Win xp minimal installation

To make sure that you can successfully install Windows XP SP3, temporarily disable your antivirus software including any antispyware and third-party firewall programs. To do this, right-click your antivirus program icon, and then click Disable. The antivirus program icon typically appears in the lower-right corner of the computer screen. Note An antivirus program is designed to help protect your computer from viruses. You must not download or open files from sources that you do not trust, visit Web sites that you do not trust, or open e-mail attachments when your antivirus program is disabled.

For more information about computer viruses, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:. After you make sure all prerequisites are met, go to the "Recommended steps before you install Windows XP SP3" section.

Perform a full backup of the files that you have on your computer to an external location We recommend that you perform a full backup of the files that you have on your computer to an external location, such as an external hard disk, DVD, CD, USB flash drive, or network folder. You can use the Backup and Restore Wizard to back up documents, pictures, and other files. For more information, visit the Microsoft Help and Support Center Web site, and see the "Backing up files and folders" section or view the following knowledge base article:.

This helps you repair your setup if the installation fails. To create an Automated System Recovery set by using Backup, follow these steps:. Open Backup. By default, the Backup or Restore Wizard starts, unless it is disabled.

Follow the instructions that appear on your screen. Important You will need a blank 1. Review your version of Internet Explorer. To determine your browser version, click About Internet Explorer on the Help menu. After you take these recommended steps, go to the "Steps that are required before you install Windows XP SP3" section. Start your computer, and then log on as an administrator. Note Administrators have complete and unrestricted access to the operating system and to its settings.

You can use the Administrator user name to log on, or you can use another account that is a member of the Administrators group. To determine the groups to which you belong, click Start , click Control Panel , and then click User Accounts.

If you need help to verify that you are an administrator on the computer, click the following link to verify your operating environment:. If your computer is running on battery power, plug it in so that your computer does not lose power during the installation. If your computer has multiple user accounts that can log on to your computer at the same time and you use Fast User Switching, make sure that all other users are logged off before you install Windows XP SP3.

For more information about how to obtain Windows XP Service Pack 3, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:. This section lists some most common error messages that you may receive when you install Windows XP SP3. As expected, however, boosting both hard drive speed and RAM makes a significant difference in XP's performance.

For best results, choose a hard drive that spins at 7, or 10,rpm rather than 5,rpm, a fast processor , , or MHz rather than or MHz , and generous amounts of RAM or MB rather than 64 or MB. Many complaints received by ZDNet indicate that several motherboard and hardware vendors have not provided, and do not plan to provide, XP drivers.

However, we've found that most hardware works well using Windows drivers. For example, you can't install Windows XP if your motherboard contains the HighPoint Technologies HPT chipset Highpoint's tech-support personnel confirm this -- XP just doesn't have the drivers to support the chipset. To get XP to work on that hardware, you can download and use Windows drivers for the chipset or contact HighPoint Technologies' help desk and ask for XP-specific drivers, which you must load early in the XP setup process.

Developers are in short supply. Here are the skills and programming languages employers need. Time for a Linux smartphone? Can that be moved? I'd be pretty interested in doing that myself. I don't recommend doing bare minimum installs in bare minimum spaces. Multiverse IT. Tom A. I would say 3. If you're using more than one physical drive anyway, your swap file really shouldn't be on your system drive. Both system files and the swap file will be accessed often, so putting them on seperate drives can greatly improve performance and in this case, reduce the size of your system drive.

It won't be used as a VM and you have to count that all stuff or almost will be added to a second partition instead of the windows system partition so basicly after the installation it's almost the same size cause I only add some drivers without the graphical tools that come with thems The Overflow Blog. Podcast Making Agile work for data science. Stack Gives Back Featured on Meta.

New post summary designs on greatest hits now, everywhere else eventually. Linked 9. Related 1. Hot Network Questions. Question feed. Super User works best with JavaScript enabled. It is printed on a sticker on your software package or located on the computer itself. It is a string of 5 groups of characters each 5 long , separated by dashes, resulting in 25 characters in all. You need the product key to complete installing Windows.

Before inserting the CD, you'll need to set your computer to boot from a CD instead of from the hard drive. This will allow you to load the Windows XP setup files before your computer boots to its installed operating system.

Click the green "BIOS" link for more information. You may need to have the USB drive inserted for it to appear as an option.

Part 2. Load the installer. Your computer will reboot and you will be presented with the message: Press any key to boot from CD. Press any key on your keyboard to start the Setup program. Setup will load files necessary to begin the installation, which may take a few moments. Once the loading is complete, you will be taken to the Welcome screen.

Read the License Agreement. After reading, press F8 indicating you agree to the terms. Select the partition you want to install on. You will see a list of available partitions on your installed hard drives.

If you are installing Windows XP on a new hard drive, you should see only one entry labeled "Unpartitioned space. Installing Windows XP will erase all of the data on the partition that you choose.

Select a partition that is empty or that contains data that you do not care to lose. Any data on the partition will be lost when it is deleted. Create a new partition. By default, the partition will be set to the maximum amount of available space.

Unless you plan on creating multiple partitions, you can usually leave this at its default. Windows XP requires at least 1. You can create multiple partitions on a single drive.

This can allow you to separate your programs from your movies and music, or to install another operating system. Windows XP can only be installed on one discrete partition. Select your new partition. NTFS is the preferred method, supporting a larger amount of disk space per partition than FAT, and including security features at the file system level. NTFS also includes system level compression. There are almost no situations anymore where choosing FAT would be preferable.

It is highly recommended to avoid Quick Format, as this skips an important process that checks the hard drive for errors or bad sectors. This scan is what consumes the majority of the time taken when performing a full format. If there are errors on a disk at the physical level, it's best to catch them now rather than later. Wait for the format to complete. The system will now format the partition.

The length of time this process requires depends on the speed and size of the drive. In general, the larger the partition, the longer the process will take.