WIndows XP Installation Guide

Installing Windows is something that few would consider to be something to be actually TAUGHT to people since most of the people now are able to do it fine by themselves. Yes, installing Windows is really easy and since a large number of the people know how to install Windows, you, the people who still don’t know and are hesitant to do it without some guidance, should learn it too.  I am here for you, to provide the guidance you want. Let’s begin the Windows installation guide.

Do note I am covering Windows XP’s installation. The installation process for all XP editions is the same so no need to be fussy about that, we are covering a Professional edition installation but the process is absolutely identical to any other Windows XP version.

First of all, you would need:

1.        A bootable Windows XP Setup CD
2. .      A CD or DVD Rom

You would need to configure your CD Rom device as the first boot device in order to initiate the setup by booting from CD. You would need to enter the BIOS for this, to enter the blue/ purple world of BIOS, press the BIOS setup key(this is usually flashed on the screen immediately after the PC is turned on) when the PC is turned on. Once you have made sure that the CD Rom is your 1^st Boot device, you can exit the BIOS ( saving the changes ) and popping in the XP Setup CD.

A message would flash on the screen, something like ‘Press any key to boot from CD’. Well, as the message says, press any key to boot. After you press the key, you would see another message informing you that setup is inspecting your PC’s configuration. This would go shortly thereafter, to be replaced by a blue screen.

Drivers would be loaded, as you would see at the bottom of the blue screen. After a while, you would see a message on the blue screen saying ‘Setup Windows XP’. Press Enter to proceed. Agree to the license agreement by pressing F8. If your PC would be having an existing Windows XP installation at the time of the setup, you would see the setup offering you to repair the existing Windows installation. Don’t repair i.e. Press ESC, proceed to do a clean install. Choose a partition where Windows would be installed. Now, you would be prompted to format the partition, either with NTFS file system or FAT file system. It’s our recommendation that you format using NTFS file system since Windows XP is based on the NT kernel. Don’t take shortcuts, take your time and do not opt for the Quick Format method.

After the formatting is complete, the setup would immediately start copying Windows files to your Hard disk. When this is complete, you would be prompted to restart your PC. After rebooting, you would again see the ‘Press any key to boot from CD’ message. DO NOT PRESS ANY KEY, LET THE MESSAGE GO. If you make the mistake to press a button at the time, the setup would be restarted. Now, you would see Windows XP complete with the Windows logo loading.

The dark blue would be replaced with light blue. For some minutes, the setup would not show any progress bar but the ‘Windows is being installed’ text. After this, you would see the first progress bar, that of ‘Installing Devices’. Once the progress bar would be completed a window would appear, prompting you to configure some details. Fill in the details and proceed. You will see a new progress bar appear named’ Installing Network’ after your fill in the details required by the setup. The bar would soon be replaced by a new window appearing and asking you to configure your network settings. Again it is our recommendation that you simply choose TYPICAL SETTINGS and not to indulge in any other work except the main Windows installation. Face it, you can do it later when your Windows is finally installed.  This would be succeeded by a flurry of further progress bars appearing and finishing. Finally you would see a ‘Saving settings’ bar. When this bar finishes, your PC will restart.

You may think that you have almost completed the installation at this point. Again the message would prompt you to press any key to boot from CD but do NOT press any key, as it would restart the whole setup process. Let the message go away, you would see Windows XP loading now. Windows would now configure your resolution, click on OK when it notifies you about this. You are done with the installation at this point so relax, take a chill, the scary part is gone. Just fill in the details that it asks you (Your USER ID, password etc). You can skip the ‘Checking for Internet Connectivity’ phase, its useless as you can check for connectivity yourself after Windows is finally loaded. Finally, its your decision whether to register than or later with Microsoft. Once done with all of these press ‘Next’ and BOOM! You would see the familiar Windows XP welcome screen. Just a moment later, you would be seeing the hilly desktop background with the only icon on the desktop being recycle bin.

This would be the complete end of the installation. Your Windows would be successfully installed and now you can check if any of your devices need further software installation to make them fully functional; but Hey! That’s another story and I suppose that you can do all the rest by yourself now. In fact you should now be able to install Windows by yourself in the future.

Installing Windows is a piece of cake, isn’t it?

Video by Shaheryar Hasan. The above text is written by Hammad Hussain.