WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL INSTALLATION GUIDE written by: paranoidxe email: paranoidtsi@hotmail.com This is a CLEAN install guide, this means all data on your drive will be erased in order to install windows xp. Clean install means a more stable system and less junk on your computer after it is installed. BEFORE YOU BEGIN.. - it is highly recommended that you have service pack 2 downloaded, or at least service pack 1a with all the recent hotfixes downloaded and burned to a disk. - I also recommend downloading and burning all your hardwares latest drivers from the manufacturer's website. - as always, make sure you backup all essential files you need that you may want to reinstall later. - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - T H E S E T U P P R O C E S S - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - = - - set your bios to boot from cdrom drive, all BIOS are different so you'd have to read your manual in order to do this. - put your windows xp cd in, reboot your computer you will be asked to press any key to boot from cd.., press any key. - setup will begin to load files to start the setup, this will take a few minutes so be patient. - you will now be presented with 3 options: 1. Setup Windows XP now, press ENTER. 2. To repair Windows XP installation using recovery console, press R 3. to exit setup, press F3. - you want to setup Windows XP, so press enter - now you have the license agreement screen, press F8 to agree and continue, otherwise press Esc (which will exit the setup program) - now you will have the partition screen in which you select the drive you wish to install Windows XP on. Most likely you will see a C:\ with your old Windows on there, I recommend you highlight it, press D. - you will now be warned about deleting all data on the drive, press enter - once again, a warning screen will appear, press L to confirm - now you will see the partition screen again with the label "Unpartitioned space", highlight it and press C to recreate a partition. - now you can put in the size of the partition you wish to have, my opinion is to simply create the partition as high as it will go which is what microsoft does for you by default, press enter when you are done. - you will now be back at the partition screen AGAIN, highlight C:, press enter - now you will have the option to format the partition using NTFS or FAT, use NTFS for Windows XP enhanced security features, use FAT for legacy support of older operating systems if you need to dual boot at a later time. You can do quick format if you are SURE that the drive you are formatting contains no errors, otherwise use the option without Quick. - you are now at the formatting progress, depending on the size of your disk this can take awhile. So this is probably a good point to go get something to snack on or work on something else. - after this setup will copy the basic files needed for the 2nd part of the XP setup - once completed the computer will reboot, do NOT boot off of the Windows XP CD this time and XP setup will continue. - the new windows xp logo should appear after the reboot, then you will see yet another section of the windows xp setup, eventually when it is done you will get a regional settings screen, just click next windows is pretty good at configuring this itself. - next will ask for your name and organization, fill it out..I prefer a alias rather than your real name unless you are in a corperate environment where it is needed. click next when done. - enter your product key, click next - now you will be asked for a computer name and adminstrator password, I recommend a different computer name, its pretty complex for a computer name don't know what microsoft was thinking here. Then enter a adminstrator password for the built-in admin account on XP, MAKE SURE it is HARD for others to guess and easy for your to remember. Use combinations of letters and numbers for the best security. Click next when done. - you are now asked for the date, time and time zone..set these to the correct values and click next. - now network files will be installed, as soon as this completes the network settings dialog will appear and you will be opt'd with typical settings or custom settings, select custom settings and click next. - on stand alone systems with NO LOCAL AREA NETWORKING with NO FILE SHARING locally but you need internet access check 'Internet Protocol' and keep everything else unchecked. On systems that are part of a local area network keep everything except for 'QoS Packet Scheduler', click next. - now windows xp will start the final file copying process, this will take a little while to complete. Once done Windows XP should automatically reboot - upon booting you will see the new boot screen, yay xp is installed. - now you will be prompted by a screen resolution prompt, click ok to it - now you should be at the welcome screen, enter your admin password and click the arrow. - Windows XP will setup your account and its configuration so it will take a minute to get into the interface. - you will see a baloon tip telling you to start the Windows XP Tour, just click the x in the corner and Windows shouldn't prompt you again. if it does just double-click on the icon, then click cancel on the Windows Tour wizard. - windows xp should be setup and ready to use, but I highly recommend at this point you install SP1 or SP2 then use Windows Update to get the latest patches and fixes. - now install any hardware drivers that need to be installed. - and finally, install software that you had backed up in your previous version of windows.