Step-by-step instructions for correctly installing Windows XP. Installing Windows XP

Hello everyone, today we will talk about how to install Windows XP to your computer. I will write several options, for example, installation from a flash drive and in other articles - on a virtual machine. Windows XP is a very old system that evokes nostalgic feelings for many, so let's try installing it on a PC again and do a little work!

By the way, before installing Windows XP, I advise you to read the material: “”. This is necessary to set boot from disk to first place. If you are doing this from a flash drive, then read about, with which you can not rearrange drives, but immediately select a flash drive to boot.

Preparing to install Windows XP from disk

If you have an old distribution kit with Windows XP lying around, then let's proceed directly to the installation. If you don't have a distribution kit, I recommend downloading the image from the following links:

http://win-torrent.net/windowsxp_torrent
http://free-max.ru/windows_xp

Using them you can find images without keys.

We enter the BIOS and move to the tab Boot or Advanced(depending on the BIOS version). We get into the parameter Boot Devices Priority and use the F5 and F6 keys to move the desired device to the first place, for example, a CD/DVD drive. Or Using Enter, select the desired boot device.

For the settings to be saved, you need to go to the tab Exit and select the option there "Exit & Save Changes".

If you have a different BIOS version, say Award, you can do the following: open the section "Advanced BIOS Features".

Select a parameter First Boot Device. Nearby there is an option HDD0, which is responsible for booting from the hard drive. Press Enter and select CDROM if you are booting from a disk.

To save the changed parameters, you need to go to the option in the main window "Save & Exit Setup". A red confirmation window will appear, where we press the button Y.

How to install Windows XP using a disc

Once you have done everything necessary and exited the BIOS saving the settings, you should see this black window with the phrase "Press any key to boot from CD", which means "press any key to boot from disk." Be sure to press any key for the installation to proceed.

The welcome menu is revealed to our eyes. There are several options here that we can use:

• Proceed directly to installing Windows XP.
• Recover Windows XP using the Recovery Console.
• Exit the installer.

Naturally, you need to select the first option by pressing the key ENTER.

In the next window, accept the terms of the license agreement using the key F8.

Now we need to deal with the sections. In this example we see three sections. You can delete all sections to put them together (done with the D key), or install them in a ready-made section. I'll select the drive called "Section 2", it just has the letter C. The selection is made by pressing the Enter key.

In the next window you need to select the formatting type. To completely clear the partition table, you can select full formatting, but this is not necessary. Select a parameter “Format partition in NTFS system<Быстрое>» .

As soon as the installation files are copied to the disk, a window will appear asking you to specify the regional data. In this case, click Next.

If you are asked to enter a product key, enter it. In case you downloaded another image, the key may be embedded in it, so you will not see this window.

Another window where we are asked to specify the date and time. Then press the button "Next".

Now you can rejoice in the appearance of a desktop with that same green field in the background and your favorite Start menu.

Now the question of how to install Windows XP will disappear for you, right? Everything is quite simple and clear. For any questions, please ask in the comments. Later, as a supplement, I will post articles on installing various modifications of Windows XP, such as Zver and others. I’ll also try to make a video for those who don’t like to read it.

If you decide to get rid of this system, I recommend reading.

I suggest looking at a few links

Installation Windows XP, yes and Windows In general, the process is simple, but long.

I will tell you how to do this without the help of specialists/computer friends. So, the whole process is divided into 3 logical stages:

• Stage I: Preparation
• Stage II: Installation
• Stage III: Setting up

Stage I: Preparing to install Windows

Before you begin installation Windows You need to copy all important information and settings so you don't lose them.
There are many different ways to do this, and I will not go through all the options, but will focus on the most basic ones.

At this point, our preparations are completed, and we can proceed directly to the installation.

Stage II: Installing Windows

So, now we are prepared and we can proceed directly to the installation.
We insert the disk with our treasured Windows XP into the drive and... no, we don’t install it. Don't even think about installing the Operating System from within the Operating System itself! We need to reboot and enter bios suspended animation (from the word B asic I nput/ O utput S system). To enter it, you need to press the button when you boot your computer. Del or F2, if you have a laptop. Although in some cases you need to press other keys, so look at what is written at the bottom of the monitor screen. there will be an inscription like " press del to enter setup".

Finally Windows installed, you rebooted, now you can remove the installation disk and proceed to the third stage.

Stage III: Setup after installing Windows

We take out our installation disk and start setting up.

1. Drivers and what to do with them.
   First of all, you need to install drivers so that the computer knows what to do with what, and in general can feel comfortable.
   • Insert the disk from the motherboard. It is important for us to install 3 drivers: chipset (chipset), audio (audio) and Internet (ethernet). But if the program offers you more, then we agree to this courtesy and install it. Reboot so that the drivers are fully installed.
   • If there are no disks, then we remember where we downloaded our drivers from the official sites and install them from there.
   • We insert the disk from our video card. As you may (or may not) have noticed, if you drag windows, you can see that they move in jerks. This indicates that your video driver is not installed. So install the video driver from the disk and reboot.
   • Next, we follow the same scheme and install the rest of the equipment. For example, a scanner, printer, tablet, mouse, keyboard, etc.
2. Successfully Installed or how to determine if everything is in place
   We need to make sure that we haven't forgotten anything and that all the drivers are installed correctly. This is not difficult to do. Let's go to Control Panel --> System --> Hardware --> Device Manager. As you can see, we have all of our installed equipment listed here. If there is a question mark next to something, this means that the driver for this device is not installed and the system does not know what to do with this equipment. If you find such an icon, then read what it says next to it and install the driver for this device. Ideally, there should be no question marks at all, as, for example, here:
   
   3. Optimization or freeing up memory.
   For more comfortable work, in the section where you have installed Windows, nothing unnecessary should be installed, it is also advisable not to have a swap file on it and a folder temp. This is what we will do now.

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3. Doesn't let me access the internet?
   Remember when we wrote down strange numbers on a piece of paper? Now you need to write them back in. To do this, follow step 3 of the first stage

This completes the whole process. You now have a new one Windows, which is also already configured. Can be used

Afterword

It seems as if all this is very complicated and incomprehensible, but after 10-20 identical actions and settings Windows You will do this instantly. And there’s really nothing complicated about installing an OS, it just takes a little more time and attention

Now I would like to mention some points that are somehow not included in the scope of this article.

1. When writing this article I considered only disk with official copy Windows XP. I Not I am considering various assemblies, like Zver, Philka, etc. And, although installing assemblies is practically no different from installing a licensed copy Windows XP, You install the assembly at your own risk.
2. I have not considered the point about registering your Windows XP for the reason that this process is very clear regardless of whether your key is printed on the disc box or it was sent to you by mail.
3. I did not consider the possibility of installing drivers from special programs, since I do not consider this option to be secure enough.

PS: The article was written by a person hiding under the nickname “ barn4k“ (friend and project assistant). For which I thank him very much.

So, first you need configure BIOS. To do this, turn on the computer and immediately press the key "Delete"(on some keyboards, short “Del”) on the keyboard until we get to BIOS(by the way, I almost forgot, your Windows XP boot disk should already be in your CD/DVD drive).

Your BIOS may look different. It depends on the manufacturer and. But don't be afraid, the settings are basically the same. In BIOS we will work with the arrow keys ←→↓ . So, we went into the BIOS, then go to the tab Advanced BIOS Features:

The name of the tab may be different in your BIOS. If so, then go through the tabs and find which one contains device boot options. In my case, this is what the device boot parameters look like:

Now our task is to make sure that the computer boots from the disk, i.e. on "First Boot Device" we will deliver CDROM. Let's do it like this (select the option opposite First Boot Device , press Enter on the keyboard and use the arrows to select CDROM):

It should look like this:

Maybe this confirmation will appear. Click "Y" on the keyboard, which means "Yes"(Yes), and press Enter:

Next there will be a reboot. We are waiting for such an inscription to appear "Press any key to boot from CD", which means « press any key to boot from CD« . Press any key:

And the installation program will start. After checking your system configurations, you will be given the option to Restore your existing system or install a new OS. Choose "ENTER=continue":

Then we accept the license agreement by pressing the button F8:

Then select the partition on which Windows will be installed. This is usually the section C:

Don't be afraid, click WITH:

Choose "Format partition in NTFS system":

Confirm with the key F:

File copying will then begin automatically:

After this, the computer will restart. Never click on "Enter - restart computer", otherwise the installation will be interrupted. Let the computer reboot itself:

After the reboot you will again be prompted to press any key, nothing don't press and then you will start the installation again.

After the reboot, the installation will continue, but in a more attractive environment:

Set the time, date, time zone and move on:

If this message appears, click OK:

Click again OK:

Select an item "Delay this action":

We write the account name. You can have up to five if there are several users:

That's it, the installation is complete!

Hope Windows XP installation was successful. All that remains is to install the drivers for normal operation of the computer. Good luck!!!

What you need to install Windows XP on your computer

Advice:

You will also find the video instruction “” very useful, which you can download to your computer, and then view it with any player that you have on your computer, or download it here - it reads all formats and does not require additional codecs..

To burn a Windows installation disk, we need a disk image, a disk burning program from the image, a CD writer, and the CD itself.

Download the Windows XP SP3 Professional disk image

Any disc burning program that supports burning from an ISO image will do, for example Nero or DeepBurner, which can be downloaded for free.

So, we downloaded the disk image and installed the DeepBurner program. Now let's look at the disc burning process.

Insert a blank CD-R into the drive and launch DeepBurner. Once launched, DeepBurner prompts you to select the type of project to create.

I don’t know about you, but for me the project window opened in a compressed form. Therefore, you need to stretch it by grabbing the lower right corner with the mouse or expand it to the full screen so that it looks like in the figure below.

Now you need to select the recording speed and press the button Burn ISO. In order for the disc to record better, the speed should be selected slightly less than the maximum. Now all you have to do is wait for the disc to burn. Once the Windows XP SP3 installation disc has been burned, the drive tray will eject itself. The disc is ready!

How to install Windows XP from a disk via BIOS

Now it's time to look at the process of installing Windows XP on a computer from a disk.

First of all, you need to configure boot from the floppy drive in the BIOS. To do this, you need to go to the BIOS menu. How to do this may vary depending on the motherboard model. In most cases, this menu can be accessed by pressing the button Del(on some motherboard models you need to press the key F2) after turning on the computer (during the startup splash screen). It's better to press this key several times to be sure.

The BIOS menu differs depending on the manufacturer and version. There are two main types of BIOS: AMI and AWARD.

Below are screenshots of the AWARD BIOS. Need to go to the menu Advanced BIOS Features.

Now let's look at how to install disk boot in AMI BIOS

Select a tab Boot, and in it we go to the menu Boot Device Priority

After this, you need to exit to the main menu using the Esc key and go to the tab Exit. Select an item Exit and Save Changes to save changes and exit.

Now let's look at the process of installing Windows XP from a disk to a computer.

Insert the installation disc into the drive and restart the computer. The disc menu below appears.

Please be warned that installing Windows XP SP3 on your computer takes about 40 minutes. So be patient.

On the first screen, press the Enter key to continue the installation.

Now select the disk partition where you want to install Windows XP. If the hard drive is new and not yet formatted, you need to create a partition by pressing the C key.

Select the section and press Enter. If the partition already existed, you need to confirm installation to this partition by pressing WITH.

To confirm formatting, press F

After formatting, the process of copying the necessary files to the hard drive will begin.

When you boot your computer, it will start again from the boot CD. In the disk menu, select the item

A window will open for selecting driver packages for unpacking and installation. These are built-in drivers for many devices included in this build. If you install Windows XP from a Microsoft distribution, this window will not appear.

After clicking OK, the unpacking of driver packages will begin, and when it is finished, Windows installation will continue.

Next, the Regional and Language selection window will appear. If the distribution kit is the Russian version of Windows XP, then nothing needs to be changed here.

A window will appear in which you need to enter the computer name and administrator password. You don't have to change anything in this window. Then the administrator password will not be set.

In the time and date settings window, set the correct date and time, as well as the time zone.

We go into the BIOS and set the first option to boot from the hard drive, as described at the beginning of the article. We exit the BIOS and save the changes.

Now there are only a few minutes left before you can completely install Windows XP on your computer.

When loading, the system will prompt you to automatically adjust the screen resolution. Click OK.

It may seem strange to some that in 2014 I am writing an article on installing such an old operating system. But as practice shows, people still often ask me to install Windows XP. In addition, in the past month alone, more than 30,000 queries for “installing windows xp” were entered in the Yandex search engine, which indicates the continued popularity of this version of Windows. And this is not surprising. There are many users who have become so accustomed to this operating system over the years that they are reluctant to explore new ones. They are happy with everything, because under Windows XP they can still while away the hours in games, the Internet, and various applications. It’s a matter of habit, what can I say 😉 There are also many people who own old computers. They simply have no choice, even if they wanted to install something fresh.

I will go directly to the essence of the article. To begin with, I strongly recommend that you read my entries “” and “”. Also, if you install a pirated version of Windows, you must write out the product key, without which installation will not be possible. The key can be viewed on the website where you downloaded the Windows image, in the description of the distribution. Another key may be in one of the text files of the image. Some pirated builds of Windows show you the key at the very beginning of the Windows installation. For licensed Windows, the key can be found on the sticker of the original disc box.

If you already have a bootable flash drive or disk, and in the BIOS you were able to set the computer to boot from the appropriate device, then you can start installing Windows. Insert a bootable USB flash drive into the computer’s USB port or a CD/DVD disk into an optical drive, and restart the computer. If you are installing the system from a disk, a white message should appear on a black screen with the text “Press any key to boot from CD...”. Immediately press any key to get into the Windows Installer. If you install Windows from a bootable USB flash drive, then you may see a boot menu where you must select the phrase “Windows 2000/xp/2003 setup” or “Installing Windows XP” (depending on the method you used to create the bootable USB flash drive) , press Enter. Next, select the 1st line with the text “First part of Windows XP setup from partition 0”, press Enter again. The Windows Installer should launch (blue screen titled “Installing Windows”). We wait for a while and don’t touch anything. When the “Welcome to Setup” screen appears, press Enter.

Next you will be forced to read the license :) Press the F8 key on your keyboard. A screen appears where you must select which logical drive you will install Windows on (recommended drive with the letter C), press Enter. Attention, all information from the selected disk will be destroyed! If you see “Unallocated area” instead of logical drives, you will have to create the drives manually. Press the C key and assign the volume of the future system disk (preferably at least 50,000 MB), confirm the choice with the Enter key.

In the next window, select “Format partition in NTFS system”, Enter again. After formatting, the process of copying Windows files to your hard drive begins. Wait until the computer shuts down and reboots. After rebooting, it is advisable to go into the BIOS and set your hard drive as the boot device (just as you set your flash drive or optical drive as the boot device).

The Windows installation process begins. Just watch until the computer asks you to intervene in the installation process. In the “Language and Regional Standards” window, leave everything by default, if you have it as in the figure below (if not, then select the country and language manually), click “Next”. In the “Setting program ownership” window, write what you want in the “Name” line, again “Next”.

In the next window, enter the product key (I wrote about it at the beginning of the article), click the “Next” button. Another window with time and date settings, change the time zone and date if necessary.

In the next two windows you don’t have to change anything, just click “Next”.

You can go have coffee or tea, Windows installation will continue without your participation. All that remains is to complete the basic setup once the installation is complete. Do as shown in the pictures below.

As a result, a window with screen parameters will appear, just click “OK” and then “OK” again. The Windows XP desktop loads. You did it! All that's left is .

Best regards, Alexander Molchanov