How to format your hard drive and install Windows XP from scratch. Hey, Windows XP users: The blue screen of death got you down? Missing dll errors making you frown? Frequent software crashes leave you yearning for that fresh, new PC you unpacked with glee three years ago? If you've scrubbed for spyware and viruses, defragged, chkdsked and done the requisite rain dance but things are STILL wonky on your computer, it may be time for extreme action. Today we're going to go over how to format your hard drive and reinstall Windows XP from scratch to get back that shiny new operating system feeling untainted by years of wear, tear and added and removed programs. Note for the tremulous: I cannot tell a lie; reinstalling an operating system is NOT a trivial task. Free Install Windows Xp Home EditionThere are several junctures where lots of things can go wrong that can affect the way your PC functions FOREVER. Further, this isn't a task one can complete in just a few hours. There are lots of ways to fix PC problems before reinstalling Windows, a fresh install should be an absolute last resort. It took me three years - one which involved installing and uninstalling programs almost daily - to get to the point of reinstalling Windows. You have been warned. Still with me? Good. What you'll need: A Windows XP machine in dire need of a fresh start(Without any crucial, un- backedup data on it)A Windows XP installation CD with a valid Product Key(Preferably the disc that shipped with the computer originally, in which case the Product Key won't be obviously listed)The CDs and serial numbers of all the software you need to install on your fresh "new" machine. Hardware driver discs that shipped with the PC and any components you added on(Optional, but VERY strongly recommended)Another 'net- connected computer of any OS persuasion with a CD burner, thumb drive, or other removable disk(Optional, but strongly recommended, for looking up stuff and downloading drivers in case of emergency)One full day to get your PC fully functioning again. Got all that? Good. Let's get started. ![]() Step 1. Back up your data. First, make sure absolutely NOTHING you cannot afford to lose is on the drive you're going to install Windows on (let's say the C: drive.) Move all your documents and settings off the machine. Back up your Firefox settings with Moz. Backup, export your Quicken file, Sync. Back profiles, Apache configuration and absolutely anything else that you want restored after you're done. Just make sure it's off the machine that's going under the knife. Step 2. Audit your current PC setup. Once upon a time, I did tech support for Windows 9. PCs, when "Plug and Play" was a fairly new concept that was rightly referred to as "Plug and Pray" amongst my disgruntled technician co- workers. Today, Windows XP is eons ahead of 9. HOWEVER, it's still not perfect. PC's come with a whole wide range of video cards and network adaptors and Bluetooth thingamajiggers, and it's very possible you'll install XP and it won't know exactly what brand of TV tuner card you've got and how to find the driver for it. So, before we do anything, we're going to take an inventory of all the hardware you've currently got installed. I used to print a report from Device Manager for this purpose (Control Panel, System, Hardware, Device Manager, Action, Print) but a handy little utility called Belarc Advisor [via Nicholas Roussos] does a nicer job than Device Manager. Belarc will create a report detailing your system, its installed hardware components, software applications and serial numbers. Download the free Belarc, run a report and print it out. Keep it nearby for reference later. How To Install Windows Xp Home Edition· This article describes how to add and remove fonts in Microsoft Windows. Note If your computer runs Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows. How to Install Windows XP. Windows XP is one of Microsoft's most popular operating systems, and though it's starting to show its age, many people still use it. Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, Windows Home Premium, Windows Home Premium upgrade, Windows Vista Home Premium Edition. Discusses that you cannot install some updates or programs in Windows, and you receive an error message. Provides a resolution. Note: for those of you who do not have the driver discs for all your hardware - go ahead and print out the report from Device Manager in addition to the Belarc report. You'll need all the help you can get, you brave souls. Step 3. Take a deep breath, and say goodbye to everything on your C: drive. Seriously. It's all going away now. Nervous? Revisit steps 1 & 2. Step 4. Insert the Windows installation disk into your CD drive. Shut down your PC. Then, boot from CD. This part is important: do NOT run the Windows installation from Windows itself. Shut down first, and then boot up the machine from CD. My Dell has a little message as it's booting up that says "Press F1. CD," so that's what I did. If you're not sure how to boot from CD, check your PC's user guide for more info. The reason why booting from CD is important is because we're going to delete the C: drive partition where Windows is installed and re- format it. You can't do this if Windows booted from C: , because it can't delete the partition from which it is running. You CAN install Windows without deleting the partition and formatting, but that means all your program files and other riff- raff that's collected on your C: drive will still be there when you're done, just taking up unnecessary space. That's not the point of all this. Be sure to boot from CD. Step 5. Step through the Windows installation. You'll be greeted by Word. Perfect 5. 1- like blue screens with white text on them, which seem scary, but aren't. All the directions are clearly spelled out on each of them. Still, we'll go over what to do. At the Welcome to Setup page, press Enter. Press F8 to accept the Windows XP Licensing Agreement. You'll be asked if you want to repair your existing Windows XP installation. Press ESC to bypass the repair and install a fresh copy. All your existing disk partitions will be listed, like this. You want to delete the current partition where Windows is installed. Use the arrow key to select it, and press D to delete it. Press L to confirm. Then, to create a new partition, select the unpartitioned space and press C. To create a new partition with the maximum amount of space allotted to it, press Enter. Now select the brand spanking new partition you've just created to install Windows on. Format the drive as NTFS (Quick if you want, but I went thorough just to be sure.) Depending on the size of the drive and how fast your computer is, this will take some time. Get a sandwich. Then, follow Windows Setup's steps, set your area code and name and password and let it reboot as many times as necessary until it asks you to log in for the first time. Congratulations! Welcome to your fresh new Windows installation. But we're not done yet. Step 6. Install any missing drivers. Once you get Windows XP up and running, chances are everything on your computer won't be working perfectly. Are you connected to the internet? Can you play music? Is your screen resolution unusually large? The answer is probably no to all those questions, except the last one. Do not panic. This is the part where you install the right drivers for your hardware. First, get a list of what Windows doesn't have installed correctly. From Control Panel, go to System, then Hardware, and click on the Device Manager. Chances are it'll look something like mine did after my fresh installation: Those yellow question marks/exclamation points are Windows' way of saying "I know this hardware is here, but I don't know what it is or how to control it." Insert each driver CD you've got stacked up beside you and install the software needed for all your computer's components. If you don't have a driver disk, get on that other machine you've got next to you, and Google up the brand and model of each of the components for which you need a driver, download, burn to disk and install on your fresh Windows machine. Those two handy hardware audits you printed out in Step 2 will be your friend, but without the discs that came with your machine, it will be a bit of a guessing game, matching up the yellow question marks with the items on your reports. Take educated guesses. Good luck. As for me, I had to manually install drivers for my video card, sound card, printer, TV tuner card and Bluetooth adaptor. Your mileage may vary. Step 7. Update Windows. If you used the Windows installation CD that shipped with your computer three years ago, you've got an old version of Windows that came out 7 service packs ago. As soon as you're online (got that ethernet card/wifi card driver installed?) go directly to Windows Update and patch up Windows nice and tight and secure. Do not wait to do this as there are probably lots of computer baddies just beyond your network card waiting to ravage your virginal machine the minute it's out there alone in the wild internet. Yes, that sounded dirty on purpose. Step 8. Install all needed software applications and tweak Windows to taste. Windows XP editions - Wikipedia. Windows XP has been released in several editions since its original release in 2. Windows XP is available in many languages.[1] In addition, add- ons translating the user interface are also available for certain languages.[2]Home and Professional[edit]The first two editions released by Microsoft are Windows XP Home Edition, designed for home users, and Windows XP Professional, designed for business and power users. Windows XP Professional offers a number of features unavailable in the Home Edition, including: [3]The ability to become part of a Windows Server domain, a group of computers that are remotely managed by one or more central servers. An access control scheme that allows specific permissions on files to be granted to specific users under normal circumstances. However, users can use tools other than Windows Explorer (like cacls or File Manager), or restart to Safe Mode to modify access control lists. Remote Desktop server, which allows a PC to be operated by another Windows XP user over a local area network or the Internet. Offline Files and Folders, which allow the PC to automatically store a copy of files from another networked computer and work with them while disconnected from the network. Encrypting File System, which encrypts files stored on the computer's hard drive so they cannot be read by another user, even with physical access to the storage medium. Centralized administration features, including Group Policies, Automatic Software Installation and Maintenance, Roaming User Profiles, and Remote Installation Services (RIS). Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft's HTTP and FTP Server. Support for two physical central processing units (CPU). Because the number of CPU cores and hyper- threading capabilities on modern CPUs are considered to be part of a single physical processor, multicore CPUs are supported using XP Home Edition.)[4][5]Windows Management Instrumentation Console (WMIC): WMIC is a command- line tool designed to ease WMI information retrieval about a system by using simple keywords (aliases). The ability to switch hard disk storage type from Basic to Dynamic and vice versa. Edition N[edit]In March 2. European Commission fined Microsoft €4. US$7. 84 million) and ordered the company to provide a version of Windows without Windows Media Player. The Commission concluded that Microsoft "broke European Union competition law by leveraging its near monopoly in the market for PC operating systems onto the markets for work group server operating systems and for media players". After unsuccessful appeals in 2. Microsoft reached an agreement with the Commission where it would release a court- compliant version, Windows XP Edition N. This version does not include the company's Windows Media Player but instead encourages users to pick and download their own media player. Microsoft wanted to call this version Reduced Media Edition, but EU regulators objected and suggested the Edition N name, with the N signifying "not with Media Player"[6] for both Home and Professional editions of Windows XP. Because it is sold at the same price as the version with Windows Media Player included, Dell, Hewlett- Packard, Lenovo and Fujitsu Siemens have chosen not to stock the product. However, Dell did offer the operating system for a short time. Consumer interest has been low, with roughly 1,5. OEMs, and no reported sales to consumers.[7][dead link][8][9][1. The N editions of Windows XP also do not include Windows Movie Maker, but Microsoft has made this available as a separate download.[1. In December 2. 00. Korean Fair Trade Commission ordered Microsoft to make available editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2. Windows Media Player or Windows Messenger.[1. Like the European Commission decision, this decision was based on the grounds that Microsoft had abused its dominant position in the market to push other products onto consumers. Unlike that decision, however, Microsoft was also forced to withdraw the non- compliant versions of Windows from the South Korean market. The K and KN editions of Windows XP Home Edition and Professional Edition were released in August 2. English and Korean. Both editions contain links to third- party instant messenger and media player software.[1. Home Edition ULCPC[edit]This edition of Windows XP Home is intended for sale with certain "low- cost" netbooks and will appear labeled as "Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC" (with "ULCPC" standing for "ultra low cost personal computer").[1. Professional Blade PC Edition[edit]This version comes preinstalled on OEM solutions providing desktops on Blade PC hardware. In addition to a copy of Windows XP Professional, it includes a Remote Desktop License.[1. Starter Edition[edit]Windows XP Starter Edition is a lower- cost version of Windows XP available in Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Uruguay, Malaysia, and Venezuela. It is similar to Windows XP Home, but is limited to low- end hardware, can only run 3 programs at a time, and has some other features either removed or disabled by default. According to a Microsoft press release, Windows XP Starter Edition is "a low- cost introduction to the Microsoft Windows XP operating system designed for first- time desktop PC users in developing countries."Specialization[edit]The Starter Edition includes some special features for certain markets where consumers may not be computer literate. Not found in the Home Edition, these include localised help features for those who may not speak English, a country- specific computer wallpaper[1. Windows XP installations. The Malaysian version, for example, contains a desktop background of the Kuala Lumpur skyline. In addition, the Starter Edition also has some unique limitations to prevent it from displacing more expensive versions of Windows XP.[1. Only three applications can be run at once on the Starter Edition, and each application may open a maximum of three windows. The maximum screen resolution is 1. In addition, the Starter Edition is licensed only for low- end processors like Intel's Celeron or AMD's Duron and Sempron. There is also a 5. MB limit on main memory and a 1. GB disk size limit.[1. Microsoft has not made it clear, however, if this is for total disk space, per partition, or per disk. There are also fewer options for customizing the themes, desktop, and taskbar. Market adoption[edit]On October 9, 2. Microsoft announced[1. Windows XP Starter Edition sold. In the mass market, however, the Starter Edition has not had much success. In many markets where it is available, pirated versions of higher end versions of Windows are more popular than their legal counterparts. In these markets, non- genuine copies of XP Professional can be obtained at a mall. These stores typically charge only for the amount of the CDs/DVDs taken up by the files, not the original retail value. Unlicensed copies of Windows XP Professional typically cost US$0. CD) compared to around US$3. XP Starter.[2. 0]Media Center Edition[edit]This edition, which was code- named "Freestyle" during its development, was first released in September 2. The initial release was available solely in conjunction with computers that included media center capabilities, and could not be purchased separately. The first major update was released in 2. Tier 1 OEMs who had previously sold Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, and then updated again in 2. System Builders. Many of the features of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2. DJ, and high end visual screen savers) were taken from the Windows XP Plus! These were originally shipped as add ons to Windows XP to enhance the users experience of their Windows XP machine. Releases[edit]A preview version of Windows XP Media Center Edition from Microsoft's e. Home division, was shown as CES 2. July 2. 00. 2.[2. Windows XP Media Center Edition ("Freestyle", July 2. This was the original release. Updates to this release added features such as FM radio tuning. This release combined with updates is sometimes referred to as Windows XP Media Center Edition 2. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2. Harmony", September 2. Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrades earlier versions of MCE to this one. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2. Symphony", October 2. MCE available to non- Tier 1 system builders. Among other things it includes support for Media Center Extenders, and CD/DVD- Video burning support.[2. Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2.
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