[Fineus]

Hey all, if all goes well I'll soon have a copy of Windows XP Pro sitting with me, but thats where my problems begin - I know very little about any little things I might need to do to it before/during/after the install process. Has anyone got any handy tips for setting the computer/software up to run at its best? Any theme software for the GUI you'd recommend etc?

Cheers!

[Nico]

bah, just be sure you have all the drivers. and I hope you don't have discontinued products :/
for exemple I found out my scanner can't run under XP since Plustek had discontinued drivers production for my scanner, and there's none for XP. bastards.

[Fetty]

service pack1 would be helpful
xp anti spy also

[Ryx]

Might be good oportunity to partition your harddrive, if you haven't already.

The install process is pretty painless. Just boot from CD, partition and format harddrive (I prefer NTFS).

Same install process as W2k.

[Exarch]

If you have below 256mb ram, I'd get some more. XP can run with as little as 128 but it really helps to have 256 or more, much more so than with 98. Besides that, XP is a pretty smooth operating system and I doubt it'll give you much trouble

[Turnsky]

this kinda helps me too, as i've been thinking of migrating to xp

[OT] Kalfireth, what's happened to your avatar all i'm getting is a X [/OT]

[Ulundel]

Be sure to have a good graphics card cause XP literally sucks out all it can from it. Of course that means better fps in games but meh...

[Vertigo1]

Just make sure you have all the drivers for your devices (even old NT drivers will work since its basically the same kernel).  Then after you install, goto that site I gave you the link to in a PM a while back to kill those excess services that do nothing more than suck up RAM.

[Grey Wolf]

Get 512MB of RAM. You'll need it. WinXP is pushing my 256 to the limit at some points.

[ZylonBane]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
Hey all, if all goes well I'll soon have a copy of Windows XP Pro sitting with me

This must be an application of the term "well" I was hitherto unfamiliar with.

[Razor]

Originally posted by Kalfireth
Hey all, if all goes well I'll soon have a copy of Windows XP Pro sitting with me, but thats where my problems begin - I know very little about any little things I might need to do to it before/during/after the install process. Has anyone got any handy tips for setting the computer/software up to run at its best? Any theme software for the GUI you'd recommend etc?

Cheers!

3 things to remember:
1) Backup files
2) Format, then install XP
3) Don't change to NTFS. Keep FAT 32
. It is 30% faster and easier to format later if needed.

By the way, your avatar is a red x.

[Terorist]

Originally posted by venom2506
for exemple I found out my scanner can't run under XP since Plustek had discontinued drivers production for my scanner, and there's none for XP. bastards.

What model? I might be able to point you to the right direction for working XP drivers... Search www.driverguide.com for them - I had to dig there too to get my old Plustek scanner to work with Win2k. They talk about registering, but they just send a generic username and password: user = "all", password = "driver". Hope this helps.
(I myself use Win2k, won't touch XP - I like to have a working system. )

[Vertigo1]

Originally posted by Razor
3) Don't change to NTFS. Keep FAT 32
. It is 30% faster and easier to format later if needed.

Yeah, if you feel like running chkdisk everytime you have a bad shutdown, or higher file corruption rates.  I'll stick with NTFS thank you very much.  Its FAR more secure, and I can hit the power button right now and I won't loose diddly squat.

[IceFire]

I switched to NTFS and all I've noticed is that I have a few more security options.  Not seeing a 30% loss in performance anywhere.

Whatever you do, DO NOT do the upgrade.  Even if you have the upgrade, do a clean install (upgrade versions will ask for an old Windows disk for proof).

[Admiral LSD]

Originally posted by Razor

3) Don't change to NTFS. Keep FAT 32.
It is 30% faster and easier to format later if needed.

Actually, it's the other way around: NTFS is faster than FAT32, particularly on larger (>32Gb) hard drives.

[Fetty]

since he hasent posted in a while i guess he installed xp:o

[Liberator]

This illustrates the differences in cluster sizes in most versions of Windows.

[Admiral LSD]

The NTFS table is wrong, at least for Windows NT 3.51,  NT 4.0, 2000 and XP which use 4K clusters for all partitions above 2.0Gb.

[Razor]

Originally posted by Admiral LSD


Actually, it's the other way around: NTFS is faster than FAT32, particularly on larger (>32Gb) hard drives.

Don't listen to them Kalfireth. Ihave consulted an expert and just to point out to you. If you use NTFS, and get a fatal error and loose all the data, you will NEVER be able to recover them. InFAT32, you have better chances to do that.

[Fineus]

Originally posted by Fetty
since he hasent posted in a while i guess he installed xp:o

No no, still here - just soaking in the info, thanks for that guys.. some proof on the whole NTFS/FAT32 thing would be nice.