Chapter 2: Installing and Upgrading to Windows XP Professional

Overview

Windows XP Professional's installation process is fairly straightforward thanks to advances in Plug and Play technology and hardware and software compatibility. Installation usually proceeds without incident. The Windows XP Professional installation process provides the option of upgrading an existing Microsoft operating system or performing a clean installation.

Windows XP Professional provides administrators with multiple installation options, allowing you to interactively install the operating system, to set up a silent installation, or to support a mass installation on hundreds or thousands of computers. Windows XP Professional also provides tools that help administrators transfer user settings, system configuration settings, and files from old computers to new ones. This saves users the trouble of recreating their configuration settings and frees up administrators to tackle other chores.

This chapter focuses on the issues and tasks involved in installing Windows XP as well as the steps required to ensure that no data is lost in the process. This chapter outlines the tasks involved in preparing for the installation of the operating system. It also explains the Windows activation process and how to complete that task.