About Technology

Many people find themselves wanting to perform a clean reinstall of windows XP. However, most people immediately give up even before they start. This is because the reinstallation process could seem a bit complicated. But if you are presented with a quick and simple step-by-step guide, reinstalling windows XP is not difficult at all.

Before you start performing the clean reinstall, there are things you have to do first. First, list down all the hardware and software that you use. If your system is newly built, then you should already have a list of your hardware. If you don't know what hardware your system is using, you can go online to get a listing of your system specifications. Then, you can also visit the manufacturer's website to check if there are drivers for your hardware. Important drivers include scanners, printers, pen tables, and so on. Also check for software compatibility. Usually, driver disks are shipped along with the hardware for newly built systems. Another option is using Windows 2000 drivers. Once you made a list of these, it's time to create copies of any existing data and other important programs.

Now, you're ready to do a clean install for Windows XP. First, change your CMOS settings of the BIOS for the boot order to boot from the CD. Once done, you can then boot your PC using the Installation CD.

After you have changed the boot order in the CMOS settings of your BIOS, save the changes, and then reboot your PC. Your installation CD should already be placed inside the CD-ROM. You will then be prompted to press certain keys to directly boot from CD-ROM emulation, usually the space bar. Do what the prompt says.

The installation will then begin copying the preliminary setup files to your PC. This might take some time, so be patient. Once completed, you can then start directing the install process.

You will be asked whether you want to do a new installation, repair and existing installation or quit. Since you want to do a clean reinstall, press the key corresponding to "perform a new installation". Agree to the terms of agreement once you have read it.

Then, decide on which partition of your hard drive you want to install Windows XP on. Just remember to keep partitions within reasonable size. A tip is to use multiple partitions of 4 to 8GB, and if possible, on more than just one hard drive.

Once that is decided, it's time to format. You can format the partition either to NTFS, which is recommended for single OS install, or FAT32. Choose to do a full format. Once the partition is formatted, the setup program will automatically start copying files. Again, this could take some time so use it to take a break.

Afterwards, select your region and language, type in your name and organization and key in your product license key. Name the computer, type in an Admin password, and remember to take note of the password for future reference. Then, enter the accurate date and time. Select your network settings. If you are using a dhcp server to assign IP addresses, leave it automatic. But if you have static IP address for broadband Internet access, then use the settings provided by your ISP. Choose a domain name or workgroup, and register your copy of Windows XP (after installing all hardware on your system). Log in, update drivers, and you're done!

By Jason Fortner

One thing that I love about all news windows products is the remote desktop features. I previously used PCAnywhere but I find that remote desktop is now almost as good, would like to see a file transfer like PCAnywhere has, but remote desktop is free so that is a plus for it.

One of the tasks that I face with my network setup is forwarding ports through my router. There are two issues that I came across when dealing with the RDP forwarding. The first was what is the port number of RDP. With a quick search on Google I found that the standard RDP port is 3389.

Now that you have the port number you can simply go into your router and forward that port through and after enabling your remote desktop feature it will work from outside your network as long as you either know your IP address or have a dynamic dns service like I use. To enable remote desktop in Windows XP and Windows 2003 go to the start menu, find the my computer icon and right click on it. Select the properties option in the drop down list and then click on the remote tag in the window that appears. There you will see the two check boxes, check the second box, and then click on the remote user button. Make sure that the users you want to have access are in the list and then click ok until you have exitted all of the windows. RDP is now enabled on your machine.

So this simple setup would have worked for my network but the issue then became I have several servers that I want access to along with my desktop. Now I could just remote to my desktop and then remote to the other machines from there since they are all on the local network. This would create a lot of data that needed to be transferred though, with limited upstream speeds on your broadband connection you don't want this, and will cause performance issues with RDP. So I had two options, I could change the registry entry like was stated in the article. I will paste that fix here just in case that page has an issue at some point:

***** WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.

You can use the Remote Desktop feature in Windows XP Professional to connect to your computer from another, remote computer. WARNING: The Remote Assistance feature in Windows XP may not work properly if you change the listening port. To change the port that Remote Desktop listens on:

Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

Locate the following key in the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminalServerWinStationsRDP-TcpPortNumber

On the Edit menu, click Modify, click Decimal, type the new port number, and then click OK. Quit Registry Editor.

NOTE: When you try to connect to this computer by using the Remote Desktop connection, you must type the new port.

Keywords: kbhowto kbnetwork KB306759

Technology: kbrdcMac100 kbrdcsearch kbrdcWin100 kbWinXPPro kbWinXPPro64bit kbWinXPProSearch kbWinXPSearch kbZNotKeyword

*****

The other option I had was to go into my router and specify another external port number and then point that port to the 3398 on the IP address of the machine I wanted to go to. I chose this second option as it was less time consuming and did the trick for me. One appealing thing about the ability to change the port number of RDP is security. If you leave the standard port number then anyone will know to check that port to see if you have Remote Desktop enabled and potentially compromise your network. Let me know if there are any issues with the registry fix though and if there are I will just remove it from this article.

By Gaelim Holland

There are literally thousand of processes working harmoniously during the startup and shutdown of your Windows XP operating system. Each programs must wait in line during both the starting and closing of your computer. The more processes and programs you add the longer you have to wait. This causes slow startup or shutdown problems due to your CPU's inability to cue programs efficiently.

However, we have to factor in lack of maintenance, driver complications, and spyware as possible culprit for slow startup and shutdown problems. Although these problems can often be linked to a single cause. There are steps needed to improve each. However, this article will give you some great tips to help eliminate slow startup and shutdown problems.

Speed Up a Slow Startup

Its important to make your starting process more efficient. During the startup, your computer goes through a power test in order to makes sure all hardware is on. Next the system moves to the computer's basic configuration known as the BIOS( Basic Input and Output System ). Once these test are passed, Windows loads and searches the computer's registry files for all installed programs. This brings us to Tip#1

Clean and organize your system registry—This is the major cause of slow startup and shutdown problems.

The registry is a storehouse of all the settings for files, events, installs and uninstalls on your computer. The registry can become extremely bloated and corrupted. Registry entries become useless after uninstalls, some entries are duplicated and even become corrupted. This environment makes it more difficult for CPU to find files efficiently. Your computer system will gradually slow and eventually chokes. You can clean an organize your registry with a registry cleaner. This is a best way to stop slow startups.

Now that system's registry configuration checks are complete, all the programs and services begin to load. As mentioned before all these programs must wait in a cue. If there are many programs loading you will definitely have to wait on a slow startup and have shutdown problems. It's very important to manage your startup programs to avoid waiting around for your computer for Windows to finally load or log off. You can manage your startup configuration by following the instructions below:

1.Open your “Start” menu.
2. Click “Run”
3. In the command screen type "msconfig.exe"
4. In the "system configuration utility", click "startup" tab
5. Uncheck all programs that your are no longer using.
6. Click "OK"

You will immediately notice some programs that you wish to banish. However it can be difficult to discern what programs are needed. Anything with Windows in the title is of course a windows process. Eliminate these from your startup configuration with caution. Visit the Manage Your Startup page for a list of programs that are unnecessary for startup. Keep an eye on your startup. Spyware programs can easily sneak themselves into your configuration and can cause slow startup problems.

Shutting Down Slow Shutdown Problems.

Your computer's shutdown process is not nearly as complicated as your startup. All programs must be shutdown one at a time. Also all services must be shutdown. Services are not always loaded at startup. Many are loaded as other programs are opened or are scheduled. All plethora of services is a recipe for shutdown problems.

You can view the process on your computer by using Windows Task Manager. Open up Task Manager by pressing Crtl-Alt-Delete at the same time. Then by clicking the “processes” tab. You will be surprised to see how many services are actually running in the background. Again some easily recognizable such as your anti-virus program. However, some will be foreign even spyware programs. An easy way to discover the meaning behind all those services use the run command: services. msc.

1.Open your “Start” menu.
2. Click “Run”
3. In the command screen type "services.msc"
4.This will bring up the services window. If you drag the mouse to one of the services. It will give you a detailed explanation of the service in question. By right clicking the individual service you can stop the service immediately.

Shutdown problems can also be cause by hardware conflicts. If you have recently installed new hardware this can cause major shutdown problems. Device drivers allow Windows to communicate with your hardware. Upon shutdown, if there is some miscommunication, your operating system will cause shutdown problems or even freeze. Check your device drivers for any errors which are indicated by an yellow exclamation mark or an X. Following the below instructions to evaluate the driver:

1.Click “Start”
2.Click “Control Panel”
3.Click “System”
4.In the System menu, click the “hardware” tab
5.Click Device Manager to bring up a full list of installed hardware drivers.
6.Right click and choose “Properties” to evaluate the status and troubleshoot the hardware device.

By Bill Nadraszky

If you have been running Windows XP for a couple of years or more you may find that it is not running quite as quickly and smoothly as it was when you did your first install. I am constantly 'evaluating' software and uninstalling and reinstalling beta software on my computer and have always gradually become more and more disappointed after nine months to a year with the performance of my PC. So I regularly do a backup and reinstall all my software, including Windows.

Please note that this is completely different than doing the standard things to troubleshoot and fix individual problems such as system errors or application errors. These things are better fixed by using a system Restore which is a great new feature to Windows XP

For anyone that has reinstalled their operating system a few times the process seems pretty straightforward as they have found all of the gotchas the first few times. I have lost mail and contacts but not much else over the years by following (or not following) a system to reload my operating system and software. This purpose of this guide is to give you a checklist to follow so that a reloading of Windows goes smoothly the first time.

The steps are as follows:

1. Backup all data
2. Document your current system drivers and software
3. Delete the Windows and profile directories
4. Reload Window
5. Reload software and data.
6. Get some sleep

1. Backup data.

There are two methods of the process of reloading your operating system. The first is to just delete the system files and the second is to backup the files to CD or DVD and then format the hard drive completely, my preference is to delete the system folders and work from there as the actual formatting is not needed as much now as it was in the past.

It is very important to be sure to get a backup of all of your data. My current practice is to create a folder in the Root of the C: drive called "backup for reload" and copy all of my files in there. The first few times that I reloaded my machine I either saved all of the data to another hard drive so I could format my main drive or I would just create a folder to save my data in that was in the root of the C: drive and just deleted the Windows directory. One thing to be aware of is that a new install of Windows is going to delete your current profile where your data is kept, you will be warned in the install and I am warning you here as well!

First of all Windows likes to keep all of your documents in your "My Documents" folder and even though the icon is on the desktop the folder is actually in the following location: c:documents and settings . The documents and settings folder is quite important as it does have all of the files that are associated with you as a user. Other folders in documents and settings are "Favorites" "Application Data" and "Local Settings".

If you use Outlook Express for your mail you will want to back up its folders. Open up Outlook Express and go to tools to options to maintenance and there is a button called "Store Folder" this will tell you where the folder is that holds all of your mail, usually located in

c:--> documents and settings(logon name)--> local settings--> Application Data--> Identities<>--> Microsoft--> Outlook Express". Hard to find spot but important.

If you are using Outlook for your mail and contacts my policy has always been to search for all .pst files on your PC this will give you your main as well as archive folders and maybe even some long lost mail from before.

I also do a search and put the following in the search box *.doc;*.xls;*.ppt;*. mdb;*.pub this will search for all office documents on the PC, when I get the result I only backup the files that are not in my documents and settings for my name or in the my documents folder.

How big is your “Backup and Reload” folder now that you have all of your data in it? Can you back it up to a CD? Or two, or a DVD? This would be a nice time to do that save to a CD so that in the event of a catastrophic failure of your hard drive you can go back and reload your data later.

2. Document your current system drivers and software

So often when I am working on a computer I find that after a format and reload of Windows that I am missing a network card driver or a video driver. Before you turn off the computer to format it or delete the system files make sure that you have a copy of all of the drivers, realistically the only drivers that seem to change are the video drivers. What other drivers might you need? Well If you have the CD that came with the motherboard then you will probably only need to download the sound card, video, monitor, modem drivers and you can find the type of hardware by right clicking on the my computer and going to properties and then depending on your version of Windows look for the device manager. I do not tend to format my drive I only delete the Windows directory and the Documents and settings directory when I do a reload so I can then find the files later still sitting on the hard drive. My preference is to create a folder called mydrivers in the root of the C: drive so that after you reload Windows you will have a central place to go to find the drivers. Now just go out and download the drivers that you need.

3. Delete the Windows and profile directories

Now, this is where you have to take a deep breath before you get started as when we delete files we are not going to be able to get them back. When I delete files on the computer before I reinstall Windows I do not delete all of the files or format the drive. The only way that you can delete what you want is to use some kind of a boot disk that does not load Windows from your hard drive. I use the Ultimate Windows Boot CD and after I boot the drive up I move some data instead of deleting. More often than not I will have missed some important file so I create a “backup” folder that contains all of my data. I drop my current “Documents and Settings” folder into this backup folder and then also any applications from the “Program Files’ folder that may have some of their own files. This would include databases like Act or Maximiser and Tax software or book keeping software like Quicken. Most of the data files for applications are kept in the “My Documents” folder.

In the install of Windows you will need to have at least 2 gigs of free space so make sure that you have freed up enough space to do the install

When I am deleting folders I am most interested in deleting the” Documents and Settings” and “Windows” folders, as this is where you will find user settings as well as the registry both good and bad. If you are really aggressive you can also include the “Program Files” folder so that after you have reloaded Windows you can have the default settings for each application. I also delete any files that are sitting in the root of the C: drive.

4. Reloading Windows

Now that you have deleted the unneeded files and directories you will have to give yourself an operating system to reload all of your software into. I prefer Windows XP now although if you have a bit of an older computer Windows 2000 will probably be fine and takes less system resources.

Just a note here, Windows 98 is a bad choice and there are a few reasons why. Windows 98 is not supported anymore by Microsoft so it does not have any new security fixes or drivers being written for it. One other issue is that the underlying file system that Windows 98 supports is FAT32, if you are loading Windows 2000 or XP you will likely want to take advantage of NTFS but the only good way to do this with a fresh load is to format your machine, this will delete all of the data that you have on your PC now. If you are moving from Windows 98 there will be a spot in the install asking if you would like to format or convert the drive to NTFS, I would avoid this as you can convert after you have switched your PC to Windows XP in Disk Management from the Computer management application in Windows.

The rest of the install should go smoothly and after you have finished you will have a nice new clean install of Windows with only the recycle bin on the desktop and no applications. Perhaps the desktop is only 256 colors or the size is not quite right but this is where you will fix that problem by reloading your drivers. Go to start and right click on the “MY Computer” icon and select properties, go to the hardware tab, now find the device manager and anything with an exclamation point or a red X will need a new driver. Right click on the icon, select update driver and walk through finding your drivers. If you can not find the driver in the lookup then you may have to go back to the mydrivers folder and run the executables for the drivers which may quicken the process of loading new drivers.

5. Reload Software and Data

Now the slow torturous part of the Windows install begins. I always do this reloading of Windows because my computer has gradually slowed down from all of the software that I have loaded up and pledge never to do again, I have proven time and time again that I don’t live up to the pledge. The only software that I load first is Office XP and setup my personal settings and mail folders from Outlook (check around for this documentation as it varies with your version of Office) and I also install my commonly used utilities. I keep my software install disks close by and just load software as I need it over the next few days.

6. Get Some Sleep

Congratulations. This process is very long and occasionally we do lose data that was missed in the backup but after you are done you have a computer that is at least as good as the day you started using it. There are fewer errors, less hiccups and the computer is fast and responsive. Although it takes a long time I am more than willing to do it as long as I cleared some time beforehand as the difference in working with the computer for some time after is a real treat.