Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to install Windows XP Professional. We covered the following

topics:

_ The design goals of Windows XP Professional, which include taking the best features of

Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000 Professional, providing a wide range

of support for hardware, making the operating system easy to use, and lowering the cost of

ownership.

_ Installation preparation, which begins with making sure that your computer meets the minimum

system requirements and that all of your hardware is on the Hardware Compatibility

List (HCL). Then you need to decide whether you will perform a clean install or an upgrade.

Finally, you should plan which options you will select during installation. Options include

methods of partitioning your disk space, selecting a file system, whether the computer

will be installed as part of a workgroup or a domain, and your language and locale

settings.

_ The methods you can use for installation, which include using the distribution files on the

Windows XP Professional CD or using files that have been copied to a network share point.

_ How to install Windows XP Professional, which proceeds in four main installation phases:

information collection, installation preparation, Windows installation, and installation

finalization.

_ The post-installation update and product activation feature. Post-installation updates are

used to ensure that you have the latest files. Product activation is used to complete the

Windows XP licensing process.

_ How to troubleshoot installation problems. Common errors are caused by media problems,

lack of disk space or memory, and hardware problems. Other common errors include an

improperly configured Boot.ini file or using non-supported hard drives. You can view

Setup log files to check for problems that occurred during the installation.

_ Information about supporting dual-boot or multi-boot environments. Dual-booting and

multi-booting allow you to boot to a choice of two or more operating systems.

Supporting Multiple-Boot Options

You may want to install Windows XP Professional but still be able to run other operating systems.

Dual-booting or multi-booting allows your computer to boot multiple operating systems. Your

computer will be automatically configured for dual-booting if there was a supported operating

system on your computer prior to the Windows XP Professional installation (and you didn’t

upgrade from that operating system).

One reason for dual-booting is to test various systems. If you have a limited number of computers

in your test lab, and you want to be able to test multiple configurations, you dual-boot.

For example, you might configure one computer to multi-boot with Windows NT 4 Workstation,

Windows NT 4 Server configured as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC), Windows 2000

Professional, and Windows XP Professional.

Another reason to set up dual-booting is for software backward compatibility. For example,

you may have an application that works with Windows 98 but not under Windows XP

Professional. If you want to use Windows XP but still access your legacy application, you can

configure a dual-boot.

Here are some keys to successful dual-boot configurations:

_ Make sure you have plenty of disk space. It’s a good idea to put each operating system on

a separate partition, although this is not required.

_ Put the simplest operating systems on first. If you want to support dual-booting with DOS

and Windows XP Professional, DOS must be installed first. If you install Windows XP

Professional first, you cannot install DOS without ruining your Windows XP configuration.

This requirement also applies to Windows 9x and Windows 2000.

_ Never, ever, upgrade to Windows XP dynamic disks. Dynamic disks are seen only by

Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and are not recognized by any other operating system,

including Windows NT.

_ Do not convert your file system to NTFS if you are planning a dual-boot with any operating

system except Windows NT, Windows 2000, or Windows XP. These operating systems

are the only ones that recognize NTFS.

_ If you will dual-boot with Windows NT, you must turn off disk compression, or Windows XP

will not be able to read the drive properly.

Troubleshooting Installation Problems

The Windows XP installation process is designed to be as simple as possible. The chances for

installation errors are greatly minimized through the use of wizards and the step-by-step process.

However, it is possible that errors may occur.

In the following sections, you will more about:

_ Identifying and resolving common installation problems

_ Troubleshooting installation problems that relate to the Boot.ini file

_ Installing non-supported hard drives

_ Troubleshooting installation errors using installation log files

Troubleshooting Installation Errors with

the Boot.ini File

If the text-based portion of the installation completes successfully, but the GUI-based portion

of the installation fails, the error may be caused by a device driver that is failing to load properly.

If you suspect that this is causing the installation error, you can edit a file called Boot.ini to

list the drivers that are being loaded during the boot process. The Boot.ini file is located in the

root of the system partition.

In order to cause the device drivers to be listed during the boot process, you need to edit the

Boot.ini file to include the /sos switch, as shown:

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS = "Microsoft

Windows XP Professional" /sos

Troubleshooting with Installation Log Files

When you install Windows XP Professional, several log files are created by the Setup program.

You can view these logs to check for any problems during the installation process. Two log files

are particularly useful for troubleshooting:

_ The action log includes all of the actions that were performed during the setup process and

a description of each action. These actions are listed in chronological order. The action

log is stored as \Windir\setupact.log.

_ The error log includes any errors that occurred during the installation. For each error, there

is a description and an indication of the severity of the error. This error log is stored as

\Windir\setuperr.log.

In Exercise 1.2, you will view the Windows XP setup logs to determine whether there were

any problems with your Windows XP installation.

Post-Installation Updates and Product Activation

Once you are done with the Windows XP Professional installation, you can keep your operating

system up-to-date through post-installation updates. Product activation is Microsoft’s way

of reducing software piracy.

Unless you have a corporate license for Windows XP Professional, you will need to perform

post-installation activation. This can be done online or through a telephone call. After Windows

XP is installed, you will be prompted to activate the product. There is a 30-day grace period

when you will be able to use the operating system without activation. After the grace period expires,

you will not be able to successfully log on to the computer without activation if you restart

or log out of the computer. When the grace period runs out, the Product Activation Wizard will

automatically start; it will walk you through the activation process.

Post-Installation Updates

You can perform post-installation updates of Windows XP Professional through Windows

Update. Windows Update is a utility that connects to Microsoft’s website and checks to ensure

that you have the most up-to-date version of XP Professional files. To access Windows Update, confirm that your computer is connected to the Internet and access Start _ Help and Support.

From the Help and Support dialog box, select Windows Update. Your computer will be

scanned, and a list of suggested downloads will be customized and listed for you to select from.

Some of the common update categories include:

_ Critical updates and Service Packs

_ Windows XP updates

_ Drivers

Windows Service Packs

Service Packs are updates to the Windows XP operating system that include bug fixes and product

enhancements. Some of the options that might be included in Service Packs are security fixes

or updated versions of software, such as Internet Explorer.

You can download Service Packs from Microsoft.com or you can pay for a CD of the Service

Pack to be mailed to you. Before you install a Service Pack, you should read the Release Note

that is provided for each Service Pack on Microsoft’s website.