Creating an installation disk and installing Windows XP. Windows Vista: installation over Windows XP; changing hardware Installation options for Windows XP
If you decide to install Windows XP on your computer, then first of all do the following.
Copy all the necessary information from hard drive on floppy or compact discs. Otherwise, you may lose it forever.
Check for drivers for your sound card, modem and printer.
Remember or write down the Windows XP activation key.
Check your computer for viruses.
Disable antivirus software, otherwise during Windows installations XP may crash.
When installing Windows XP on old computer Find out if a BIOS update is available. If not, then you must abandon the installation.
After that, insert the installation CD into the drive. The startup wizard will offer you a choice: install Windows XP or check the system for compatibility (Fig. 2.1).
Rice. 2.1. Start installing Windows XP.
Note.
There are now many CDs available with different installation options for Windows XP Home Edition and Professional. Some CDs launch an installation program in which you need to press one button - and all operations for formatting, installing updates, checking computer components for compatibility with the operating system, preliminary configuration, selection file system(FAT32 only) will be executed automatically.
After installation, you need to set the time and install the missing drivers - and the computer is ready to use. But despite all this, I strongly recommend that you read this book carefully, since in most cases you will have to choose the sequence of actions yourself (Fig. 2.1). And if suddenly a failure occurs during installation, then you will know what to do.
So, in the one shown in Fig. 2.1 window, select Check system compatibility. Windows XP supports a fairly extensive set of hardware, but it's a good idea to examine your computer's hardware before installation. After checking, you will see on the screen the whole truth about your computer.
If the verification was successful, you can install the operating system. But it may happen that the processor, video card or modem is hopelessly outdated or there are simply no suitable drivers for them on the installation CD.
If the testing program does not like the processor, video card, or some other vital device for your computer, then you should refuse to install Windows XP. True, the program may offer to connect to the Internet and will indicate the path to the manufacturer’s website, where new drivers may be located. Of course, I don't know how reliable your phone line or Internet connection is - so see for yourself. In general, if any failure occurs during the installation process, which is extremely undesirable, you can continue the installation even after turning off the computer's power (for example, the next day or a week later). However, there is a small chance that your computer will not start at all.
If the checking program does not like your modem, printer or some other not-so-essential device (of course, these devices are important, but without them the computer can work quite well, but, for example, without a processor it cannot), then you can do one of the following actions:
Abort installation;
Continue the installation by connecting to the Internet to download drivers and updates;
Continue installation without connecting to the Internet.
You can install the drivers yourself later (see section “Installing video card drivers”).
The next installation step is to select a file system. I talked about the file system above, since at the time of installation you must clearly understand whether you will format in FAT32 or NTFS HDD.
Installing Windows XP as an update
You may not format the hard drive, but install Windows XP as an update to Windows 98, 98SE, Me, NT or 2000. But remember that a lot of “garbage” from old and deleted programs will remain on the hard drive, and, most likely, some errors installed earlier operating system, there will be many duplicate files occupying disk space. At the same time, do not forget that updating the operating system is the safest way to install new version Windows.
And if you are doing this exciting activity for the first time, then choose the update.
Additionally, if you have enough free space on your hard drive and Windows XP does not have Service Pack 2 (SP2), then after upgrading your operating system, if it fails, you can uninstall Windows XP and revert to the original operating system from which you upgraded. Most programs installed before the Windows update will be retained.
If the update was performed from Windows 98, 98SE or Me, then you can cancel it even if you have the second service pack (SP2).
To uninstall Windows XP, follow these steps.
1. Start restarting your computer. During the boot process, press and release the F8 key. This will allow the operating system to load in safe mode - not all drivers will be loaded.
2. Log in using an administrator account. In Windows XP, the administrator account is assigned by default.
3. Run the Start? Control Panel, and then double-click Add or Remove Programs.
4. Listed installed programs Look for Uninstall Windows XP and click Uninstall. The screen will ask you: Are you sure you want to remove Windows XP? In response, click the Yes button.
The Windows XP operating system will be removed from the computer, and after rebooting you will be able to work with the previous system. If you do not find Cancel installation of Windows XP in the list of installed programs, you will have to return to your favorite Windows versions by running the installer from the command line.
Note.
Updating is possible with using Windows 98, 98SE, Me or NT Workstation 4 (with SP6). Windows 2000 Professional can only be upgraded to Windows XP Professional.
Further installation of Windows XP is so easy that it deprives the user of the pleasure of clicking the Yes button. All you have to do is sit back comfortably in your chair and watch commercials about the advantages of the operating room Windows systems XP.
Attention!
Don’t worry if during installation your computer periodically shows no signs of life for 10–15 minutes, maybe even more if the components are old. He wasn't stuck, he was just lost in thought.
The installation program is designed in such a way that no errors occur during recording to the hard disk. If, for example, you have old hard drive, then the installation speed will be reduced to such a level that the hard drive is able to normally store information. Why should you rush, sit and train your willpower.
Some impatient users bring computers to the workshop with half installed Windows. On average, installing Windows XP takes 1.5 hours, but it can take much longer.
When updating the operating system, when there is a lot of free space on your hard drive, it is useful to copy the installation files to drive C: or any other drive if you have several of them. Then the installation will go faster and there will be no errors during installation due to possible malfunctions of the old CD drive, and when adding any components there will be no need to insert a CD with the operating system, since the installation files packaged by the archiver are always are on the hard drive.
If you want to participate in the installation process (rather than just watch it) and the distribution allows you to select components manually (regardless of whether it is a full installation or an upgrade), then select Manual selection of Windows XP components. Then you can safely turn off Accessibility Features, Internet Games and in general everything that you don’t need for work. If you have a copy on the C: drive or the Windows XP installation CD, any program can be installed later.
Installation of one OS - Windows XP
Installing a new operating system is more complicated than updating, so let’s look at this option in more detail.
Installation processAs a reminder, you need to scan your computer for viruses, disable antivirus software, see if a BIOS update is available, copy all the information you need from your hard drive to floppy or CD-ROMs, check for drivers, and remember your Windows XP activation key.
1. Insert the Windows XP CD into the drive. Depending on your CD configuration, do one of the following:
Restart your computer. The boot program will go as far as testing the CD drive (Boot from CD), and something similar to DOS will appear on the screen.
Use the cursor keys (? and ?) and Enter to select required action: Emergency boot (useful feature if the computer cannot boot from the hard drive), Boot from drive C: (choose this option if you change your mind about installing Windows XP) or Microsoft installation Windows XP.
The installation process will begin. Try not to miss the corresponding message, otherwise you will have to restart your computer again. You are given 30 seconds to think. This is quite enough, especially since if you press any key, then the time is not limited. The period of 30 seconds is the control time. (For example, if you or your child mistakenly restarted the computer with the Windows installation CD inserted into the drive.) If you do nothing for 30 seconds, the computer will boot normally.
Attention!
Some computers may not boot from a CD automatically. In this case, you need to reconfigure the computer's BIOS.
Run the automatic installation of Windows XP (see Fig. 2.1).
Some CDs support both options. If you choose the first option, the installation is controlled by programs built into your computer's processor. If there were serious problems with the previous operating system, then choose the first option.
The installation process, supported by the Startup Wizard, is controlled using the operating system you want to install Windows XP instead of. The initial steps with the startup program are easier.
Further actions are no different for the first and second options.
2. In the one shown in Fig. 2.1 window select Check system compatibility. Three options for further actions will be available in a new window (Fig. 2.2).
Rice. 2.2. The second step of installing Windows XP.
Select Automatic system check. Click on Compatibility Site if you have a reliable Internet connection. It is worth noting that this procedure will not take much time.
3. The section More about the installation process (see Fig. 2.1) provides reference material and recommendations for installing Windows XP. All installation instructions should be carefully read before installation. This item may not be present in the installation window.
4. The Install additional Windows components item (see Fig. 2.1) is convenient if you have Windows XP installed and have saved the CD from which the installation was performed. During operation, for example, the Spider Solitaire game or the Outlook Express email program were mistakenly deleted. Don't reinstall the system because of this! Select Install additional Windows components, check the required boxes and click Next (Fig. 2.3). You can, of course, install the missing components from another Windows XP CD, but I would not recommend taking the risk.
Rice. 2.3. Installing additional Windows components.
Note.
There is a more reliable way to restore additional Windows XP components. Open the Add or Remove Programs window from the Control Panel, click on the Add Windows Components button on the left, check the box for the program that was accidentally removed, and click Next. If the operating system does not like your CD, a warning will appear indicating that this component cannot be installed. If everything is fine, the program will be installed.
The Windows Component Wizard window will look the same no matter how you access it.
5. The Perform other tasks item (see Fig. 2.1) is needed only by experienced users: it allows you to set remote control Desktop, home or small network, etc. (Fig. 2.4).
Rice. 2.4. Perform other tasks.
Let's skip it. By the way, this item may be missing.
6. Click in the window shown in Fig. 2.1, under Installing Windows XP. The Windows XP Installation Wizard window will open (Fig. 2.5).
Rice. 2.5. Selecting the installation type.
From the Installation Type drop-down list, you can select one of the following options:
Restore Windows XP. Select this option if Windows XP is installed but is not running well. The recovery must be performed from the same CD from which the installation took place. The computer settings and your data, except for drivers and video card settings, should be preserved, but it would be a good idea to copy all personal files to floppy disks before restoring. Some programs will have to be reinstalled.
7. If you selected the New installation type and clicked Next, the license agreement will appear on the screen. Read it and accept or reject the terms of the agreement. You must accept the terms of the agreement to continue with the installation. We accept them.
8. The next window displays conditions that allow you to re-create partitions on your hard drive. Re-partitioning is useful when combining several small partitions into one larger one, or when installing multiple operating systems (in which case you should create multiple partitions, since each version of Windows is installed on a separate volume). If you need to partition, follow the instructions. This procedure is described in more detail in Section. "Installing two operating systems."
9. Select the file system and the desired format method (fast or slow), and then press Enter. When you select the Format disk option, all information from the hard drive will be deleted. No “old sores” will be inherited.
Attention!
When formatting a volume, files are deleted and the hard drive is checked for bad sectors. Most of the time is spent checking the hard drive. If the quick format mode is selected, then files are deleted from the partition, and the hard drive is not checked for bad sectors. This mode should only be used if you are sure that the hard drive is working properly, since recording system files on damaged areas of the hard drive will make the operating system impossible to operate.
Disconnecting your computer from the network while formatting the drive can cause serious problems.
10. The program will format the hard drive, copy the original installation files and restart the computer. After this, the installation of Windows XP will continue.
11. In the Program ownership settings field, enter your name.
12. The installation program may ask you to enter a key, but in some versions registration will be required the first time Windows startup XP.
Attention!
The 25-character code is written down on paper before Windows installation begins. The code may be on the box of the installation CD or in a file on the CD. Often such documents are marked with a # sign or called Read Me, Readme, Serial.
13. Enter and remember (or better yet, write it down somewhere) the administrator password.
14. Set the date and time.
15. In the Workgroup or Domain window, click Next.
16. The Windows XP installation process will continue. Once the installation is complete, your computer will restart and you can begin working.
Some installation CDs may not contain certain items. Sometimes there is only the Install Windows XP item. The fewer options you have to choose from, the easier it is to install Windows. However, some experienced users like to configure everything themselves, especially since the default settings are not always suitable for work and will still have to be changed. However, if you accidentally mix up the current year out of excitement, then nothing bad will happen. You can change it to the desired year at any time convenient for you after installing the operating system, since most parameters can be changed and adjusted. The main thing is not to confuse the file system.
If you have problems with the CD drive, you can also install using six floppy disks. Bootable floppy disks must first be downloaded from the Microsoft website (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994). When copying, be sure to label or remember the floppy disk numbers. When all the disks are ready, insert the first one into the floppy drive and restart the computer. The Windows XP installation process will begin. After finishing working with the first disc, a message will appear on the screen indicating that you need to insert a second disc. Insert a second floppy disk, etc.
Formatting, partitioning, file system selection and other settings are the same as when installing from a CD.
Service PackSome distribution CDs allow you to install service packs without reinstalling or upgrading Windows XP. The Service Pack can also be downloaded for free from the Internet.
Operating systems are created by people, and people, as we know, can make mistakes. During the operation of the system, errors appear, and programmers find ways to eliminate them. To eliminate possible errors, update packages appeared: Service Pack 1 and 2.
If you already have the Windows XP operating system installed on your computer, which works without failures, then you should not change the system because of a new package that has appeared. You can install the Service Pack on your existing Windows XP. All service packs are installed in numerical order. It is possible to install SP2 without first installing SP1.
Let's look at the advantages of the second Windows XP update package (Service Pack 2).
Improved search and sharing of information on the Internet thanks to new technologies.
– You can block most pages that open without your permission, giving you more control and improved online performance.
– Outlook Express uses a new Attachment Manager that isolates files from the content on your hard drive when you open them. This prevents the possibility of infecting the system with a virus or other dangerous code.
– New built-in Windows firewall is turned on by default and helps protect your computer from viruses and attacks from the Internet.
Make it easier and faster to manage your security settings and updates with Windows Security Center, designed specifically for Windows XP.
The latest software and hardware developments from Microsoft: new drivers and updates will help you work more efficiently and securely with Windows Media Player, DirectX, etc.
Installing SP2 requires a computer running Windows XP, a CD drive (if you are installing from a CD), a minimum 233 MHz processor, a random access memory 64 MB or more, 900 MB of free hard disk space.
Attention!
Update packages for various versions of Windows have been released in the past. They were called the same: SP1, SP2, SP3, SP4. If you have Windows XP installed on your computer, then the update packages must be specifically for Windows XP. Be careful not to get confused.
Installing two OS
Before installing two operating systems, you should understand that each operating system takes up valuable disk space and file system compatibility issues may arise. Each operating system is an independent world, living by its own laws and requiring its own software.
For example, you installed and configured a driver for a video card in Windows XP Professional. You launch a second operating system (let's say Windows 95) and install a driver for the video card that is compatible with Windows 95. You have installed Microsoft Word in Windows XP, launch Windows 95 and install Word that is compatible with Windows 95. All optimization settings and maintenance work for each operating system are carried out separately, according to their own rules.
Attention!
Drivers and programs must be compatible with the version of Windows in which you install them.
Not all older programs work in Windows XP Professional. Some members of your family may prefer one version of Windows over another. Perhaps these are the only reasons why you should install two operating systems.
Installing two or more operating systems with the FAT file system must occur in the following order: MS-DOS, Windows 95 or 98, and then Windows XP. You understand that it is not necessary to install all modifications of Windows, but the versions that were released earlier are installed first.
Installing two or more operating systems with the NTFS file system follows the same criteria as with FAT - first install the versions that were released earlier.
But before installing two or more operating systems, you need to create several volumes. Of course, your computer's hard drive may have been partitioned long before you decided to install Windows XP, and you simply want to replace one of your installed operating systems with Windows XP. Then the installation occurs exactly as described in section. “Installing one OS - Windows XP”, taking into account everything that has been said about file systems. But we'll look at how you can split a single hard drive into two or more partitions and how to merge existing partitions using the partitioning and disk formatting tools built into Windows XP Setup.
Read section carefully again. “Installing one OS - Windows XP” to the eighth point.
Creating new sections is a very responsible operation, so all actions are commented in detail and explained on the screen during its implementation.
Using the cursor keys (? and?), you can select a section or free area. Press D to delete an existing partition, then L to confirm deleting the partition (or press Enter, then L if you want to delete an existing partition). system partition). Repeat the described steps as many times as you want to delete partitions.
Press the C key to create a new partition based on the free space and enter the required size for the new partition (for example, 8 MB). Press Enter to create the maximum size partition. If you need to create additional sections, then repeat this procedure as many times as you want to create partitions.
You can use the arrow keys (? and ?) to select the partition where you want to install Windows XP. Then you need to press the Enter key and select a formatting method.
Leave the current file system.
Formatting a partition using the FAT “Fast” file system.
Formatting a partition using the FAT file system.
Formatting a partition using the NTFS “Fast” file system.
Formatting a partition using the NTFS file system.
Note.
Not every installation disc supports all five formatting options.
Press Enter.
If you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer, you can select one of them to load by default. To do this, after installing all operating systems and restarting the computer, find the My Computer icon on the Desktop, right-click on it and select Properties from the context menu. In the window that opens, go to the Advanced tab and in the Startup and Recovery area, click the Options button. The Download and Recovery window will open (Fig. 2.6).
In the Loading operating system area of the window that opens, from the Operating system loaded by default list, select the required system, and then click OK at the bottom of the window. Now, when you turn on or restart your computer, the selected operating system will load.
To manually edit the location order and set the default operating system, we remain in the Boot and Recovery window. In the Operating system loading area, to the right of the Edit boot list manually inscription, click the Edit button and make the necessary changes in the window that opens. But be careful when editing boot parameters manually - your computer may not start at all. If you don't quite understand how to edit boot options manually, then remember this setting and never change it (or even open it).
or manually enter the desired time during which it will be possible to select any system installed on your computer. After this time, the default Windows system will begin to boot.
Installing video card drivers
After installing Windows XP, it is advisable to install video card drivers. Those video card drivers that are installed with Windows are not the best option.
Take the CD that came with your video card and insert it into the drive. Find the required driver and install it. You can also download the driver from the Internet, extract it from the archive into a separate folder and install it on your computer.
Note.
A device driver is a small program that allows the operating system to interact with specific computer components (modem, printer, video card, etc.). Drivers are a very important component in the operation of a computer. Windows XP has improved driver verification tools to ensure maximum system stability. Like any program, drivers become outdated and need to be replaced with newer ones. It is advisable to change video card drivers once a year, but for a mouse you can always use the driver installed with the operating system.
If you are not exactly sure of the correctness of your choice, you can ask the computer to select the necessary driver located on your CD, floppy or hard drive.
Execute the Start command? Control Panel and in the window that opens, double-click on the System icon. The System Properties window will open (Fig. 2.7).
Rice. 2.7. Properties of the system.
Go to the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button. In the window of the same name, click on the “+” icon to the left of the Video adapters item, and then right-click on the name of the video card (for example, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400). In the context menu that appears, select Update driver.
In the Hardware Update Wizard window that opens, you can set the switch to Automatic installation or Install from a specified location. If the driver is located on a floppy disk, then select Automatic installation. If the driver is located on a CD or hard drive, then set the switch to Install from a specified location. Click the Next button.
If the driver is on a CD, then you can select Search on adjacent media, and if on a hard drive, select Include the following search location. Click the Browse button, specify the folder with the drivers and click OK.
The computer itself will select the best driver and install it. It may happen that all the proposed drivers are not suitable for one reason or another. In this case, you need to find others. You can, of course, install drivers by force, but I don’t recommend experimenting - Windows knows what it’s doing.
Drivers in Windows XP are checked before installation for compatibility with the operating system and for reliability during operation. Verified device drivers are the most reliable in operation, which ensures maximum system stability.
Drivers for all devices are installed and updated in a similar way.
Attention!
If any problems arise with your computer (the sound suddenly stops, the printer does not want to print files, etc.), open Device Manager. Devices with incorrect installed drivers will be marked. In this case, you need to reinstall the drivers.
You must understand that the cause of the malfunction can be anything: you turned off the sound on the Taskbar or forgot to refill the printer cartridge. But before you take your computer for repair, check the device drivers.
Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation
Moscow State University of Economics
Statistics and Informatics (MESI)
Institute of Computer Technologies
Abstract on operating environments, systems and shells on the topic:
“Installing Windows XP. Windows XP shell configuration, optimization
Performer: Cherkasov Alexey Yurievich
student of group DKE-102
Moscow 2002
|Introduction |3 pages |
|What is Windows XP? |4 pages |
|How to install XP? |10 pages |
|Conclusion |19 pages |
| List of used literature | 20 pages |
Introduction.
Operating System (OS), which is based on Windows 2000. Since it
a completely new OS, then I will rely on information from the Internet.
What is WindowsXP?
This is a new OS from Microsoft, starting with which an attempt was made to unite
two previously existing independently, W9x and NT lines. Originally this
the project was called Whisler, but it has now split into two lines, WindowsXP,
positioned to replace W9x and W2kPro, and Windows.NET, positioned
to replace NT Server of all varieties. Regardless of the name, they are all
is the direct successor of Windows2000, and successors of the line
WindowsNT. This fact determines the main features of WindowsXP. This
Fully 32-bit OS with priority multitasking. At its core
are the same principles on which all NTs were based. This
1. Compatibility. The system may have a familiar interface
Windows family OS, with some additions and extensions, support
file systems NTFS5, NTFS4, FAT16 and FAT32. Most applications
written for MSDOS, W9x, NT4, as well as some programs for OS/2 and
POSIX run and function without problems. When designing NT
the ability of the system to operate in various network environments was taken into account, therefore
The delivery includes tools for working in Unix and Novell networks.
2. Portability. The system runs on various processors
x86 families produced by Intel and AMD. There is already a 64 bit version
WindowsXP and Windows.NET, designed to run on Intel Itanium.
Implementing support for processors of other architectures is possible, but will require
some effort.
3. Scalability. Windows XP supports
SMP technologies. In Windows.NET Advanced Server and Datacenter Server, except
This is supported by COW (Cluster Of Workstations).
4. Security system. The system familiar to NT has been implemented
security at the user level.
5. Distributed processing. WindowsXP has
network capabilities built into the system, which provides the ability
communication with various types of host computers due to the presence
various transport protocols and client-server technologies.
6. Reliability and robustness.
The OS architecture protects applications from being damaged by each other and by itself.
operating system. In this case, a fault-tolerant
structured handling of exceptions at all architectural levels,
which includes a recoverable NTFS file system and provides
protection with built-in security and advanced
memory management methods.
7. Localization. The system provides opportunities for work
in many countries of the world in national languages, which is achieved by using
ISO Unicode standard.
8. Extensibility. Thanks to the modular design of the system
it becomes possible to add new modules on different architectural
OS levels.
The final build is 2600. You can find it out either with the winver command or by
versions of the XP kernel, for example the ntoskrnl.exe file. Distinguish a pirated release from
this is possible thanks to the activation mechanism (Windows Product
activation) integrated into the system. The pirated release must include
means to combat it, so if you see a folder called crack, or
something like this, you can be sure that the release is pirated. If on
Your disk has nothing like it, and the disk itself has all the signs
illegal (no hologram, license agreement on paper, no
stickers that change color if you heat it with your finger), then you risk
that your version will stop working within a month. However, there is also
“broken” pirated releases that do not require registration at all. Except
Because of this, there are so-called corporate releases made by Microsoft
for its largest OEM partners. Such releases do not require registration
initially.
Windows XP has Windows Product Activation. This is new technology
developed by Microsoft to combat illegal copies of their software
provision. For the first time such a mechanism was tested at Terminal Service,
from W2k Server, but now, it seems, everyone will be protected in this way,
or many subsequent Microsoft products. The essence of the technology is
next. After installing the system based on the serial number, which
comes with every copy of XP, and some features of your computer
the so-called Product ID is generated. It consists of 20 digits, and based on it
(along with the correct serial number, of course), you get Activation
Code, after entering which Windows is considered activated. How
Microsoft claims based on these two numbers they cannot find out
nothing about your computer. That is, complete anonymity. Perhaps this is
Truth. If you do not do this procedure, then after 30 days in XP you will simply
everything will stop functioning except the applet responsible for
activation. You can find out if your version of XP is activated in the System window
Summary, located in the menu Programs -> Accessories -> System tools ->
System Information. If you see the line Activation Status, and opposite it
an inscription like Activation Pending (XX days remaining), which means in XX days
Your XP will stop working. Applet that is responsible for activating XP
located in the menu Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Activate
Windows. When you run this applet, a simple wizard will open, which
will offer to register your copy of XP via the Internet or by phone.
After the system is activated (by any means), the line
Activation Pending from System Information will disappear without a trace.
There are two versions of XP – Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional.
In addition, there is a 64-bit version of Windows XP Professional made by
for 64 bit Intel Itanium. Will be released later (according to
Mircosoft) Windows.NET Server, Windows.NET Advanced Server and Windows.NET
Datacenter Server (x86 and 64 bit edition for each). XP Home
is positioned as an OS to replace the W9x, XP Professional line, as a replacement for
Windows2000 Professional. Of the significant differences between them, you can
The only thing to note is the lack of SMP support in XP Home. But despite this,
official release of XP) we can talk about the long-promised official death
the W9x line, and the MS-DOS ideology along with it. Windows.NET is different from XP
availability of system services and applications specific to the server, and support
more powerful iron. So, if XP Pro supports SMP only for two
processor, then NET Server is already at 4, NET Advanced Server at 8, and NET
Datacenter Server at 32.
Microsoft claims that to successfully install XP you need
processor at least 233 megahertz, 64 megabytes of RAM, and 1.5
gigabytes of free disk space. However, for more or less comfortable
work you will need a processor of at least 500 megahertz, and at least 128
megabyte of RAM. Although, by making the interface as simple as possible, you can
ensure that XP will require less memory than W2k, so if
sacrifice all sorts of bells and whistles, and visual effects, then quite
It will be possible to work comfortably on less powerful systems. In general, if
Your machine runs W2k, then XP will work, no worse, if not
better. Like any OS based on the NT kernel, XP loves extra RAM,
therefore, 512 megabytes for such a system will not be superfluous at all, although not
are mandatory. At 256 Mb the system works very quickly and very
It’s nice if you don’t load it with very heavy applications. If you include everything
visual effects, then XP will noticeably slow down at a relatively
weak processors, regardless of the amount of RAM. Same
the effect is observed when using a weak video card. However, if
the system is powerful enough, then normally configured XP will work
much faster than any Microsoft OS released before.
As with W2k, the NT kernel has its own limitations, so you can't expect
from XP absolutely full compatibility with older software.
However, compared to w2k, the compatibility situation has improved somewhat.
One of the most noticeable changes is the appearance of sound in the old
DOS games, which was very difficult to achieve in W2k. Supported
emulation of Sound Blaster 2 and General MIDI, so now you can without running around with
tambourine and third-party utilities to make such old hits work with sound
like Worms, Duke Nukem 3D, Warcraft 1 and 2, Dune 2. In addition, XP has built-in
compatibility mode with older operating systems. In order to use it,
you must select the Compatibility tab from the Properties file or shortcut
(shortcut) to the file. In this tab you can specify which OS
do you need to run the program, do you need to change the resolution or color depth
at the same time (necessary for many older programs).
Unlike acompat.exe from the W2k distribution, XP in compatibility mode does not
simply reports to the program that it is not it (like the old utility from
MS-DOS, called setver), but also emulates the structure of the Windows registry,
characteristic of a particular OS version. If you don’t want to climb properties
files and shortcut yourself, you can use Program
Compatibility Wizard, from the Start - Programs - Accessories button. However, not
You should expect a miracle from this mechanism; 100% compatibility will never be achieved
succeeded, so it wouldn’t hurt to go to the website of the manufacturer of your
program and see if there is an update for it that makes it
XP compatible. What about compatibility with older software?
provision? As with W2k, the NT kernel imposes its own limitations, so
XP cannot be expected to be completely compatible with older software
provision.
This DL-hell problem has received the closest attention. Moreover, to
this issue was approached more comprehensively than ever before. Firstly,
no one will be allowed to simply overwrite any DLL in the system
directories. In addition, the SFC, System mechanism familiar to us from W2k remains
File Protection. This system monitors the main system files, and in case
replacing any of them changes everything back. In addition, Microsoft
for some reason they took care of crooked programmers who cannot write
normal, and they definitely need their creation to work with their own
DLLs that replace system ones. When installing such a program, these
the converted DLLs will still be written to disk, but not instead of
systemic. Then, when running such a program, if the DLL is called, it should
it is not the system file that is called, but a pre-saved file from this particular
programs.
Dynamic Disk is a physical disk on which you can create
dynamic sections, we also spent a lot of time on this section.
Such a disk can only be accessed from W2k or XP. Dynamic partitions
may be of the following types:
1. Simple. Simple sections are practically no different from
those to which we are accustomed.
2. Composite (spanned). Consists of multiple dynamic disks that
presented as one disc. Data is written and read sequentially.
3. Alternating (stripped). Multiple dynamic disks that
presented as one disc. Data is written and read simultaneously on
several disks. This, theoretically, should provide twice the
disk operation speed. In practice, although the increase is significant,
but less than twice. It is better to use this mode only when
case if there are already two disks. Otherwise, it is much more profitable
buy one hard drive, twice as large, with excellent speed
characteristics than two small and slower ones, in the hope that
they will be much faster. Of course, if you take two fast disks and combine
them in Stripped Volume, then they will be faster than one. However, systemic
The partition cannot be Stripped Volume. In this case, it is wiser to purchase
hardware IDE-RAID controller that provides the ability to work with
RAID even under DOS; this way you can make a system partition
alternating.
4. Mirrored. These partitions consist of two physical disks.
Data written to one of the disks is automatically duplicated on the other.
This does not provide any speed benefits, but it does provide
twice the degree of data security reliability.
5. RAID5. Consists of three or more disks. Is stripped
volume with error control. That is, the data is written to two disks, in two
block, and on the third disk, and the ECC correction code is written to the third block
errors, with the help of which, according to the information of any of the blocks, you can
restore the contents of the second block. Moreover, the ECC code is written
alternately, on each of the disks included in the array. This technology
allows more economical use of disk space than mirrored
volumes, but it works slower. Any of these sections can be
formatted for both FAT32 and NTFS. Dynamic disk management
carried out through the Disk Management section of the Computer Management window.
Note: All of these sections, except simple, can only be created on
dynamic disks.
A regular disk can be converted to dynamic from the Disk window
Management, however the reverse process (convert a dynamic disk to
simple) is not always possible. For example, if the disk was created from the very beginning
as dynamic, then it does not have the usual partition table, and that
to create it, it will have to be partitioned again using fdisk and
format.
In addition, if you delete several partitions on a dynamic disk, then
free space is not merged and a new partition equal in size
remote, will consist of several small partitions united in
volume set under one letter.
Task Manager is one of the most powerful and convenient tools in NT,
designed to control processes. It is called either
Ctrl+Shift+Esc, or by selecting from the menu that appears after right-clicking
button on the Taskbar. Task manager in XP consists of five tabs -
Applications, Processes, Performance, Networking and Users. Let's start with
This tab displays information about the load on the processor(s) in
real time (user processes in green, system processes in red
processes), the physical memory load is shown, and how much is shown
RAM occupied/free, and how much system Swap is occupied.
In addition, other additional information is given, for example Threads and
Processes, - the number of threads and processes currently running on the machine,
Peak - peak Swap size during the session, Nonpaged - quantity
memory allocated for the core. This information may be used when
it will be necessary to answer the question of which factor in the system is a “bottle factor”
neck", which slows down work (although for these purposes it is better to use
Performance Monitor).
The second tab, Processes, contains a list of processes currently active.
For each process you can find out some Additional information, How
then: PID (Process ID), the amount of RAM used,
the number of threads generated by the process and much more. Of the useful
additions that appeared in XP, you should note the column that appears
Username. In it you can find out which user or system service
launched one or another process. Add/remove displayed parameters
You can do it via View -> Select Columns.
In addition, with any of these processes you can perform certain
actions. To do this, you just need to right-click on it, it will appear
context menu through which you can finish, “kill” the process (End
Process), you can kill the process itself, and all the others that it “spawned”
(End Process Tree). You can set the priority of the process, from the highest Real-
Time to the lowest, Low. If the machine has two processors and
multiprocessor kernel, then another item appears in this menu, Set
Affinity, which allows you to transfer a process to another processor, Cpu 0,
Tab - Applications, allows you to view a list of running
applications, and “kill” any of them. Task Manager allows you not only
"kill" applications, it can also launch new applications. File ->
New task (Run..). Sometimes this can be very useful. For example, if for some reason
or the user interface freezes for some reason, you can easily
“kill” (the explorer.exe process), and then start again. Moreover, this is not
must be explorer.exe. You can, for example, run
progman.exe, and get an interface similar to the W3.1 interface, or any of
external interfaces, which can be found in abundance on the Internet.
Networking tab. This is one of the bookmarks that appeared in Task Manager
only in XP. It shows the local network load.
Users tab. Here you can see users who are currently
moment they are working on the machine. If you have sufficient rights, you can
disconnect this user, or simply send him a message. Similar
things have long been widely used in a wide variety of software,
designed to manage multi-user systems, but specifically
This feature appeared in Task Manager for the first time.
After quite a long break, Microsoft is significantly changing the appearance
their OS. The basic principles of the interface remain the same, but there are different
There are simply a huge number of small and not so small changes and improvements.
The first thing that catches your eye is the changed design of the system. On
Strict, straight lines without unnecessary “embellishments” have been replaced by rounded ones
lines, soft halftones and shadows. Actually, Microsoft didn't invent
"bicycle", many trends that are embodied in the new
We could see XP design before, including on PC. Like W2k,
using a color scheme first introduced in KDE 1.2, XP uses
elements of color scheme and design of some interface elements
(for example scroll bars) similar to those used in KDE 2.0 If anyone doesn’t
I like new trends in "computer fashion", he can easily lead
the appearance of the system into a more familiar look, such as W2k or W98.
How to install XP?
There are several ways. Firstly, if your distribution CD is similar
for the one produced by Microsoft, it must be a bootleg
(bootable). To boot from it you need the "Boot" parameter in the BIOS
sequence" set equal to CD-ROM, insert CD and reboot. After
When the computer starts, the installation program will start. Next - just follow
instructions. This is the only method that will load directly into the program -
installer Microsoft believes that CD-ROM is an integral and absolutely
a necessary part for the computer on which XP is installed, therefore
The good old method of booting from four floppy disks is no longer supported.
Secondly, you can boot from a DOS system floppy disk with a CD driver
ROM and run the program "winnt.exe" in the i386 directory on the disk with
distribution.
Note: if your hard drive is connected to an external controller (SCSI or
IDE), then do not forget to download the new XP (or W2k) driver for it and download
it to a floppy disk. You will need it if the installation program cannot
correctly identify and install the device. In this case it is necessary
press F6 when searching for such devices.
And finally, you can run the “setup.exe” program from under W9x, NT4 or W2k
from the root directory of the CD, or winnt32.exe from the i386 directory, and
upgrade the system to XP. She does it very correctly and before
reboot displays a list of programs and drivers incompatible with XP.
However, the last method is not the most optimal. Although
XP tries to independently determine the list of programs and drivers that
will not work with it correctly, it is not able to do it correctly
in all cases. Therefore, to avoid compatibility issues, it is better
reinstall the system.
There is an even more radical method of solving compatibility problems. At
installation on top of an existing OS, you will have the option of choosing an OS (Dual
Note: After installing XP as a separate OS it will not be possible
normal operation of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer in Windows 9x, because
W2k will replace the latter. This is only true if both OSes are installed on one
and the same disk partition. But this problem can be solved by copying
some DLLs from WinNT\System32 to Windows\System. To determine the required
libraries you can use the ShowDep program
() or similar information is shown by Outlook
Express in the "About" window. In addition, many programs will have to
install twice, once for XP, and once for W9x. Sometimes it is possible to
the same directory, for example Office XP is capable of
understand that it already costs time, and in the end it installs only about 18
megabyte.
It is very important to select the desired version of the kernel and HAL during installation.
At the very beginning of the text phase of the XP installation, when the message appears
"Setup is inspecting your computer"s hardware configuration" click and
hold down the "F5" key. In the list of library versions that appears on the screen
HAL, select the version that matches your computer, or select
position "Other" to indicate the library file from the manufacturer
equipment. Then continue with Windows installation. XP included
the following versions of the HAL library:
ACPI Multiprocessor PC - for ACPI systems with multiple processors
ACPI Uniprocessor PC - used for ACPI systems with multiprocessor
motherboard and one installed processor.
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC - used for
single-processor ACPI systems
MPS Uniprocessor PC - for systems without ACPI support, with multiprocessor
motherboard and one installed processor
MPS Multiprocessor PC - for multiprocessor systems without support
ACPI Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% compatible - for computers
Compaq SystemPro or fully compatible with them.
Standard PC - used for any standard computer, not
multiprocessor and without ACPI support.
Standart PC with C-Step i486 - used for computers that support
this technology.
During installation, the system does not allow you to select components, and even after installation
there is almost nothing in Add/Remove programs – Windows Components. During
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to select anything from the installation. But after
installation, in Windows/inf find the file sysoc.inf and delete the word in it
hide or HIDE wherever you find it. Add/Remove Windows components will appear
new items. Unfortunately, you cannot delete everything from the items that appear, but
Some things are still possible.
It is worth asking the question: is it necessary to switch from FAT32 to NTFS? It all depends
depending on the purpose for which you use the computer, and how much you have
random access memory. Please note that NTFS is somewhat slower
than FAT, due to additionally loaded services and its system
security. If you have little RAM and you decide to install
If you have XP, then you definitely can’t install NTFS. If you have 128MB or
more, then you can already think about NTFS. You need to weigh the benefits and
disadvantages of NTFS for the average user and decide what you need. TO
The advantages of FAT32 include the fact that it is faster and requires less
memory for work. If the system only works with FAT32, then the memory will not
drivers and services required by NTFS are loaded. In addition, when
Using FAT32 it is possible to access the disk when booting from
W9x boot floppy. The benefits of NTFS for the average user can be
describe in one capacious word: indestructible. In all seriousness, kick it out
NTFS is extremely difficult, although possible. For the experiment, a bunch of
various applications, disk optimizers, and at the most inopportune moments
The reset button was pressed. Repeating this sadism a good dozen times is no good
did not make any impression on the system; it continued to work without errors.
In addition, NTFS has built-in file encryption capabilities, which
provides certain confidence in the safety of data. Of course, when
provided that the system will not be reinstalled.
NTFS grew out of the HPFS file system, developed jointly by IBM and
Microsoft for the OS/2 project. It began to be used with Windows NT
3.1 in 1993. Windows NT 3.1 was supposed to compete with servers
based on NetWare and Unix, so NTFS absorbed all the then
technological advances. Here are the main ones:
1. Working with large disks. NTFS has a cluster size of 512 bytes, which is
in principle optimal, but it can be changed up to 64K. More importantly, NTFS
theoretically capable of working with volumes of 16,777,216 terabytes in size.
Theoretically, because such hard drives simply do not exist yet, and
They won't appear anytime soon.
2. Sustainability. NTFS contains two copies of the FAT analogue, which are called
MFT (Master File Table). Unlike FAT MSDOS, MFT is more like
database table. If the original MFT is damaged due to a hardware error
(for example, the appearance of a bad sector), then the system at the next boot
uses a copy of MFT, and automatically creates a new original, taking into account
damage. But this is not the most important thing. The main thing is that NTFS uses the system
transactions when writing files to disk. This system came from the DBMS, where
Protecting data integrity is vital. This already speaks volumes about her
efficiency. In simplified form it works like this:
The NTFS I/O driver initiates the write process while
telling the Log File Service to keep a log of everything that happens.
Data is written to the cache under the control of the Cache Manager service.
Cache Manager sends data to the Virtual Memory Manager (manager
virtual memory) to write to disk in the background.
Virtual Memory Manager sends data to the disk driver bypassing it
via Fault Tolerant Driver (if you have a RAID array of disks).
The disk driver sends them to the controller, which already writes them either to the cache,
or directly to disk.
If this operation goes through without errors, the log entry is deleted.
If a failure occurs, the log entry remains in the transaction table, and when
the next time the disk is accessed, Log File Service detects this entry, and
it simply restores everything as it was before this operation.
Such a system guarantees absolute safety of data in the event
copying, moving and deleting files or directories. When making
changes to the file, you lose the changes that were in place at the time of the failure
in memory or in the controller cache, and did not have time to write to disk.
3. Security. NTFS treats files as objects. Each file
an object has properties such as its name, creation date, date
last update, archived status, and security descriptor. File
the object also contains a set of methods that allow you to work with it,
such as open, close, read and write. Users, including network users, for
file calls call these methods, and Security Reference Monitor
determines whether the user has the necessary rights to call any
from these methods. In addition, files can be encrypted. True, with encryption
You should be careful. If your system crashes, or you reinstall it
4. Data compression. NTFS allows you to compress individual directories and
files, unlike DriveSpace, which only allowed drives to be compressed
entirely. This is very convenient for saving disk space, for example
you can compress large graphic files in BMP format on the fly, or
text files, and all this will be transparent to the user.
5. ISO Unicode format support. Unicode format uses 16bit for
encoding of each character, unlike ASCII which used 8bit,
or even worse - 7bit. For the average user this means that now
it can name files in any language, even in Chinese - the system is
will support without requiring you to change the code page, as DOS did
Advantages of the NTFS5 file system over NTFS4. The most important thing for which they scolded
NT4, and where it was inferior to NetWare, was the lack of quotas.
Quotas are a limitation on the maximum amount of disk space
for the user to use. Why is this necessary? Well, on
computers operating in large networks, in companies and organizations and without
It’s understandable why, because hard drives are not made of rubber. And at home
On a computer, you can, for example, allocate the user “wife” or “younger brother”
no more than 50MB on the hard drive, so that they do not clutter the disk with anything.
Moreover, it is not at all necessary that all user files be stored in
in one place, they can be scattered across all disks. Installed
quotas through the Properties NTFS partition, Quota tab. Via Quota Entries...
You can set quotas for each individual user. Second,
quite an important difference between NTFS5 and old version- search ability
file, by the name of its owner. Why is this necessary? But why: for example, you
you need to find all the files created in Word by one user, on
disk, where there are thousands of these files. This was a problem in NT4. Using Access
Control List, you can easily check which
files are available to the user, and set access rights to individual files
or catalogues. In addition to directly changing the NTFS structure itself, in XP
Microsoft Index Server has been added, which significantly speeds up file searching,
especially by their content, due to indexing the contents of disks.
This service is managed through the Indexing Service section of the Computer window
Management. In this section you can view which directories
are indexed, and, if desired, add new ones or delete old ones. Works
This is with any partitions, not just NTFS. This feature has been added to NTFS5
as mount points or, in other words, junction points.
This function has long been familiar to users of various Unix/Linux variants, but
it appeared in Microsoft products for the first time recently (only with W2k). WITH
Using this technology, you can attach any disk resource to any
file system location. For example, you can attach the hard drive D:\ to
any of the directories on the C:\ drive, for example, in C:\games Now, by going to
directory C:\games, you can see the contents of the root directory of the disk
D:\. All changes that are made to this directory will be
produced on the D:\ drive. After this, you can go to the Computer management window ->
Disk Management remove the letter assigned to this disk (Change disk letter
and path), and the user will not even know what is on the computer
two disks installed! It will work with one drive C:\ and directory
C:\games will be no different from others for him. Mount disk
or a partition to a directory on an NTFS partition or disk, you can from the already familiar
menu Change disk letter and path, select Add.. -> Mount in this
Ntfs folder -> Browse... You can also control this function through the command line
line using the mountvol command. Immediately after mounting the disk, the directory in
which it has mounted will be shown with a different icon:
But as soon as you rename it, it will take the same form as everyone else
To unmount a disk, use Disk Management, Change disk menu
letter and path, selecting Remove. If you simply delete the folder with
mounted disk in Explorer, then you will delete EVERYTHING along with the folder
contents of the mounted disk. So be careful. Except
mounting entire disks, you can mount individual directories, but for
To do this, you will have to use a third-party utility. You can get it here:
http://www.3dnews.ru/reviews/software/win-xp-faq/junction.zip. Go to
console, run it and familiarize yourself with its operands.
What is a cluster? Cluster is the minimum size of disk space that
can be allocated by the file system to store a single file.
It is usually detected automatically when formatting the hard drive,
according to the dependence indicated in the table: Sector partition size in the cluster
Cluster size
|Size |Sectors in |Size |
|partition |cluster |cluster |
|> 32768 MB |128 |64K |
A small exception for the system partition: if it is less than 2048MB, then
The cluster size, when using NTFS, is always 512 bytes. Find out the size
There are several ways to create a cluster in XP. Firstly, you can go to
Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk
Defragmenter. Select the desired disk and click on Analyze. In a few
seconds, a sign will appear with three buttons. Click on View Report
launches a window in which there is a lot of information about the selected disk, including
and Cluster size. There is another method that is suitable not only for XP.
A ready-made, small file ranging in size from 1 byte to 500 is created or taken
byte. Right-click on it and select Properties. Let's look
by two points, Size and Size on disk. Size should be something like 10 bytes
(or what size it really is), and Size on disk will be, for example,
4096 bytes, which corresponds to the cluster size, i.e. 4K. Cluster size
You can select it yourself, manually, although only when formatting.
This is done like this: "format d: /A:size", where size is the size of the cluster in
bytes However, there are some rules that should be followed
adhere to: firstly, the cluster size must be a multiple of the size
physical sector, that is, 512 bytes in the vast majority of cases;
secondly, there are restrictions on the number of clusters on a partition.
You can reduce the footprint of your installed XP, for example, by removing
directories:
1) %SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\i386\
This can be done if all the equipment is already installed and working.
When adding new equipment, the system will request the distribution kit.
2) %SystemRoot%\system32\dllcache\
This is a cache of protected system files used to automatically
recovery in case of damage. The default size of this folder is 400 MB,
and it is determined by the SFCQuota parameter (0xFFFFFFFF) in the registry key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\
You can change the size of the system file cache using the sfc command:
sfc /cachesize=0 (you can enter another value, for example, 3 MB), and then
manually delete all files in the specified directory. If you don't ask
/cachesize=0, then the next time the system checks protected system files
will fill its cache again to the specified volume.
3) Turn off System Restore. You can turn it in here: System Properties ->
System Restore -> Turn off System Restore for all drives. With this you will erase
all information that is recorded by System Restore and stored in the System folder
Volume Information.
If you have a FAT32 system, you can convert the disk to NTFS
without data loss. 1. Use the CONVERT volume command: /FS:NTFS
The conversion will occur on the next reboot. No information loss
this will not happen, but you need to keep in mind that the cluster size after
conversion will be 512 bytes, which is not very good on large partitions,
In addition, the disk will be heavily fragmented after conversion. Reverse
conversion (NTFS -> FAT) without data loss using XP is impossible,
you will need to format the partition again.
2. The Partition Magic program can also perform the conversion. CNTFS 5
works fine starting from version 6.0, but if you use only
boot floppy disk, then version 5.01 will do. This program Also
allows you to perform the reverse conversion without losing data and can even
change the cluster size (unfortunately, only on FAT16 and FAT32). Partition
Magic does not work with dynamic disks, only with primary ones.
You can customize the download process “for yourself”, for this you can change
parameters in boot.ini? boot.ini is responsible for the OS boot order
installed on the system, and allows you to set some boot parameters
these systems. This file begins with the section In this section
just two parameters:
Timeout, defines the time in seconds that the system waits before
start loading the OS by default if the system has
multiple OS.
Default, defines the system that boots by default.
The second section, which contains a list of possible
loading the OS. For each OS, its location is indicated using
names ARC (Advanced RISC Computer).
scsi(*) or multi(*) - the scsi(*) element is used in the case of a controller
SCSI with BIOS disabled. The multi(*) element is used for all disks
other types, including IDE, EIDE, ESDI and SCSI with BIOS enabled. (*) -
number of the adapter from which the download is carried out. Adapters are numbered from
zero, starting with the controller located closer to slot 0 on the mat. board
disk(*) - if (1) = scsi(*), then equal to the logical device number
(LUN) set for the disk. If (1) = multi(*), then it is always zero.
rdisk(*) - if (1) = multi(*), then equal to the disk number in the chain, count
disks starts at 0. If (1) = multi(*), then it is always zero
partition(*) - defines a disk partition containing OS files. In contrast
from all other elements of ARC names, section numbering starts from 1,
those. the first partition is designated partition(1), the second partition(2), etc.
\path - defines the directory (or subdirectory) of the partition in which
OS files. The default path in XP is \windows.
In addition, the text that will be visible in the paragraph is written in quotation marks.
selecting this OS in the start menu. There may be clues after this text
which affect OS loading. For XP the following keys are possible:
/basevideo - with this key the system will use only the standard one
VGA driver. This option may be useful if you are staying for a short time
install another video card, and you don’t want to have to worry about rearranging it
drivers.
/fastdetect - usually installed automatically during system installation. At
installing this key, the system does not detect all Plug and Play devices in
loading process.
/maxmem - defines the maximum size of RAM that can be used
system. Theoretically, it can help if you have a buggy RAM.
/noguiboot - When using this switch, color will not be drawn
startup splash screen. Can be used by those who do not want to look at
this picture at 60 hertz. But we must take into account that apart from this they will not
BSOD appears on boot. But the system hangs if something is wrong
okay, of course it won’t stop.
/noserialmice= - when using this parameter there will be no
detect the mouse connected to the COM port for the ports listed in
parentheses. If you do not specify port numbers, the mouse will not be detected on
all ports. /bootlog - when this parameter is specified, the system will write
download log in %SystemRoot%\Nbtlog.txt This parameter can be used to
find the reason why the system can only boot into safe mode.
/safeboot - when installed, the system will boot into Safe mode. The same
can be done by pressing F8 at the beginning of the system boot. You can use a colon
set several options for /safeboot. Minimal - minimal
configuration. Network - with network support. Dsrepair - only available on NET
Server and allows you to restore Active Directory in advance
done backup copy. Alternateshell - allows you to use
alternative graphical shells. By default the system installs
only Explorer (standard shell) and Progman (inherited from
Windows3.11 and NT 3.5).
/sos - displays a list of loaded drivers on the screen. May I help
find out where the system stumbles when loading.
/baudrate - this parameter specifies the speed at which COM will work
port for system debugging. If you do not specify a specific speed, it will be
9600 for the modem and 19200 for the null modem cable. When you enable this
parameter is automatically set to /debug
/crashdebug - with this flag the debugger is loaded, but remains inactive
state until a kernel error occurs. Can be used
software developers.
/debugport=com* - indicates the COM port number (* must be the port number)
used by the debugger. Automatically enables the /debug switch
/debug - loads a debugger that can be activated by another
computer via a connected COM port. Can be used
software developers.
/nodebug - debugging information is not displayed on the screen.
/hal - specifies the name of the file that should be used as hal.dll
after downloading.
/kernel - specifies the name of the file that should be used as
ntoskrnl.dll after downloading.
My default is:
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINXP="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional RU" /fastdetect
C:\="Microsoft Windows 98"
If you need to install Win9x with XP already installed, then this can be done
do as follows. Win9x overwrites boot boot during installation
XP sector. To prevent this from happening, before installing Win9x you need
correctly configure its installer.
To do this, in the MSBATCH.INF file (if there is no such file in your distribution,
create it) you need to write the following lines:
After installation, Win9x sets the default boot to itself, but this
easy to change. If the Win9x distribution is on CD (as is usually the case
happens), then the corrected or newly created MSBATCH.INF can be used,
by running the Win9x installer with the parameter:
setup.exe drive:\path\MSBATCH.INF
In this case, the file can be named anything, not just MSBATCH.INF.
It is possible to change the system/boot drive letter in XP. It may
required if the mirrored volume fails or changes
disk subsystem configurations. Below is how to swap
letters for drives C and D. If you don't need to swap letters, just
change the value of \DosDevice\[letter]: to any unused letter. But when
changing the drive letter in a normally working system will stop working
programs that use the absolute addressing method will have to
reinstall them or manually change all incorrect paths in the registry.
Log in as an administrator and run Regedt.exe.
Open the key HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices and allow administrator
full access to it (menu Security -> Permissions
In HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices find the drive letter you want
change, in our case it is "\DosDevices\C:".
Change the letter to any unused one, for example, "\DosDevices\Z:".
Select the second drive letter to change, i.e. "\DosDevices\D:",
change
It to the required one, in our case it will be "\DosDevices\C:"
Select the value \DosDevices\Z: and rename it to
"\DosDevices\D:".
Restart your computer.
It is possible to rename the Administrator account folder. Let's go to
system under an administrator account, create a folder with the desired name in
Documents and Settings directories. Then right click on the “My” icon
computer" -> Properties -> Advanced -> User Profiles, click the Copy button
To ... and copy the administrator profile to the created folder. Let's launch
regedit and find the key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
In this key we find the branch corresponding to the administrator’s profile by
the value of the ProfileImagePath key and correct this parameter in it to the desired one.
We re-login, if everything went well, you can delete the old folder - it
no longer needed.
Conclusion
Having worked with XP, few people will want to switch to the old 9x, 2k and
especially to ME, because XP combines all the best aspects of these
Windows. XP is a new tool in the hands of humanity and use
it must be used for its intended purpose.
List of used literature
1. www.3dnews.ru
2. www.microsoft.com/rus
3. www.expocrocus.ru
4. + Windows XP Help and Support Center
Page 2 of 7
Installation.
1. How to install XP?
There are several ways. Firstly, if your distribution CD is similar to the one produced by Microsoft, then it must be bootable. To boot from it, you need to set the “Boot sequence” parameter in the BIOS to CD-ROM, insert the CD and reboot. After the computer starts, the installation program will launch. Then just follow the instructions. This is the only method that will download directly into the installer. Microsoft believes that the CD-ROM is an integral and absolutely necessary part for the computer on which XP is installed, so the good old method of booting from four floppy disks is no longer supported. Secondly, you can boot from a DOS system floppy disk with a CD-ROM driver and run the "winnt.exe" program in the i386 directory on the distribution disk.
Note: if your hard drive is connected to an external controller (SCSI or IDE), then do not forget to download the new XP (or W2k) driver for it and put it on a floppy disk. It will be needed if the installation program cannot correctly detect and install the device. In this case, you must press F6 when searching for such devices.
And finally, from under W9x, NT4 or W2k you can run the program “setup.exe” from the root directory of the CD, or winnt32.exe from the i386 directory, and upgrade the system to XP. It does this very correctly and before rebooting it displays a list of programs and drivers that are incompatible with XP.
However, the last method is not the most optimal. Although XP tries to independently determine the list of programs and drivers that will not work correctly with it, it is not able to do this correctly in all cases. Therefore, in order to avoid compatibility problems, we would recommend that you install the system again.
There is an even more radical method of solving compatibility problems. When installing over an existing OS, you will have the option of choosing an OS (Dual boot).
Note: After installing XP as a separate OS, normal operation of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer in Windows 9x will be impossible, because W2k will replace the latter. This is only true if both OSes are installed on the same disk partition. But, this problem can be solved by copying some DLLs from WinNT\System32 to Windows\System. To determine the required libraries, you can use the ShowDep() program or similar information is shown by Outlook Express in the "About" window. In addition, many programs will have to be installed twice, once for XP and once for W9x. Sometimes, it is possible in the same directory, for example Office 2000, already during installation, is able to understand that it is already worth it, and in the end it installs only about 18 megabytes.
2. How to select the desired version of the kernel and HAL during installation?
At the very beginning of the text stage of the XP installation, when the message “Setup is inspecting your computer"s hardware configuration" appears, press and hold the "F5" key. In the list of HAL library versions that appears on the screen, select the version that corresponds to your computer, or select the "Other" option to specify the library file from the hardware manufacturer.Then continue with the Windows installation. The following versions of the HAL library are included with XP:
ACPI Multiprocessor PC - for ACPI systems with multiple processors
ACPI Uniprocessor PC - used for ACPI systems with a multiprocessor motherboard and one processor installed
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC - used for single-processor ACPI systems
Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% Compatible - for Compaq SystemPro computers or fully compatible with them
MPS Uniprocessor PC - for systems without ACPI support, with a multiprocessor motherboard and one processor installed
MPS Multiprocessor PC - for multiprocessor systems without ACPI support
Standard PC - used for any standard computer, not multiprocessor and without ACPI support.
SGI mp - for Silicon Graphics graphics stations.
3. During installation, the system does not allow you to select components, and even after installation there is almost nothing in Add/Remove programs - Windows Components.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to select anything during installation. But, after installation, in Windows/inf, find the sysoc.inf file and delete the word hide or HIDE in it wherever you find it. New items will appear in Add/Remove Windows components. Unfortunately, you cannot delete everything from the items that appear, but some things are still possible.
4. Is it worth switching from FAT32 to NTFS?
It all depends on what purpose you use the computer for and how much RAM you have. Please note that NTFS works somewhat slower than FAT due to additionally loaded services and its security system. If you have little RAM and you decide to install XP, then you definitely cannot install NTFS. If you have 128MB or more, then you can already think about NTFS. You should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of NTFS for the average user and decide what you need. The advantages of FAT32 include the fact that it is faster and requires less memory to operate. If the system only works with FAT32, then the drivers and services required by NTFS are not loaded into memory. In addition, when using FAT32, it is possible to access the disk when booting from the W9x boot floppy. The advantages of NTFS for the average user can be described in one succinct word: indestructible. In all seriousness, it is extremely difficult to disable NTFS, although it is possible. For the experience, I launched a bunch of different applications, disk optimizers, and pressed the reset button at the most inopportune moments. Repeating this sadism a good dozen times did not make any impression on the system; it continued to work without errors. In addition, NTFS has built-in file encryption capabilities, which provides some confidence in the safety of data. Of course, provided that the system will not be reinstalled.5. What exactly is NTFS, and how does it work?
NTFS grew out of the HPFS file system developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft for the OS/2 project. It began being used with Windows NT 3.1 in 1993. Windows NT 3.1 was supposed to compete with servers based on NetWare and Unix, so NTFS absorbed all the technological advances of that time. Here are the main ones:1. Working with large disks. NTFS has a cluster size of 512 bytes, which in principle is optimal, but it can be changed up to 64K. More importantly, NTFS is theoretically capable of handling volumes as large as 16,777,216 terabytes. Theoretically, because such hard drives simply do not exist yet, and they will not appear soon.
2. Sustainability. NTFS contains two copies of the FAT counterpart, called MFT (Master File Table). Unlike FAT MSDOS, MFT is more like a database table. If the original MFT is damaged in the event of a hardware error (for example, the appearance of a bad sector), then the next time the system boots, it uses a copy of the MFT and automatically creates a new original, taking into account the damage. But this is not the most important thing. The main thing is that NTFS uses a transaction system when writing files to disk. This system comes from a DBMS, where protecting data integrity is vital. This already speaks to its effectiveness. In simplified form it works like this:
- The NTFS I/O driver initiates the recording process while simultaneously telling the Log File Service to log everything that happens.
- Data is written to the cache under the control of the Cache Manager service.
- Cache Manager sends data to the Virtual Memory Manager (virtual memory manager) to write to disk in the background.
- Virtual Memory Manager sends data to the disk driver, passing it through the Fault Tolerant Driver (if you have a RAID array of disks).
- The disk driver sends them to the controller, which already writes them either to the cache or directly to the disk.
- If this operation goes through without errors, the log entry is deleted.
- If a failure occurs, the log entry remains in the transaction table, and the next time the disk is accessed, the Log File Service detects this entry and simply restores everything as it was before this operation.
3. Security. NTFS treats files as objects. Each file object has properties such as its name, creation date, last updated date, archived status, and security descriptor. The file object also contains a set of methods that allow you to work with it, such as open, close, read and write. Users, including network users, call these methods to access a file, and Security Reference Monitor determines whether the user has the necessary rights to call any of these methods. In addition, files can be encrypted. True, you should be careful with encryption. If your system crashes or you reinstall it, you will not be able to read the encrypted files if you do not have an ERD.
4. Data compression. NTFS allows you to compress individual directories and files, unlike DriveSpace, which only allowed you to compress entire disks. This is very convenient for saving disk space, for example, you can compress large graphic files in the BMP format or text files on the fly, and all this will be transparent to the user.
5. ISO Unicode format support. The Unicode format uses 16bit to encode each character, unlike ASCII, which used 8bit, or worse, 7bit. For the average user, this means that he can now name files in any language, even Chinese - the system will support this without requiring you to change the code page, as DOS and W9x did.
6. What's new in the NTFS5 file system, and how does it differ from NTFS4?
The most important thing that NT4 was criticized for, and in which it was inferior to NetWare, was the lack of quotas. Quotas are a limitation on the maximum amount of disk space a user can use. Why is this necessary? Well, on computers working in large networks, in companies and organizations, and without question, it’s clear why, because hard drives are not rubber. And on home computer, you can, for example, allocate no more than 50MB on the hard drive to the user “wife” or “younger brother” so that they do not clutter the disk with anything. Moreover, it is not at all necessary that all user files be stored in one place; they may well be scattered across all disks. Quotas are set through the Properties NTFS partition, Quota tab. Through Quota Entries... you can set quotas for each individual user.The second, quite important difference between NTFS5 and the old version is the ability to search for a file by the name of its owner. Why is this necessary? Here's why: for example, you need to find all the files created in Word by one user on a disk where there are thousands of these files. This was a problem in NT4. With the Access Control List, you can easily check which files are accessible to a user and set access rights to individual files or directories.
In addition to directly changing the NTFS structure itself, Microsoft Index Server has been added to W2k, which significantly speeds up the search for files, especially by their content, by indexing the contents of disks. This service is managed through the Indexing Service section of the Computer Management window. In this section you can view which directories are indexed and, if desired, add new ones or remove old ones. This works with any partition, not just NTFS.
NTFS5 added such a feature as mount points or, in other words, junction points. This function has long been familiar to users of various variants of Unix/Linux, but it appeared in Microsoft products for the first time. Using this technology, you can attach any disk resource to any location in the file system. For example, you can attach the hard drive D:\ to any of the directories on the C:\ drive, for example, in C:\games Now, by going to the C:\games directory, you can see the contents of the root directory of the D:\ drive. All changes that will be made in this directory will be made on the D:\ drive. After this, you can remove the letter assigned to this disk (Change disk letter and path) in the Computer management -> Disk Management window, and the user will not even know that there are two disks installed on the computer! It will work with one drive C:\ and the C:\games directory for it will be no different from others. You can mount a disk or partition into a directory on an NTFS partition or disk from the already familiar Change disk letter and path menu, selecting Add.. -> Mount in this Ntfs folder -> Browse: You can also control this function through command line, by the mountvol command.
7. What is a cluster?
A cluster is the minimum size of disk space that can be allocated by the file system to store one file. It is usually determined automatically when formatting the hard drive, according to the dependence indicated in the table:
A small exception for the system partition: if it is less than 2048MB, then the cluster size, when using NTFS, is always 512 bytes.
There are several ways to find out the cluster size in W2k. First, you can go to Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Defragmenter. Select the desired disk and click on Analyze. After a few seconds, a sign will appear with three buttons. Clicking on View Report launches a window in which there is a lot of information about the selected disk, including Cluster size.
There is another method that is suitable not only for W2k. A ready-made small file ranging in size from 1 byte to 500 bytes is created or taken. Right-click on it and select Properties. We look at two items, Size and Size on disk. Size should be something like 10 bytes (or whatever size it actually is), and Size on disk will be, for example, 4096 bytes, which corresponds to the size of the cluster, i.e. 4K.
You can select the cluster size yourself, manually, although only when formatting. This is done like this: “format d: /A:size”, where size is the size of the cluster in bytes. However, there are some rules that should be followed: firstly, the cluster size must be a multiple of the physical sector size, that is, 512 bytes in the vast majority of cases; secondly, there are restrictions on the number of clusters on a partition.
8. How to reduce the footprint of installed XP?
You can delete directories:1) %SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\i386\
This can be done if all the equipment is already installed and working. When adding new equipment, the system will request the distribution kit.
2) %SystemRoot%\system32\dllcache\
This is a cache of protected system files used to automatic recovery in case of damage. The default size of this folder is 400 MB, and it is determined by the SFCQuota parameter (0xFFFFFFFF) in the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
You can change the size of the system file cache using the sfc command:
sfc /cachesize=0 (you can enter another value, for example, 3 MB), and then manually delete all files in the specified directory. If you do not set /cachesize=0, then the next time you check protected system files, the system will again fill its cache to the specified size.
3) Turn off System Restore. You can turn it in here: System Properties -> System Restore -> Turn off System Restore for all drives. This will erase all information that was recorded by System Restore and stored in the System Volume Information folder.
9. Is it possible to convert a FAT32 disk to NTFS without losing data?
1. You can use the CONVERT volume command: /FS:NTFS The conversion will occur at the next reboot. There will be no loss of information, but you need to keep in mind that the cluster size after conversion will be 512 bytes, which is not very good on large partitions, in addition, the disk after conversion will be highly fragmented. Reverse conversion (NTFS -> FAT) without data loss using XP is impossible; you will need to format the partition again.2. The Partition Magic program can also perform the conversion. NTFS 5 works fine starting from version 6.0, but if you use only a boot floppy, then version 5.01 will do. This program also allows you to perform reverse conversion without losing data and can even change the cluster size (unfortunately, only on FAT16 and FAT32). Partition Magic does not work with dynamic disks, only with primary ones.
10. How to completely disable SFC (System Files Protection)?
To do this, you need to change the value of "SfcDisable" to "dword:ffffff9d". In order to turn it back on, the same key must be changed to 0.However, you should remember that by doing this, you risk experiencing all the consequences of Dll-hell, ranging from a decrease in overall system performance to a wide variety of problems and glitches caused by replacing system libraries with incompatible versions from third-party manufacturers.
11. What parameters can be changed in boot.ini?
boot.ini is responsible for the loading order of the OS installed on the system, and allows you to set some boot parameters for these systems.This file begins with the section
There are only two parameters in this section:
Timeout, defines the time in seconds that the system waits before starting to load the default OS, if the system has multiple OS installed.The second section contains a list of possible operating systems for loading. For each OS, its location is specified using ARC (Advanced RISC Computer) names.
Default, defines the system that boots by default.
scsi(*) or multi(*) - the scsi(*) element is used in the case of a SCSI controller with the BIOS disabled. The multi(*) element is used for all other drive types, including IDE, EIDE, ESDI, and BIOS-enabled SCSI. (*) - number of the adapter from which the download is carried out. Adapters are numbered from zero, starting with the controller located closest to slot 0 on the mat. board
disk(*) - if (1) = scsi(*), then it is equal to the logical device number (LUN) set for the disk. If (1) = multi(*), then it is always zero.In addition, the text that will be visible in the selection item for this OS in the start menu is written in quotation marks. After this text there may be keys that affect OS loading. The following keys are possible for W2k:
rdisk(*) - if (1) = multi(*), then it is equal to the disk number in the chain, the disk count starts from 0. If (1) = muulti(*), then it is always equal to zero
partition(*) - defines a disk partition containing OS files. Unlike all other elements of ARC names, section numbering starts from 1, i.e. the first partition is designated partition(1), the second partition(2), etc.
\path - defines the directory (or subdirectory) of the partition in which the OS files are located. The default path on Windows NT/2000 is \winnt.
/basevideo - with this key the system will use only the standard VGA driver. This parameter can be useful if you are installing another video card for a short time, and you do not want to go through the hassle of rearranging drivers./fastdetect - usually installed automatically during system installation. When you install this key, the system does not detect all Plug and Play devices during the boot process.
/maxmem - Defines the maximum size of RAM that can be used by the system. Theoretically, it can help if you have a buggy RAM.
/noguiboot - When using this key, the colored splash screen will not be drawn when loading. Can be used by those who do not want to look at this picture at 60 hertz. But we must take into account that in addition to this, BSOD will not be displayed at boot. But the system will naturally not stop hanging if something is wrong./noserialmice= - when using this parameter, the mouse connected to the COM port will not be detected for the ports listed in brackets. If you do not specify port numbers, the mouse will not be detected on all ports.
/bootlog - when you set this parameter, the system will write the boot log to %SystemRoot%\Nbtlog.txt This parameter can be used to find the reason why the system can only boot into safe mode.
/safeboot - when installed, the system will boot into Safe mode. The same can be done by pressing F8 at the beginning of the system boot. You can specify multiple options for /safeboot using a colon. Minimal - minimal configuration. Network - with network support. Dsrepair - available only in W2kServer and allows you to restore Active Directory from a previously made backup copy. Alternateshell - allows you to use alternative graphical shells. By default, only Explorer (standard shell) and Progman (inherited from Windows 3.11 and NT 3.5) are installed with the system.
/sos - displays a list of loaded drivers on the screen. It can help to find out where the system stumbles when loading./baudrate - this parameter specifies the speed at which the COM port will operate for system debugging. If you do not specify a specific speed, it will be 9600 for the modem and 19200 for the null modem cable. When you enable this option, the /debug option is automatically set
/crashdebug - with this flag the debugger is loaded, but remains inactive until a kernel error occurs. Can be used by software developers.
/debugport=com* - specifies the COM port number (* must be the port number) used by the debugger. Automatically enables the /debug switch
/debug - loads a debugger, which can be activated by another computer through a connected COM port. Can be used by software developers.
/nodebug - debugging information is not displayed on the screen./hal - specifies the name of the file that should be used as hal.dll after loading. For more details, see question 5 of the “Recovery” chapter.
/kernel - Specifies the name of the file that should be used as ntoskrnl.dll after loading. For more details, see question 5 of the “Recovery” chapter.
12. How can I install Win9x if XP is already installed?
Win9x overwrites the XP boot sector during installation. To prevent this from happening, before installing Win9x you need to correctly configure its installer.To do this, in the MSBATCH.INF file (if there is no such file in your distribution,
create it) you need to write the following lines:
CleanBoot=0
After installation, Win9x sets the default boot to itself, but this can easily be changed. If the Win9x distribution is on a CD (as is usually the case), then the patched or newly created MSBATCH.INF can be used by running the Win9x installer with the parameter:
setup.exe drive:\path\MSBATCH.INF
In this case, the file can be named anything, not just MSBATCH.INF.
13. How to change the system/boot drive letter in XP?
Changing the letter may be necessary if the mirrored volume fails or if the disk subsystem configuration changes. Below is how to swap letters for drives C and D. If you do not need to swap letters, just change the value of \DosDevice\[letter]: to any unused letter. Keep in mind that if you change the drive letter on a normally running system, programs that use the absolute addressing method will stop working - you will have to reinstall them or manually change any incorrect paths in the registry. - Log in as an administrator and run Regedt.exe.
- Open the HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key and allow the administrator full access to it (menu Security -> Permissions).
- In HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices, find the drive letter you want to change, in our case it is "\DosDevices\C:".
- Change the letter to any unused one, for example, "\DosDevices\Z:".
- Select the second drive letter to change, i.e. "\DosDevices\D:", change
- it to the required one, in our case it will be "\DosDevices\C:"
- Select the value \DosDevices\Z: and rename it to "\DosDevices\D:".
- Restart your computer.
14. How to rename the Administrator account folder?
Log in to the system under an administrator account, create a folder with the desired name in the Documents and Settings directory. Then right-click on the “My computer” icon -> Properties -> Advanced -> User Profiles, click the Copy To... button and copy the administrator profile to the created folder. Run regedit and find the key:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
In this key we find the branch that corresponds to the administrator’s profile based on the value of the ProfileImagePath key and in it we correct this parameter to the desired one. We re-login, if everything went well, you can delete the old folder - it will no longer be needed.
Windows XP is a good option for installing on a netbook, a weak desktop computer, or a laptop that was released many years ago.
The Windows XP operating system, despite the fact that it was released in 2001, is still well suited for working on low-power, outdated computers. More modern operating systems Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7 place more severe demands on computer hardware.
During times creating Windows XP, to install the operating system, CDs were used that were inserted into the CD/DVD drives of the computer. The era of portable USB flash drives has not yet arrived, so Microsoft has not provided a tool for installing the system from a bootable flash drive.
Installing Windows XP via a USB flash drive takes place in three stages:
- Creating a bootable USB flash drive.
- Selecting to boot from a USB flash drive in the computer BIOS.
- Installing Windows XP on a computer from an installation flash drive.
Creating a bootable USB flash drive with Windows XP
To create a bootable USB flash drive, we use free program WinSetupFromUSB. We also need a blank USB drive for recording on the system’s flash drive.
There is a detailed article on my website. Read the article, write the operating system onto a flash drive according to the instructions.
Selecting boot priority in BIOS
Insert the USB flash drive with Windows XP into the USB connector, and then turn on the computer. Immediately after starting the PC, you need to press a specific keyboard key to enter the BIOS settings to select the boot priority from a bootable USB flash drive or DVD drive.
Different devices use different keys or key combinations.
After starting the computer, testing the equipment begins, at this time you need to quickly press the key to enter the BIOS. The most commonly used keys are "Del", "F2" and "F8" for fast loading.
Work in the BIOS is carried out using keyboard keys. The BIOS window provides explanations in English about which keys you need to use for configuration.
In the AMIBIOS settings, enter the Advanced BIOS Features menu, where you need to select the USB drive as the first boot device, moving it to the first place.
AMI BIOS ver.3.31a
In other BIOS versions, open the Boot tab, select USB flash drive , install it as the first boot device if you are installing from a USB flash drive. Select DVD drive, if you are installing from disk.
Save the settings and then exit the BIOS. Immediately after this, the computer will boot from the installation flash drive or from a CD/DVD disk if an optical disk is used to install Windows XP.
If you didn't manage to enter the BIOS in time, it's okay: restart your computer again, and then try again.
How to install Windows XP from a USB flash drive
In the first window with the inscription “Press any key to boot from CD” you need to press any key on the keyboard.
To create a flash drive, we used the WinSetupFromUSB program, so the MultiBoot USB window will open on the screen, in which you need to select “Installing Microsoft Windows XP SP3 x86 - Russian version”.
If you install from disk, the window located above does not appear.
The installation of Windows XP begins. After downloading necessary files The Windows XP Professional Setup window opens. Necessarily
Press any key, otherwise the installation will not start. 
Press the " Enter» to start installation of the operating system.
All offered options:
1. Proceed with installing windows xp (Enter key)
2. Restore Windows (R key)
3. Exit the installer (F3 key)
We accept the license agreement by clicking on the " F8».
If the system is already installed on the computer, the hard drive partitions will be displayed in the window. You can delete all partitions and install the system in an unallocated area, (be careful, after deleting a partition or formatting it, you will lose all data) or select an existing system partition for installation.
We will install Windows XP in an unallocated area. In the unallocated area, if necessary, you can create an additional non-system disk partition (partition D for data storage).
On our computer, an unallocated area is selected. To start Windows installation, click on “ Enter». 
- Format partition in NTFS system (Quick).
- Format the partition in the NTFS system.
This window may suggest formatting to the FAT file system, do not consider this option.
You can choose any of these formatting options in NTFS. In the first case, formatting the partition will be faster.
The system partition is being formatted.
The system copies the files to the Windows installation folders.
Upon completion, the computer will restart.
Next, a window will appear with the inscription “Press any key to boot from CD”, in This time we don't press anything! 
The installation program window displays information about the functions of the operating system. Windows XP will take some time to install, and the estimated time until installation is complete is displayed in the Windows Setup window.
On top of the System Installation Wizard window, windows open for configuring certain parameters.
In the window " language and regional standards» select the language, click on the « Further" In the Russified version of Windows XP, Russian is selected by default.
In the next window, be sure to enter “ Name account", for example Alexander.
You can enter anything you want. This name will appear in the system as the computer username.
If you are a regular user, " Name of the organization» do not enter. 
In the Product Key window, enter the key for your copy of Windows. (this window may not appear - depending on the build of Windows XP ). You can skip this step; the system can be activated later, after installation on your computer is complete.
If you did not enter the key in the previous window, in the " Error» click on the button « No».
In the next window, enter " Computer name", such as Dell, and administrator password. If you do not use a password, leave the corresponding fields blank, and then click on the " Further" If necessary, you can set the administrator password later. 
In the window " Setting the time and date» — select time, date and time zone.
The Windows XP Setup window will open again.
In the next window " Network settings» select « Regular Options».
In the window " Workgroup or domain» click on the button « Further", without changing anything. 
The Windows XP installation window will open again.
The installation of the operating system continues for some time. After installation is complete, the computer will restart.
A welcome window will open and then Windows XP will start. 
Windows XP installation complete.
Enter the BIOS, again select the computer's hard drive (HDD) as the first boot device. Next, install the necessary drivers on your PC. You may have the drivers on the disk that came with your computer, or you can go to the official website of the equipment manufacturer and download the necessary drivers from there. More details about this in the article: “. This article contains links to the official websites of manufacturers motherboards and video adapters.
In contact with
There are several ways. Firstly, if your distribution CD is similar to the one produced by Microsoft, then it must be bootable. To boot from it, you need to set the “Boot sequence” parameter in the BIOS to CD-ROM, insert the CD and reboot. After the computer starts, the installation program will launch. Then just follow the instructions.
This is the only method to boot directly into the installer with just the CD. Microsoft believes that a CD-ROM is an integral and absolutely necessary part for a computer on which Windows XP is installed, so tools for implementing the good old method of booting from floppy disks are no longer included in the distribution kit.
Secondly, you can boot from a DOS system floppy disk with a CD-ROM driver and run the “winnt.exe” program in the i386 directory on the distribution disk.
Note: if your hard drive is connected to an external controller (SCSI or IDE), then do not forget to download new Windows XP (or W2k) driver for it and put it on a floppy disk. It will be needed if the installation program cannot correctly detect and install the device. In this case, you must press F6 when searching for such devices.
And finally possible from under W9x, NT4 or W2k run the “setup.exe” program from the root directory of the CD, or winnt32.exe from the i386 directory, and upgrade the system to Windows XP. This is done correctly, and before rebooting the system displays a list of programs and drivers that are incompatible with Windows XP.
But the last method is not the most optimal. Although Windows XP tries to independently determine the list of programs and drivers that will not work correctly with it, it is not able to do this correctly in all cases. Therefore, in order to avoid compatibility problems, we would recommend that you install the system again.
There is an even more radical method of solving compatibility problems. When installing over an existing OS, you will have the option of choosing an OS (Dual boot).
Note: After installing Windows XP as a separate OS, normal operation of Outlook Express and Internet Explorer in Windows 9x will be impossible, because Windows XP will replace the latter. This is only true if both OSes are installed on the same disk partition. But this problem can be solved by copying some DLLs from WinXP\System32 to Windows\System. To determine the required libraries, you can use the ShowDep program (www.showdep.com) or Outlook Express displays similar information in the “About” window.
In addition, many programs will have to be installed twice, separately for Windows XP and for W9x. Sometimes it is possible in the same directory, for example, Office 2000, already during installation, is able to understand that it is already installed, and in the end it installs only about 18 megabytes.
Select the desired version of the kernel and HAL during installation.
At the very beginning of the text stage of installing Windows XP, when the message “Setup is inspecting your computer’s hardware configuration” appears, press and hold the “F5” key. In the list of HAL library versions that appears on the screen, select the version that matches your computer, or select the “Other” option to specify the library file from the hardware manufacturer. Then continue with Windows installation. The following versions of the HAL library are included with Windows XP:
- ACPI Multiprocessor PC- for ACPI systems with multiple processors.
- ACPI Uniprocessor PC- used for ACPI systems with a multiprocessor motherboard and one processor installed.
- Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) PC- used for single-processor ACPI systems.
- MPS Uniprocessor PC- for systems without ACPI support, with a multiprocessor motherboard and one processor installed.
- MPS Multiprocessor PC- for multiprocessor systems without support.
- ACPI Compaq SystemPro Multiprocessor or 100% compatible- for Compaq SystemPro computers or fully compatible with them.
- Standard PC- used for any standard computer, not multiprocessor and without ACPI support.
- Standart PC with C-Step i486- used for computers that support this technology.
During installation, the system does not allow you to select components, and even after installation there is almost nothing in Add/Remove programs - Windows Components.
Unfortunately, you won't be able to select anything during installation. But, after installation, in Windows/inf, find the sysoc.inf file and delete the word hide or HIDE in it wherever you find it. New items will appear in Add/Remove Windows components. Unfortunately, you cannot delete everything from the items that appear, but some things are still possible.
Is it worth switching from FAT32 to NTFS?
It all depends on what purpose you use the computer for and how much RAM you have. Please note that NTFS works somewhat slower than FAT due to additionally loaded services and its security system. If you have little RAM and you decide to install XP, then you definitely cannot install NTFS. If you have 128MB or more, then you can already think about NTFS. You should weigh the advantages and disadvantages of NTFS for the average user and decide what you need. The advantages of FAT32 include the fact that it is faster and requires less memory to operate. If the system only works with FAT32, then the drivers and services required by NTFS are not loaded into memory. In addition, when using FAT32, it is possible to access the disk when booting from the W9x boot floppy. The advantages of NTFS for the average user can be described in one succinct word: indestructible. In all seriousness, it is extremely difficult to disable NTFS, although it is possible. For the experience, I launched a bunch of different applications, disk optimizers, and pressed the reset button at the most inopportune moments. Repeating this sadism a good dozen times did not make any impression on the system; it continued to work without errors. In addition, NTFS has built-in file encryption capabilities, which provides some confidence in the safety of data. Of course, provided that the system will not be reinstalled.
What exactly is NTFS, and how does it work?
NTFS grew out of the HPFS file system developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft for the OS/2 project. It began being used with Windows NT 3.1 in 1993. Windows NT 3.1 was supposed to compete with servers based on NetWare and Unix, so NTFS absorbed all the technological advances of that time. Here are the main ones:
1. Working with large disks. NTFS has a cluster size of 512 bytes, which in principle is optimal, but it can be changed up to 64K. More importantly, NTFS is theoretically capable of handling volumes as large as 16,777,216 terabytes. Theoretically, because such hard drives simply do not exist yet, and they will not appear soon.
2. Sustainability. NTFS contains two copies of the FAT analogue, called MFT (Master File Table). Unlike FAT MSDOS, MFT is more like a database table. If the original MFT is damaged in the event of a hardware error (for example, the appearance of a bad sector), then the next time the system boots, it uses a copy of the MFT and automatically creates a new original, taking into account the damage. But this is not the most important thing. The main thing is that NTFS uses a transaction system when writing files to disk. This system comes from a DBMS, where protecting data integrity is vital. This already speaks to its effectiveness. In simplified form it works like this:
- The NTFS I/O driver initiates the recording process while simultaneously telling the Log File Service to log everything that happens.
- Data is written to the cache under the control of the Cache Manager service.
- Cache Manager sends data to the Virtual Memory Manager (virtual memory manager) to write to disk in the background.
- Virtual Memory Manager sends data to the disk driver, passing it through the Fault Tolerant Driver (if you have a RAID array of disks).
- The disk driver sends them to the controller, which already writes them either to the cache or directly to the disk.
- If this operation goes through without errors, the log entry is deleted.
- If a failure occurs, the log entry remains in the transaction table, and the next time the disk is accessed, the Log File Service detects this entry and simply restores everything as it was before this operation.
Such a system guarantees absolute safety of data in case of copying, moving and deleting files or directories. When you make changes to a file, you lose those changes that were in memory or in the controller cache at the time of the failure and did not have time to be written to disk.
3. Security. NTFS treats files as objects. Each file object has properties such as its name, creation date, last updated date, archived status, and security descriptor. The file object also contains a set of methods that allow you to work with it, such as open, close, read and write. Users, including network users, call these methods to access a file, and Security Reference Monitor determines whether the user has the necessary rights to call any of these methods. In addition, files can be encrypted. True, you should be careful with encryption. If your system crashes or you reinstall it, you will not be able to read the encrypted files if you do not have an ERD.
4. Data compression. NTFS allows you to compress individual directories and files, unlike DriveSpace, which only allowed you to compress entire disks. This is very convenient for saving disk space, for example, you can compress large graphic files in the BMP format or text files on the fly, and all this will be transparent to the user.
5. ISO Unicode format support. The Unicode format uses 16bit to encode each character, unlike ASCII, which used 8bit, or worse, 7bit. For the average user, this means that he can now name files in any language, even Chinese - the system will support this without requiring you to change the code page, as DOS and W9x did.
