Preinstallation Considerations


There is a little-known rule called the five P's that goes like this: Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Keep this rule in mind as you read this chapter. Before undertaking the installation of Windows XP Professional, there are several factors that you need to consider regardless of the scope and size of the deployment. Whether you are rolling out 5,000 copies of Windows XP Professional to an entire organization using sophisticated deployment methods such as ghosting or Remote Installation, or simply installing it on your home computer, the same issues still require your attention before the installation process begins.

In this chapter, you look at each of the following items in more depth, and get a feel for how they affect an installation of Windows XP Professional and how they will impact the computer, both now and into the future:

  • System requirements

  • Hardware and software compatibility

  • Transferring files and settings

  • Network configuration

  • File system considerations

  • Type of installation to perform

When working through this chapter, it might be helpful to build a checklist. For an example, see Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1. My Windows XP Professional installation notes page.


Without any further ado, let's get right into the meat of this chapter and start off by looking at the system requirements for installing Windows XP Professional.

System Requirements

Windows XP Professional combines the best and worst parts of Windows 2000 Professional and Windows Millennium Edition (Me). On the good side, Windows XP Professional has the robust security, stability, and manageability of the Windows 2000 code-base, as well as the robust built-in multimedia and graphics support that Windows Millennium Edition touted. On the bad side, Windows XP Professional is very demanding of system resources, especially so on older or underpowered systems. You wouldn't dare run Windows 2000 Professional or Windows Millennium Edition in a production environment on less than 64MB of RAM, and so you shouldn't try it with Windows XP Professional.

The official system requirements to support installation of Windows XP Professional are presented in Table 2.1. Although Windows XP Home is not quite as demanding as Professional, these minimums still apply.

Table 2.1. Hardware Requirements to Install Windows XP Professional

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Requirements

Pentium (or compatible) 233MHz or higher processor

Pentium II (or compatible) 300MHz or higher processor

64 megabytes (MB) of RAM

128MB (4GB maximum) of RAM

2 gigabyte (GB) hard disk with 650MB of free disk space

1.5GB of free disk space

Video graphics adapter (VGA) or higher display adapter

Super VGA (SVGA) display adapter and Plug and Play monitor

Keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device

Keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (required for CD installations)

CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (12x or faster)

Network adapter (required for network installation)

Network adapter (required for network installation)


One or Two Processors

Windows XP Professional, like its predecessor Windows 2000 Professional, is capable of handling up to two CPUs and provides support for symmetric multiprocessing. In addition, dual- core CPUs and Intel processors that feature hyperthreading are seen as two physical CPUs with XP Pro.


Of course, knowing the hardware requirements to support a successful installation (and later operation) of Windows XP is just one small part of the battle. Sticking to your plan of action, as outlined in the list in the first section of this chapter, you need to look at hardware and software compatibility issues, both of which can cause you some annoyance and lack of functionality or, at worst, bring your installation of Windows XP to a screeching halt.

Checking Hardware and Software Compatibility

Verifying that your current hardware will support an installation of Windows XP is critical to getting Windows XP correctly installed and running smoothly. Verifying the existing software installed on your computer when performing an upgrade installation is just as vitalWindows XP can get pretty particular when it comes to dealing with previously installed software.

There are a couple of means at your disposal when it comes to verifying hardware and software compatibility for the installation of Windows XP. The first of these is the Windows Catalog.

Note

Microsoft once provided a Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) for each OS version, but in an attempt to be all inclusive and perhaps capitalistic, it has created a one-stop website. As evidenced in Figure 2.2, the HCLs are not maintained any longer and have been replaced by the Windows Catalog for current OS versions. When the selection "See the Windows Catalog" is clicked, your browser is directed to http://testedproducts.windowsmarketplace.com/ where you will find the Tested Products List section of the new Windows Marketplace .

Figure 2.2. The connection-specific DNS suffix affects how your computer searches out other computers on the network.



For more information on the Windows Catalog and the Windows Upgrade Advisor, refer to Chapter 3, "Upgrading Windows."

Known Compatibility Issues

When it comes time to install Windows XP, there are some known issues that you will want to pay attention to; however, there are two main issues that occur most often and will be examined here. These issues deal with CD recording software, such as Roxio Easy CD Creator, and the NetBIOS Extended User Interface (NetBEUI) network protocol on preservice pack 2 installations.

Easy CD Creator

If you upgrade a computer to Windows XP from Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), or Windows 2000, you may receive the following error message when you first attempt to run Easy CD Creator:

Easy CD Creator 4 has a known compatibility issue with this version of Windows. For an update that is compatible with this version of Windows, contact Roxio, Inc.

You may also receive this error message when attempting to run Direct CD:

A driver is installed that causes stability problems with your system.

This driver will be disabled, please contact the driver manufacturer for an update that is compatible with this version of Windows.

To run the program, click Continue. For more information, click Details.

This issue is caused by a program incompatibility between Easy CD 5.0 and earlier and Windows XP due to Windows XP's native CD-RW burning support in Windows Media Player 7 and later. To correct this issue, upgrade Easy CD Creator to at least version 5.02d or later by downloading the required updates from the Roxio website, located at http://www.roxio.com/en/support/ecdc/software_updatesv5_2.jhtml.

Easy CD Creator Dangers

The types of errors that you can receive may be even more serious than the ones detailed here. On occasion, computers have suffered STOP errors (Blue Screen of Death) and random rebooting problemsdirectly as a result of mixing Easy CD 5.0 and Windows XP. Remove any version of Easy CD Creator before installing Windows XP Professional to avoid these problems.


NetBEUI

Should you attempt to upgrade your computer to Windows XP and NetBEUI is installed, you will receive the following message from the Compatibility Wizard:

The currently installed driver for the NETBEUI Transport Protocol is not compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and will be uninstalled during the upgrade. This protocol is removed from this new version of Windows.

For more information about this driver, visit the manufacturer's website at http://www.microsoft.com. Web addresses can change, so you may be unable to connect to this website.

For a list of protocols supported by Windows XP, see the Microsoft Windows Whistler protocols Compatibility List at the Microsoft website.

The venerable NetBEUI protocol has been effectively put out to pasture with the introduction of Windows XP. Microsoft has moved away from a NetBIOS environment with all of its operating systems and recommends a purely TCP/IP environment. This change first appeared with Windows 2000 and the introduction of Active Directory. Active Directory is based on the DNS domain model, and thus NetBIOS (and WINS) had to go. Although Windows 2000 still provides NetBEUI support natively, Windows XP does not. The best option is to move away from NetBIOS on your network.

Should you, for some reason, still need the NetBEUI protocol, it is still available on the Windows XP Professional Setup CD-ROM. You can find it located in the Valueadd\MSFT\Net\NetBEUI folder. MSKB# 301041, located at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;301041, has more information on installing NetBEUI onto a Windows XP computer.

Other Known Issues

Of course, there are more than two compatibility issues that you may experience with an upgrade to Windows XP, as is the case with every version of Windows. To this end, Microsoft periodically releases packages it calls Application Compatibility Updates, which are available for download from the Windows Update website located at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/. The three major Application Compatibility Updates issued for Windows XP were as follows :

  • Windows XP Application Compatibility Update (October 25, 2001) deals with issues that arose between the release to manufacture of Windows and the release date of October 25, 2001. Among its various fixes is the fix for the infamous incompatibility issue of the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs DVD. Read more about this Update in MSKB# 308381, located at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308381.

  • Windows XP Application Compatibility Update (December 17, 2001) dealt with many issues, including issues with several well-known applications such as ZoneAlarm, PCAnywhere, and Norton AntiVirus. Read more about this Update in MSKB# 313484, located at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313484.

  • Windows XP Application Compatibility Update (April 10, 2002) addresses issues with dozens of games and Works 2001. Read more about this Update in MSKB# 319580, located at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319580.

The latest compatibility issues, as of this writing, involve post service pack 2 installations. Refer to the article MSKB# 884130 at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;884130 for more information. And it's no surprise that the best place to keep on top of new updates for Windows is the Windows Update website.

With issues of system requirements and compatibility out of the way, you'll next take a look at the methods Windows XP provides for migrating crucial information to a new Windows XP installation.

Migrating Files and Settings to New Installations

In the days of old, if you wanted to transfer files and settings from an existing installation of Windows, you had two choices: You could either perform an upgrade installation (as detailed in Chapter 3) and take your chances with compatibility issues and other problems, or you could procure a third-party utility to perform this task for you. Although both of these options are still available, there are some other options available to you as well. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FSTW) and the User State Migration Tool (USMT) are two migration tools that are provided with Windows XP that can be used to make your operating system migration a more enjoyable experience.

Note

These sections are only intended to introduce the capabilities of these two tools. For specific instructions on using the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, see "Files and Settings Transfer Wizard" p. 104. For a step-by-step guide to using the User State Migration Tool, see "User State Migration Tool (USMT)" p. 104.


The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard

The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard (FSTW) is a fantastic utility new to Windows XP that is provided on the setup CD-ROM. This allows you to run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard on any computer, or create a Files and Settings Transfer Wizard floppy disk if you want and use that instead. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard can migrate a user's files and settings from any Windows OS from Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 and newer to Windows XP.

By design, the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard is built to transfer settings for Microsoft applications, such as Internet Explorer, Outlook, Outlook Express, and the Office suite. The settings that are migrated fall into these four major groups:

  • Appearance Items such as wallpaper, colors, sounds, and the location of the taskbar.

  • Action Items such as the keyboard key repeat rate, double-click settings, and so on.

  • Internet Settings that control how your browser behaves, including home page, favorites or bookmarks, cookies, security settings, proxy settings, and dial-up settings.

  • Mail Settings for Outlook or Outlook Express, such as mail servers, accounts, signature file, views, mail rules, contacts, and your local mail file.

Files can be selected for movement by type, such as .DOC or .XLS ; by folder; or specifically by name . The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard automatically moves many of the most common file types for you during the process; however, you can add or remove folders, file types, or specific files from the transfer should you want to.

The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard can also transfer settings for selected third-party applications. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard only transfers the user's settings; it will not transfer or install the applications themselves . In order for these settings to be successfully transferred, the applications must be installed on the target computer before the settings are migrated to it using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. For more information on using this wizard, see Chapter 3.

The User State Migration Tool

The User State Migration tool (USMT) is the IT Administrator's version of the File and Settings Transfer Wizard. USMT can perform all the functions of the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, but USMT is made to run from the command line, in environments where you will be migrating a number of users. In contrast, the File and Settings Transfer Wizard runs with a graphical wizard interface, and is only intended for one-off, user-driven migrations.

Because this tool is more useful when performing multiple installations in a networked environment than it is for standalone installations (although it can be used for this purpose if you prefer), full detail on using this tool is covered as part of performing automated installations in the section "Using the User State Migration Tool," p. 85.

Now, as you work your way down the preinstallation preparation path , your next stop is network configuration informationyou will look at this in the next section.

Getting the Network Configuration

After you've determined what your hardware and software compatibility picture looks like, you are well on your way to being ready to install Windows XP on your computer. Of the major factors to consider before installing Windows XP, knowing the proper configuration of a networked PC is essential.

If the computer on which Windows XP will be installed is not connected to a network, you can skip this section. By network, I mean a formal (managed) network consisting of servers and client workstations that has a common naming system, uses an IP address assignment system, and uses network user accounts for access to resources. If this sounds exactly like your Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000/Server 2003 domainbased network, well then, that's because it is.

As you have likely guessed from this description, this scenario does not apply to a typical peer-to-peer small office or home network that does not employ servers or systems that just connect to the Internet.

If your network uses a peer-to-peer arrangement without using a centralized database for the storage of user accounts and permissions, you are operating in what is called a workgroup. The first piece of network information you need is either the workgroup name (for example, dontpanic) or the domain name (such as netserverworld.com or netserverworld.local). You can always install Windows XP initially in a workgroup arrangement and then join a client/server domain after installation.

If you are upgrading a computer that is already participating in a network environment, the following list of items should be recorded on your checklist before starting the upgrade process:

  • The computer name.

  • The domain or workgroup name, as previously mentioned.

  • Many networks use dynamic configuration for TCP/IP address information. However, if these are assigned manually for your network, you'll need this information.

  • The username and password of an account with permissions to add or create computer accounts.

  • If you are using connection-specific DNS suffixes in addition to a primary DNS suffix, you should record all DNS suffixes. For example, if your primary DNS suffix is netserverworld.com and you ping a computer by machine name server01, your computer will look for server01.netserverworld.com. If you are also using connection-specific DNS suffixes, such as newportnews on a connection, the computer will look for server01.netserverworld.com and server01.newport-news.netserverworld.com. This can affect how your computers locate other computers in the network, so pay close attention to these settings. Figure 2.2 shows this information.

Of course, you will need all of the appropriate hardware and cabling, too...but that's kind of a given here! When you have all of the network configuration information you need, be sure to write it down in a safe place so it will be available during the installation process.

Note

If you're looking for more detailed information on Windows networking concepts and configuration, see Chapter 7, "Networking Windows."


Now that you've gotten the network configuration information you need for the installation, let's take some time to look in depth at choosing your file system, including the pros and cons of each file system.

Choosing a File System

The choice of a file system is not one to be taken lightly. Unlike most other configurable items in your Windows XP installation, the file system is one that can only be changed one time after installation, and only in one direction.

Okay, every rule has to have an exception, so of course the rule about file system conversion has one. To learn more about file systems in general and converting file systems, see Chapter 10, "Windows File Systems."



For a clean installation of Windows XP, you will have to make a choice between using the FAT32 or NTFS. On an upgrade installation from Windows 98, you could possibly even face an existing FAT16-formatted partition, as Windows 98 supported the FAT32 file system but did not automatically invoke ityou had to convert to FAT32 after the fact.

Table 2.2 provides a quick comparison of the FAT16, FAT32, and NTFS file systems.

Table 2.2. File System Comparison
 

FAT16

FAT32

NTFS

Supported operating systems

All versions of Windows, MS-DOS, and OS/2.

Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.

Windows NT 4.0 SP4 or later can access files and folders. Windows 2000 and Windows XP can take full advantage of NTFS 5.0.

Volume sizes

Maximum size is limited to 4GB. In MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows Me the maximum size is 2GB due to the smallest "largest cluster" size being 32KB.

Minimum size is 512MB, maximum size is 2TB. In Windows XP Professional (and Windows 2000), the maximum size a FAT32 volume can be is 32GB.

Minimum volume size (recommended) is 10MB. Maximum volume size (recommended) is 2TB, although much larger sizes are possible.

Floppy disk usage?

No

No

No

Removable storage usage?

Yes

Yes

Yes, but not recommended.

Maximum file size

Maximum file size is 4GB minus 1 byte.

Maximum file size is 4GB.

Maximum file size 16TB minus 64KB.

Files per volume

65,536 (2 16 files).

Approximately 4,177,920.

4,294,967,295 (2 32 minus 1 files).

Supports NTFS 5.0 features?

No

No

Windows 2000 and Windows XP fully support the advanced features of NTFS 5.0. Windows NT 4.0 SP4 supports access only, but not the advanced features.


During the installation process, you may be asked to make a file system selection from the menu shown in Figure 2.3.

Figure 2.3. Selecting a file system during setup; you can convert FAT to NTFS later if you want.

You will only be given this choice when dealing with an unformatted volume. If you have a volume that is currently formatted with FAT16 or FAT32, you will be given the opportunity to convert or format it to the NTFS file system. Converting an existing file system is part of performing an upgrade installation of Windows XP, as covered in Chapter 3.

Take the Easy Road

If you are concerned about system stability, you can always make use of the FAT file system during installation of Windows XP. After you've verified that the installation has taken without any stability problems, you can then convert the file system to NTFS.

By installing Windows XP in this way, you can still make use of a variety of DOS boot disks and utilities. On a new installation using new hardware certified for Windows XP, this is probably not going to be a required step.


You cannot change your file system after Windows XP Professional has been installed unless you are converting from FAT16 or FAT32 to NTFS. You cannot (within Windows capabilities at least) revert the file system back to FAT32, although this is possible using a third-party application such as Norton PartitionMagic (http://www. symantec .com/partitionmagic/). The real question you must answer when making the decision about which file system to use is this: Will this computer be used to multiboot another operating system that requires the FAT file system? If your answer is yes then you need to keep at least the System partition (the partition that holds the system files needed to start the computer) formatted as FAT16 or FAT32, depending on what other operating system you will have installed on the computer. You can format your Boot partition that will hold Windows XP Professional with NTFS if you like, but any data on it will be inaccessible to the other operating systems installed on the computer.

File System Misconception

A common misconception that people have about using the NTFS file system is that their files will not be available for access over the network when using a client operating system such as Windows 95 or Windows 98. The only time files on an NTFS volume are inaccessible to a legacy client is when the files reside in a different volume on the same computer in a multiboot arrangement and the legacy operating system is running. When files are accessed across the network, File and Printer sharing for Microsoft networks performs the magic in the background that allows FAT16- and FAT32-based operating systems access to files located on an NTFS volume.


It's always preferred to use the NTFS file system as often as possible, except where you must make the Windows XP Professional volume available to other operating systems installed on the same computer. Should you decide against using NTFS, you will miss the following features, just to name a few:

  • NTFS file and folder permissions Using NTFS permissions you can control access to every file on an NTFS volume. You can configure permissions at each level of the directory structure to meet your needs for allowing and/or preventing access to files and folders. However, don't get NTFS permissions confused with share permissionsthey are two entirely different items, each requiring consideration both individually and as a pair.

  • The Encrypting File System Using a public/private key pair, EFS provides strong cryptographic encryption of files and folders that is extremely resistant to attack and compromise. EFS is completely transparent to the user, and in Windows XP supports multiple user access to an encrypted file. The only down side to using EFS is that its usage is mutually exclusive with NTFS compression.

  • File compression The NTFS file system supports encryption on both files and folders. NTFS uses a lossless compression algorithm, which ensures that no data is lost when compressing and decompressing data. Lossy compression , such as that used in many video and audio file formats, cannot be used with files that require exact data, such as spreadsheets or document files where data losses due to compression will render the file corrupt and unusable. As previously mentioned, compression is mutually exclusive with EFS encryption.

  • Disk space quota management Using disk quotas enables you to control the amount of data that users can store on your NTFS volumes . Quota control is on a per-volume basis and can be configured with custom quotas for select users as desired. The disk quota system enables you to determine when users are nearing their limits and automatically prevent usage after a user has reached his defined quota limitation.

  • Volume mount points You can finally escape the 26 volume limit on a computer by using volume mount points. Think of it as mapping a path to a hard drive or CD-ROM to a folder on an NTFS volume; thus a new hard drive you've installed to hold user data can be mounted as C:\UserDocs or whatever name you choose.

When you've made your file system choice, you are ready to move onto the next item of consideration: the decision about what type of installation to perform.




Upgrading and Repairing Microsoft Windows
Upgrading and Repairing Microsoft Windows (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0789736950
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 128

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