Windows XP Home OEM installation tips and hints

The final installed Operating System on your geputer from a Windows XP OEM disk is absolutely no different than the expensive retail box version. The price savings gees in because of packaging, shipping and shelving costs Microsoft doesn't have to pay with an OEM package. With that being said there are a few hints and tips that will make the installation go off without a hitch.PREPAREMake SURE you remove the COA off of the package shrink wrap before throwing it away! The COA contains the Product Key numbers needed for a successful installation. Remember, this is not an upgrade program; you cant install this OS and simply overwrite your old Operating System. You must start out with a clean (erased/formatted) hardrive or new one. Check all files on your hardrive carefully to determine which files you need to keep and save them.Formating your hardrive, which the XP program does will erase old data (somewhat,but never gepletely) but what works better is a true hardrive data erasing program such as Wipe Drive by Access Data. Look on the web; there are some freeware programs also that do the same thing. Depending on which erase option you use and your hardrive size it can take an hour to several hours to gepletely erase your hardrive. Once gepleted you can rest assured that all the old data,spyware,viruss and weird error messages that have plagued your geputer are now gone.INSTALLYou now have a clean hardrive and are ready to install. Before starting the install unplug all your USB devices such as printers, card readers, flash drives etc. If your mouse and keyboard are USB then leave those plugged in. The reason is this, you want your hardrive to be designated as the C drive, and it wont if you have several other USB devices plugged in during the installation. Plug them in after the Operating System install and theyll be instantly recognized by Windows XP and given their drive letter designation. Place the Windows XP CD in your CD tray, reboot your geputer and the
install will start. Since you no longer have an Operating System on
your hardrive your geputer will look for a CD and the install will
begin. In some instances you may have to reconfigure your BIOS to boot from your CDROM drive to get the installation to begin. On my system and most others you access your BIOS by pressing and holding down on your Delete or DEL key when you start your geputer. You may hear a couple of beeps and your BIOS screen with all its menu's will gee up. Look for a tab or section marked BOOT or something similar and click on it. What you will see are your devices such as hardrive,CDROM drive DVD drive and the order in which they load.For a new install of Windows we want the CDROM drive to boot first,not the hardrive. Move the listing for your CDROM drive to the top of the list and then save the file (press F10 to save the file on my BIOS) and your geputer will automatically reboot. Your Windows XP disk will be found and the install will begin. Once Windows has been installed on your geputer its a good idea to go back into your BIOS and change the order once again putting your hardrive and the top of the boot list,this will make your system load Windows faster when you first turn on your geputer.Your hardrive will need to be formatted whether it's old or new and the program will perform that task. I always go with the slower formatting instead of quick, I'm not sure if it makes any difference one way or the other. Once the formatting is geplete the actual installation of the program will begin. Youll need to stick around, there are several times during the install that the program needs your input. The time frame will depend on your geputer speed and the speed of your optical drive. Near the end of the installation you'll need to enter the 25 digit Product Key code found on your COA. Stick the COA on the back of your geputer so youll always have the key numbers. If youve entered those numbers correctly the install will resume and then finish. When the Windows XP install finishes your geputer will automatically reboot. At that point you can remove the Windows XP CD from the drive and put it away.ACTIVATEOne of the first things that Windows XP will want you to do is activate the program. Activation is required, registration is not required. You will need to be able to get online to do the activation but Microsoft gives you thirty days to do so. Normally when you activate you can just merely click the activate button and it's done in just seconds. Other times you might have to activate by phone. Microsoft makes what they call a hardware hash of the hardware on your geputer. It's simply a data file of different geponents in your geputer and some serial numbers of that hardware. It helps prevent casual copying by not letting one copy of Windows XP be installed on your geputer, your neighbors geputer,a friends geputer etc. I've been asked several times by potential customers if a single copy/license of Windows XP can be installed on more than one geputer. The answer is no,one copy per machine. PHONE ACTIVATESome installations will require you to activate the software via telephone to Microsoft through their toll free number. This usually occurs when installing Windows XP to a second or third hardrive in your geputer or when certain hardware changes have been made. This does not always mean that the COA is invalid or the software is not legal. It means that Microsoft has looked at your hardware configuration when you tried to activate on-line and they think you're trying to copy software to another geputer. I had to do a phone activation myself when I recently installed Windows XP Professional to a second hardrive on my own geputer.How do you activate by phone? In the same box where you tried to activate on-line there is a toll free phone number to Microsoft support, here's another way to activate by phone.Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Activate Windows. Or, click the Windows Activation icon in the notification area. Then click Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to active Windows now. Click Read the Windows Product Activation Privacy Statement, click Back, and then click Next. Follow the steps in the Activate Windows by phone dialog box, and then click Next. When activation is gepleted and you receive the following message:" You have successfully activated your copy of Windows the click OK and your done! Remember anytime you reinstall Windows XP you have to activate the software once again. Once installed make good use of a XP feature called System Restore. By entering a little text and clicking a button a backup is made of your major system files. You can easily "rewind" your system back to that date later on if something has caused your system to act up or malfunction. Its a fanstastic feature, I update my Restore file about once every two weeks. I also regemend always using a good Spyware blocker and Virus blocker. I use Microsofts free Spyware blocker and Trend Micro Anti-virus. Its been years since I've had a problem with a virus or spyware. ENJOY!Congratulations! You've got the Operating System installed and you've saved $100.00 over the expensive Retail box version! Now you'll need to re-install software/drivers for your hardware such as mouse,video card,sound card etc.. and then reinstall all your main program files. Enjoy all the great features of Windows XP Home! Thanks for looking at my guide, I hope it helped those who needed it.Crash Craddock