Setting up a generic WinXP system for home use
The past few days I’ve been setting up a clean install of Windows XP on a generic PC. Aside from figuring out the mysterious installation failure which turned out to be due to smudges on the retail media, it’s been taking a while to get a basic load of software together.
This system is eventually getting shipped to my Dad, who only has dialup access. It’s also hard to do remote access over dialup and its impractical to download hundreds of megabytes of installation packages, so I’m trying to get everything installed before shipping, as proactive “family tech support”. He doesn’t spend a lot of time online, and mostly just checks e-mail and uses Microsoft Word from time to time.
Here’s the software set I’m installing:
- Windows XP
- All current patches from Windows Update
- All current driver patches for the system hardware
- Microsoft Office
- All current patches from Office Update
- Adobe Acrobat Reader
- Flash and Shockwave players
- Apple Quicktime
- Firefox
- AVG Antivirus
The hardware is a generic “Great Quality” computer from Fry’s Electronics. It originally came with ThizLinux installed, which allows them to sell the hardware without charging for Windows. I originally got the system to run some lightweight networking code on CentOS, so that worked out well for me. Presumably, many people end up running bootleg copies of Windows on the generic hardware, as it actually comes with a CD of Windows drivers for the video, audio, LAN, and modem hardware.
It’s been interesting installing from retail media. I haven’t done this in a long time, as I usually (re)install from recovery media generated from a preloaded system (e.g. my Thinkpad) or from bulk licensed media such as MSDN or a site/volume license. The retail CD has a shiny hologram on it and comes in a glossy cardboard foldout, presumably to make you feel like you’re getting you’re money’s worth. Too bad the CD itself was barely readable, due to scuff marks from the packaging.
There are an amazing number of Windows patches on first install. The first pass turned up 48 patches. There were more which turned up after the first set was complete, but I didn’t keep track. The Microsoft Office updates also turned up a few large packages. The system wouldn’t reboot cleanly after installing some of the Office updates the first time, which required reverting to the pre-install restore point and trying again. I have mixed feelings about it successfully installing after a few more tries. All things being equal, you’d think that the subsequent installation attempts should also fail, or the first one should have succeeded.
Flash, Shockwave, Acrobat, and Quicktime are all commonly used on many consumer-oriented sites, and are many megabytes of download, so those went on as well. I also installed AVG Antivirus, which is free for personal use, and can be updated periodically, like other antivirus services. I usually run Norton on my personal systems, but those require a paid annual subscription, which doesn’t seem worth it for a light-duty system on a dialup line.
I’ve been testing the system through intermittent startup / shutdown cycles and miscellaneous web browsing for a few days and it seems to be stable. I can’t imagine a typical retail customer managing the initial patch and installation process successfully, though, which helps explain why there is so much botnet traffic (presumably originating from unpatched desktop systems) in my server logs. I probably should have looked for a bootlegged but already patched WinXP installer on BitTorrent instead of building the system from scratch. Microsoft should provide this themselves if they don’t already, since the activation key is unique and is printed on a label pasted to the retail packaging. The physical CD is almost unreadable and is months out of date, so a downloadable ISO would have been better anyway.
I’m done with this project for now, but let me know if you have a better solution for bringing up a fully patched, basic WinXP system for home use.
August 10th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Sorry to tell you but that is the same steps I have to take to setup a new pc at work. It would be nice if you could download an ISO with updates. especially since I then have to load about 10 other programs and updates for those as well. I actually prefer the AVG to Norton after running both in an industrial environment. I had fewer viruses to deal with on my AVG systems. My Cd was scratched. I just started this job and the last people were a mess. There were 3 people doing my job. I had 5 desks and 3 tables stacked well over 2 ft high with stuff and you had a trail through the 3 offices that everything was spread out over. Good luck.