option if you are connecting to the Internet via a USB DSL/Cable modem. Select Skip if you are still in the world of 56k dialups. Click Next, otherwise.
Note: It is safe to click Skip anyway, because Microsoft only wants to know how you are connecting to the Internet for the purpose of product registration, which you will see in the next step. Pirate users are obviously going to click Skip here.
- If you intend to register your copy of Microsoft Windows XP via online, select Yes in the following screen, otherwise select No, and click Next.
- Enter the names of the users who will be using this computer. This allows the various customization needs of each users like desktop themes and user-based startup programs. Click Next.
Tip: You can set up individual “users” as desktop profiles. For example, you might want to create a profile “user” for work; another for general everyday use. For general use, you can then put up your favorite Playboy covergirl as your desktop wallpaper and several other non-appropriate startup softwares that may jeapordise your computer performance for the sake of desktop coolness (e.g. eye candy applications). For work, it may just be an ordinary plain blue desktop with minimal applications startup.
- Microsoft thanks you in the next screen for taking time to fill up the information needed to finalize Windows installation setup. You can click Finish now.
- Tada! The Windows desktop is now displayed on your screen. Please be reminded that there are more stuff to do before Windows is good to go.
Stay tuned for more gruesome aftermath pain of Windows installation setup.
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