• Safe Mode
• Using Msconfig
• System Restore
• Windows Updates
• Microsoft Security Center
• Installing Windows XP Properly

Spyware and Viruses are an everyday part of life now that technology has reached this level. While we can do everything in our power to protect ourselves from these two evils, the inevitable will result in becoming infected to the point of no return at least once. Preventative maintenance will help this become reduced drastically. Setting up Windows XP right from the initial start will be the first step in pretentative maintenance. While the huge promotion is to buy bigger hard drives and store information on cd's and dvd's, very few people know about the options that they have already with the tools provided with regards to storage.

Installing Windows from scratch can be a painful process, we have spent years trial testing this method that has proven time and time again that if done right once, life with Windows XP can be productive and efficient.

In the following 4 segments we will explain step for step on how to properly install Windows XP so that you can minimize data back-ups and maximize your time spent on your person computer.

We will take you through each step as if we were doing your computer at one of our offices here in New Jersey.

Installing Windows XP from a cold boot*.

* Cold Boot - Starting a computer that has been off for more than 30 seconds.

Before you start these instructions please read them thoroughly and make sure you understand them. Also please make sure that you have backed up your information already. This will teach you how to minimize your time from this day forward, if you do not have your previous information saved you will lose it all going through this process. Please note that in order for this to work greatly to your benefit we recommend you have at least a 40 gigabyte hard drive that is no more than one year old. Unless this is a brand new computer that has no information other than the programs it came with please make sure you have backed up your information. Hard drives are guaranteed by most manufacturers for 3 years. Although I have not had many if any experiences with hard drives that I owned, I have seen hard drives go bad before their "expiration dates". If you start with a newer hard drive you are minimizing the chances of this occurrence.

Make sure you have set your BIOS to boot from CD before booting from your hard drive. We will have an picture illustrational for this soon.

1. When you first turn on your computer you will be welcomed with a BIOS screen telling you who your motherboard manufacturer is and the BIOS version. As soon as you turn on your PC please make sure to have the bootable Windows XP cd in the cd-rom drive. If you miss the chance for it to boot from CD, simply hold your power button down until your PC shuts off and then restart the process.

2. If you have already set your BIOS correctly to look for a CD before the hard drive and have already backed up your information continue here. Your next screen will display, "Boot from CD : Press any key to boot from CD.."

3. If you hit any key on your keyboard it will automatically start the process for loading Windows XP XP onto your memory prepping everything for a hard drive installation.

4. Pay very close attention to the Windows XP setup screen. At one point during the beginning of the install there will be a prompt that will advise you what to do if you have SCSI or RAID drivers to install. If you do please press F6 on your keyboard and please be sure to have them available on a floppy disk.

5. Once you have passed that stage and all of the loading files have been correctly placed into virtual memory you will be greeted with a "Welcome to Setup" screen.

Your options will be "To setup... Press Enter", "To repair, Press R", or "To quit... Press F3". These options are also displayed on the bottom left hand corner of the screen. Please press enter to continue the setup process.

6. Upon pressing enter you will be prompted with Microsoft's XP "END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT".

If you agree, which you must to install, press F8 to continue.

7. Your next screen will be the Windows XP Professional Setup screen. Please note that this is where you will create your partitions* to be able to store your personal information on it's own section within the hard drive. This will enable you to store your personal information apart from your operating system. Thus enabling you to perform system maintenance and backups with great ease.

Definition of partition:

(computer science) the part of a hard disk that is dedicated to a particular operating system or application and accessed as a single unit

8. Generally 10-15 gigabytes of space is enough space for an operating system to work freely on. However with the ever growing number of extremely large applications that now take up gigabyte instead of a few hundred megs we recommend that you make your operating system partition no less 15 gigabytes with a maximum of 20 gigabytes. If you only have a 40 gigabyte (GB) hard drive you should opt for the 15 gb partition as you will want the rest of the space for your own personal information. While at the setup prompt you can press "C" to create a partition. Upon doing so it will prompt you for a numerical size of the partition. Since the measurement in front of you is in megabytes and not gigabytes you will need to enter 15000 to 20000 in the numerical value box. Upon doing so this will create your partition for the operating system. You can repeat this process with the remainder of the space on the hard drive and make your secondary partition while in the setup screen. Once you have created both partitions and are back to the normal setup screen it should look something like the screen below.

9. Now we are getting ready to install the Windows XP Operating system. Please note that the cd for Windows XP that I am using has "Service Pack 1" already included with it. While this makes no difference while installing, but will lengthen the updating time as "Service Pack 2" along with lots of other updates are already out and available. To start the installation make sure that you have the "C: Partition 1" (see picture above) highlighted and then press "Enter" to start the installation process. Upon pressing enter it will prompt this screen.

10. We recommend you do a full format and not just the quick format. Upon highlighting the "Format the partition using the NTFS file system" press "Enter" to continue the setup process.

11. The next screen will appear and caution you that you will lose ALL your information if you proceed. This is why it is extremely important that you have backed up all of your information. To format the drive press "F" on your keyboard.

Upon pressing "F", the computer will begin to format your hard drive then it will immediately proceed to installing Windows XP. The speed of your computer determines the amount of time this will take.

Once it has formatted and installed the necessary files to load Windows XP upon rebooting the computer it will prompt you to reboot the computer. It will give you 15 seconds to hit the "Enter" button or it will reboot itself.

12. Once your system reboots it will prompt you to press any key any key to boot from CD again. DO NOT touch any of the keys! Let it takes it's course and it will proceed with the Windows XP Setup once it has lapsed the several second window to "press any key..."

13. Once the setup has begun again you will notice the following screen appear and Windows XP. Xp will do a few of processes from "Collection Information" to "Dynamic Update" to "Preparing Installation" and finally starting integration with "Installing Windows XP".

14. Once the automated processes have stopped running Windows XP XP Setup will prompt you with the first setup screen for "Regional and Language Options". If you need to make any changes you can simply click on the "Customize" and "Details" tabs to change the default settings. If you live in the U.S. the settings are usually fine and you can click on "Next" to continue.

15. Next it will ask you for your "Name" and "Organization". Upon entering that information please click on "Next" to proceed.

16. You will now require your product key to enter into the "Setup Wizard" so that your installation of Windows XP XP can continue. Your Product Key can be found within your package that the original Microsoft CD came from.

17. Following the Product Key, you will be called upon to enter a "Computer Name". This is used to identify your computer from another computer that you might have on the same network. You can not proceed without entering a computer name so think of something unique that can be used. You will also have an administrator password to enter here. If you are the only person who will use this computer you can leave it blank as you will not need to restrict any access. If this is a family PC, definitely safeguard it with an admin password. Upon finishing both tasks, press "Next".

18. You will have to verify the date and time on your system along with your time zone. The date and time generally are accurate so long as they are accurate in your BIOS. The time zone is set to Pacific Time by default, change accordingly. If "Automatically adjust... changes" is NOT checked off please make sure to do so. Upon finishing, click "Next".

19. The next step will be a few automated installs that install the network and several other components that will work within it.

Once the network installation has finished it will be your turn to set the proper settings. When prompted with the first screen you may leave the default radial at "Typical settings" and click on "Next".

20. After the initial network settings you will be prompted to enter a "Workgroup" name or a "Domain" name. Workgroup is used for home networking purposes, unless you have a domain setup within your household. Most if not all the people using this tutorial will be using the Workgroup function and if all of your computers are set to one workgroup you can share information back and forth with a little network tweaking.

21. Once you have filled out the required fields a series of install will proceed to continue installing Windows XP components and features.

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