Many people who get Windows XP, will do so by obtaining a new PC
with Windows XP pre-installed. But of these, there will also be a significant
number of people who will keep their old PC (and hand it down the family). But
there has always been a major problem when doing this: how to transfer one's
files and settings to the new PC. This same problem is being faced by people
who want to do a clean install of Windows XP over an existing OS.
Microsoft has created a new tool to assist in transferring those
files and settings, called the File and Settings Transfer Wizard.
Running the File and Settings Transfer Wizard
To start the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, run Setup.exe
from the Windows XP CD-ROM on your old system. This system can be running any of
the following operating systems: Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, Me, NT 4.0, Windows
2000 or Windows XP. From the Setup menu choose Perform Additional Tasks.
On the next screen choose Transfer files and settings.
After starting the File and Settings Transfer Wizard, you are
presented with a list of ways to transfer your files to the new install:
The Other selection is the easiest one (if you're not on a
network), as it will let you save the files to a location you want, and you can
later decide how you are going to move the data to the new installation.
Next you must choose what you want to transfer. You can make a
general choice between Settings only, Files only or Both files
and settings, and you can check Let me select a custom list of files and
settings...... Being the advanced users the File and Settings Transfer
Wizard is presenting this option is for, we duly check this box, along with
choosing the Both files and settings option.
Pressing Next will bring up a window where we can add Settings,
Folders, Files and File Types. You will only get to this
option if you checked the box Let me select a custom list of files and
settings..... in the previous screen. This option is quite powerful, but
you have to know your system and its files to use it. If you store a lot of
your data in custom folders, and don't rely on Microsoft's assumption that you
just want to dump it all under My Documents (or its other
"default" folders), you should look into using this option to add
your files.
If the wizard detects any applications on your system it is
familiar with, you will be presented with a list of them. This means that the
wizard is able to collect your settings, but that you will have to reinstall
these applications on Windows XP before running the wizard to restore
the settings.
In the final stage, your files and settings will be collected and
saved to the location you specified at the start of the process. This can take
some time, depending on the amount of data you selected. All data is
compressed, but you should realize that some files (MP3 and some graphic files
for example) are not highly compressible.
When the wizard completes the data collection, all that is left is
to press Finish. If you saved the data to a folder on your hard drive,
this would be a good time to check its size.
OK, so now you need to get that data to your new PC. As I suggested
before, if you're on a network there won't be much trouble. In other instances,
depending of the size of your data, you should have a little more work to do
burning the data to a CD-RW, or copying it to a removable drive. If push comes
to shove, you could consider adding your old hard disk with the saved data as a
slave drive in your new system, and later removing it and putting it back in
its original location.
When you have your backup available to Windows XP, it is time to
run the File and Settings Transfer Wizard again. But before you do, make sure
that you have installed the applications mentioned by the wizard when you
collected the data on your old PC (see above).
You can start the File and Settings Transfer Wizard in a few ways.
If you have just installed Windows XP, it will be listed in the left column of
your Start menu (that area is referred to as the Most Frequently Used Programs
section of your Start menu). If it is not listed there, you can start it
from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > File
and Settings Transfer Wizard.
When asked which computer you are using, select New computer.
Since you can transfer files from one Windows XP system to the next, this
question does make sense.
This part of the wizard enables you to create a Wizard Disk
on a floppy drive, to use in the old computer. This could be useful if the old
PC doesn't have a (working) CD-ROM drive. Since we already created our backup,
just select I don't need the Wizard Disk.....
Here we need to tell the wizard where the backup files are located.
Point to the device or folder where the files and settings backup files are
saved.
As soon as you point the wizard to the location of your file and
settings backup files, it will start applying these to your new system. Again,
the length of time needed depends on the size of the files.
After the File and Settings Transfer Wizard has completed its task,
it will display any recommendations, and once you press Finish, you will
be prompted to log off so that your settings can be applied. After you've
logged back on, check that all your files and settings were transferred
properly.
If you want to repair Internet Explorer, you would normally go to Add/Remove
Programs in the Control Panel, choose the listing for Microsoft Internet
Explorer and press Change/Remove. This would bring up a Window where
you could select to repair Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer is listed in the Add/Remove Windows Components
part of Add/Remove Programs, but you can only remove access to Internet
Explorer from the Start menu and Desktop.
The only way to repair Internet Explorer is to have sfc
check the system files by running the command sfc /scannow from the
Command Window (Start > Run > cmd).
If a repair doesn't do the trick, you can try a reinstall:
The above will let you reinstall the Internet Explorer 6 browser
component. To reinstall Outlook Express 6, change the IsInstalled value
from the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \
Active Setup \ Installed Components \ {44BBA840-CC51-11CF-AAFA-00AA00B6015C}
Occasionally you'll need to add Environment Variables (an example
is the PATH statement) to the Windows environment. In the past, you would have
done this by placing them in the Autotexec.bat or Config.sys file.
In Windows XP, you can add these by opening the System
applet from Control Panel, selecting the Advanced tab, and pressing the Environment
Variables button at the bottom of that tab. The Environment Variables
tab is divided in two sections, User variables and System variables.
Environment variables are written to the registry.
To modify a System variable, you must be an administrator on the
system. All users can modify their own User environment variables. In general,
System variables will need a restart to become effective, while User variables
will become effective immediately. Note however that after a change to the User
environment variables is made, any open software programs should be restarted
to force them to read the new registry values.
To view the DMA mode used by your drives, you need to open the Device
Manager (Control Panel > System select the Hardware tab
and press the Device Manager button) and view the properties of the IDE
ATA/ATAPI controllers. Double-click on the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
entry to expand it, the right-click on the Primary IDE Channel and Secondary
IDE Channel entries (one at a time) and select Properties from the
menu.
Now select the Advanced Settings tab. The Current Transfer
Mode will be listed. To change, click the selection arrow on the Transfer
Mode drop-down box. Remember, DMA is best, but sometimes a CD-ROM won't
function properly in DMA mode. So if you find that your CD-ROM uses PIO
mode, you can check to see if it will use DMA, but if you experience
problems, change it back.
If you want to know which devices (hard drive or CD-ROM) are
connected to a specific channel, on the View tab in Device Manager,
select Devices by connection. If needed you can expand the entries by
clicking on the + sign in front of the entry.
You can even see which drive partitions are on which physical hard
drive (provided you have partitioned your hard drive) by right-clicking the
listing for the drive you want to examine in detail, select Properties
and select the Volumes tab and click the Populate button.
According to Microsoft, UDMA66 mode is disabled by default on a
Windows computer with an Intel chipset that supports UDMA66. To enable UDMA66
mode you need to:
To add the registry key:
Windows XP finally has some excellent options to set the Autoplay
preferences on CD-ROM drives. Right-click the CD-ROM drive in Windows Explorer
(or My Computer), and select Properties. Select the AutoPlay tab.
Now you can select your AutoPlay preferences according to the type of content.
If you have an
USB device attached to your system, you will notice an icon in the Notification
area, which - when clicked - will give you the option to Stop your
hardware, before you unplug it.
It is possible that you never unplug this hardware. So how do you
get rid of the icon? As far as I know the only way is to right-click the
notification area, and selecting Properties. Under the Notification
area heading, click Customize. Find the Safely Remove Hardware
icon and select Always hide in the Behavior column next to it
(press OK and Apply to back out).
After you have run Windows XP for a while, you may receive this
message when you log on: "Your password will expire in 14 days.....".
By default, Windows XP is set up with passwords which will expire
after 42 days. 14 days in advance, Windows will start warning you of this fact.
If you do not want your passwords to expire:
OK, this is always a frequent request, since we've finally gotten
rid of that buggy Windows 9x code... the question comes to mind: how long has
our system been running?
In Windows XP that's pretty easy to find out (along with some other
interesting details):
Windows XP includes a "Compatibility Mode" in which you
can "fool" programs into thinking they are running in an older
Windows version.
If you are having problems with a program that used to work in your
previous version of Windows, you should try the Program Compatibility Wizard
included in Windows XP to get your program to function properly.
You start the Program Compatibility Wizard as follows: click Start
> All Programs > Accessories > Program Compatibility Wizard.
When you start the wizard, the first options you are presented with
is how you want to locate the program that you would like to run in
compatibility mode. You can choose from:
Note: If you choose Use the program in the CD-ROM drive,
your changes will not remain in effect after you close the program.
Once you have selected the program you want to choose in which
"mode" you want to run it:
On the next screen, you can select some display settings such as:
In most cases you will not need to use any of these
settings. However if the program you are trying to run a certain game or an
educational program, you may have to apply some (or all) of these settings.
The next option (Choose whether you want to simulate administrative
privileges) also applies mostly to games & educational software.
When you receive the Did the program work correctly? message
(at this time the program will (attempt) to start), select one of the following
options, and then click Next:
If you click Yes, set this program to always use these
compatibility settings or No, I am finished trying compatibility
settings, pressing Next will bring you to a new screen with the
following message:
Program Compatibility Data Microsoft has created temporary files that contain information about the settings you selected and whether the problems were fixed. Sending this information to Microsoft will help us improve program compatibility. Would you like to send this information to Microsoft? Yes No The information will be treated anonymously and confidentially per our data collection policy on the the Web. See the temporary files that would be sent
You can click the link See the temporary files that would be
sent which will bring up another window with links to the files generated.
You can click those links, and read which info is being sent to Microsoft.
The last screen gives you the information that you have adjusted
the compatibility settings, and gives you the advice that to adjust or remove,
you should run the wizard again
The Recovery Console is a command line (similar to DOS) that
provides a long list of commands that you can use to troubleshoot/fix your
computer when your computer does not start properly or does not start at all.
If you can't get into safe mode, you should consider using the Recovery
Console.
In the Windows Recovery Console, you can:
There are different ways in which you can access the Recovery
Console. You could load it from the Windows XP CD-ROM when the need arises, but
it might be better to install the Recovery Console on your system before you
need it. The advantage of having the Recovery Console installed on your system
is that you can access it much more quickly.
Now you need to realize that in some cases you will not be able to
boot from your hard drive, so you'd still need to boot from your Windows XP CD.
But for a number of other problems it might be beneficial to have the Recovery
Console installed on your hard disk.
Installing the Recovery Console on your system takes up around 7MB
of disk space. To install the Recovery Console on your system follow these
steps:
To speed up the boot menu, select Start > Control Panel >
System > Advanced tab. Click the Startup and Recovery Settings
button. In the System startup portion you can adjust the time used to
display the bootmenu.
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Below
is a part of a program with some controls (tabs, check boxes and a drop-down
box) without the visual style:
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This
is how the same looks like with visual style support:
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Overview
If you enable Remote Desktop in Windows XP Professional, it will
give you the ability to access your desktop from a remote location. You can
access your applications, files and network resources as if you where sitting
behind your computer. Remote Desktop is an evolution of the Terminal Services
functionality formerly available only in the Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server
family of operating systems. Remote Desktop is not available in Windows XP Home
Edition.
How to enable Remote Desktop
When you install Windows XP Professional, Remote Desktop is
disabled by default. You need to enable Remote Desktop before you can use it to
connect to the computer remotely:
To enable remote access on your Windows XP computer, you need to be
a member of the Administrators group or of the Remote Desktop Users group. To
add users to the Remote Desktop Users group:
The names of the selected users appear in the Remote Desktop Users
dialog box.
Installing Client Software
To use your computer to connect to a system running the Remote
Desktop, you need to set up your computer as a Remote Desktop client. For that
you will need to install a Remote Desktop Connection (or Terminal Services
Client). You can also install a web-based version of the client software,
Remote Desktop Web Connection. Another requirement is that your computer must
be able to connect to the remote computer by means of network connection,
dial-up, or Internet connection.
Client software versions for various operating systems are:
|
Operating System |
Client Software |
Availability |
|
Windows XP (all versions) |
Remote Desktop Connection (installed by
default) |
Start > All Programs > Accessories >
Communications > Remote Desktop Connection |
|
Windows 2000 Professional |
Remote Desktop Connection (installed by the
user) |
Install from the Windows XP Professional CD |
|
Windows 2000 Server |
Terminal Services Client (installed by
default if Terminal Services is installed) |
Start > Programs > Terminal Services
Client |
|
Windows 95/98 |
Remote Desktop Connection (installed by the
user) |
Install from the Windows XP Professional CD |
|
Windows NT 4.0 |
Remote Desktop Connection (installed by the
user) |
Install from the Windows XP Professional CD |
To install Remote Desktop Connection on computers running Windows
95 / 98 / NT 4.0 / 2000 Server / 2000 Professional:
Establishing a Remote Desktop Session
After installing the appropriate client software on the client
computer, you can connect to the remote computer:
You can pre-configure your Remote Desktop sessions by pressing the Options
button in the Remote Desktop Connection. Here you can:
Note: Terminal Services clients use TCP port 3389 to communicate
with the remote computer, so you must ensure that this port is not blocked by a
firewall.
Security in Remote Desktop
To enhance the security of a Remote Desktop session over the
Internet, you should prevent automatic password passing. To do this, you can
enable the Always prompt client for password upon connection in the
Terminal Services Group Policy setting. When this setting is enabled, you must
supply your password in the Windows Logon dialog box whenever you start a
Remote Desktop session.
To access Terminal Services Group Policy
You can further enhance security by using the settings under Client/Server
data redirection here you can disable:
To disable the Windows XP Startup screen:
Now when you start Windows, you will see some system messages,
instead of the Windows XP logo.
Please note that if you want to use the Norton Protected Recycle Bin,
you can't use this switch (/sos). See the Symantec Knowledge Base for more
information.
Other files you could delete are files with these extensions:
To be on the safe side, delete your files to the Recycle Bin, and
leave them there for a week or two. If you don't run into any problems, you can
empty the Recycle Bin. If Windows or any program complains about a missing
file, just select your Recycle Bin, find the file and right-click on it. From
the context menu choose Restore. This will restore the file to its
original location.
Slipstreaming a
Service Pack, is the process to integrate the Service Pack into the
installation so that with every new installation the Operating System and
Service Pack are installed at the same time.
Slipstreaming is usually done on network shares on corporate systems.
But with the advent of CD burners, it does actually make some sense for the
home user or small business user to do the same.
Microsoft added the ability to Slipstream a Service Pack to Windows
2000 and Windows XP. It not only has the advantage that when you (re)install
your OS, you'll don't have to apply the Service Pack later, also if you update
any Windows component later, you'll be sure that you get the correct
installation files if Windows needs any.
Download the (full) "Network Install" of the Service Pack
(English version [125 MB]), and save it to a
directory (folder) on your hard drive (in my case F:\Download). Other
languages can be downloaded from the Windows XP Web site.
Microsoft recently released Windows XP SP1a. The only difference
is that this Service Pack does no longer include Microsoft's dated Java
version. If you have already installed Windows XP SP1, there is no reason to install SP1a, but the
"older" SP1 (with MS Java) is no longer available for download.
Next copy your Windows XP CD to your hard drive. Just create a
folder (I used \WinXP-CD), and copy all the contents of your Windows XP
CD in that folder.
Now create a folder to hold the Service Pack 1a (SP1a) files you
are about to extract. I named it \XP SP1. Next, open a Command Prompt
(Start > Run > cmd), and go to the folder where you downloaded
SP1a (cd \foldername). Type the command: servicepack filename
-x. A small window will appear, and you need to point it to the folder
where you want to extract the SP1 files. Click Ok to start extracting
the SP1a files.
Once the SP1a files are extracted, change to the update
folder of the SP1a files (cd update), and type the following command: update
/s:path to WinXP CD files. In my example the command is update
/s:F:\WinXP-CD).
Windows XP Update will do it's thing:
When ready, you should get a confirmation. Windows XP Service Pack
1a has now been Slipstreamed into your original Windows XP files.
For this part I used ISO Buster and Nero Burning ROM 5.5 (make sure you have the
latest version, but al least 5.5.9.0).
Start to extract the boot loader from the original Windows XP CD.
Using ISO Buster, select the "folder" Bootable CD, and
right-click Microsoft Corporation.img. From the menu choose Extract
Microsoft Corporation.img, and extract it to the folder on your hard drive
where you have your Windows XP files.
Next, start Nero Burning ROM, and choose CD-ROM (Boot)
in the New Compilation window. On the Boot tab, select Image
file under Source of boot image data, and browse to the location of
the Microsoft Corporation.img file. Also enable Expert Settings,
choosing No Emulation, and changing the Number of loaded sectors
to 4 (otherwise it won't boot!)
The ISO tab should be configured correctly as shown below:
You can configure the Label tab to your
liking, I would however recommend that you keep the Volume Label the
same as on your original Windows XP CD.
Next press New, and drag & drop the files and folders
from your Windows XP hard drive location into Nero.
Next, burn your new CD.
You now have a Bootable, Slipstreamed Windows XP Service Pack 1a
CD!
Windows XP's Automated System Recovery (ASR) is an extension to the
conventional backup-and-restore. It provides a framework for saving and
recovering the Windows XP operating state, in the event of a catastrophic
system or hardware failure. Windows XP ASR recovers the target system in a
two-step process. The first step, termed the boot recovery process, requires a
new copy of Windows XP to be temporarily installed on the target system using
the original distribution media. The second step, called the OS restore
process, restores the files of a previously saved Windows XP installation using
a backup-and-restore application (this will delete/overwrite some of the files
installed by the boot recovery process).
Note: Users of Windows XP Home are out of luck: ASR is not
available on their system. While mentions of this feature do exist in the
backup utility of Windows XP Home, ASR is only functional in Windows XP
Professional. Please click here
for some other options.
ASR Backup
The backup portion of ASR is accomplished through the ASR Wizard
located in Backup. The wizard backs up the system state, system services, and
all disks associated with the operating system components. It also creates a
file containing information about the backup, the disk configurations
(including basic and dynamic volumes) and how to accomplish a restore.
To start the process, click Backup under All Programs
> Accessories > System Tools.
By default, backup will start in Wizard mode. In this case
it's easier to start in the Advanced Mode. To do so, just click the link
Advanced Mode.
On the Welcome tab, click Automated System Recovery
Wizard. This will start the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard.
The wizard will prompt you for a location and name for the media to
store the backup file.
By default drive A:\ will be selected, but for obvious reasons this
isn't a good choice. You want to change the location to another disk-location.
The backup will typically be around 1.5-2.0GB (but could be more, depending on
the amount of software installed), and since Microsoft's backup won't
"span" a backup across multiple CDs, you'd have to find another media
to store this backup on. You could use anything from ZIP or Jazz drives, to a
second hard disk drive, either internal or external. Please note: you can't
save the backup to the system drive (usually drive C:\), since this drive will
be formatted when you do an ASR restore.
When you have selected the location and name for the backup, press Finish
to end the Automated System Recovery Preparation Wizard. When you do this,
backup will create a list of all the files to backup, and then continue with
the backup process
ASR only makes a backup of your files on your System drive
(usually drive C:\). If you use other hard drives, you will need to make a
separate backup of your documents & files to make a complete
"recovery" after disaster!
Once the disk-backup is done, ASR will prompt you for a blank,
1.44MB, formatted floppy disk to store some recovery data.
When ready, label the diskette. Pressing OK ends the backup
portion of ASR
You will need to keep your ASR backup up-to-date. If you make any
changes to your OS, you'll need to make a new ASR backup. When installing updates
from Microsoft, most will prompt you to make a new ASR backup after installing
the update.
ASR Restore
ASR will read the disk configurations from the file that it saved
on the ASR diskette and restore all of the disk signatures, volumes and partitions
on, at a minimum, the disks required to start the computer (It will attempt to
restore all of the disk configurations, but under some circumstances, it might
not be able to).
To use Automated System Recovery to recover after a system failure,
you need to have the following items before you begin the procedure:
You should only use the ASR backup to restore your system if all
other methods to start your Windows XP system have failed. Your system drive
(usually drive C:\) will be formatted and you will lose any information that
was not backed up recently!
To start the restore process, insert the original Windows XP CD in
your system's CD-ROM drive, and reboot your computer (make sure that the option
is set in your computer's BIOS to boot from CD-ROM. Check your computer's or
motherboard's manual on how to do this). Usually you'll get a message to Press
any key to boot from CD...
Once Windows Setup starts, you'll be prompted with the following
text at the bottom of the screen: Press F2 to run Automated System Recovery
(ASR)... so be prepared to hit F2 as soon as you see this.
Next you will be prompted to insert the Windows Automated System
Recovery Disk into the floppy drive. Insert the disk, and press any key.
The ASR process will be started, and without any further prompts,
your system drive will be formatted, after which setup will start copying its
files to the hard disk.
When ready, the system will prompt you to remove any floppy from
the floppy drive, and will reboot the system automatically (this time do not
press any key to boot from the CD-ROM!).
Windows setup will now continue much like a normal Windows setup
would, but it will not do a complete installation.
After a few minutes, the Automated System Recovery Wizard will
start. After 90 seconds it will automatically continue, if you want to speed
this up, just press the Next button.
Next the ASR wizard will ask you for the location of your backup
file. By default it will list the location you saved the backup to previously,
but if you since moved it to a different drive, you can use the Browse
button to point to the new location.
This
will close the ASR wizard, after which backup is used to restore the previous
backup of your system drive. After the restore phase is completed, your system
will be rebooted, and you'll have it back in the same state as of the time when
you created the ASR backup.
There is no "deactivation" process for Windows XP. If you
want to move your Windows XP installation to a different PC, use these steps:
Note: This procedure will be allowed on retail copies of Windows
XP. If you have an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version of Windows XP,
this procedure will be disallowed in most cases. According to Microsoft, an OEM
version of Windows XP is linked to the specific hardware it was sold on. Some
OEM vendors have exceptions to this rule; you have to check with your OEM.
In Windows XP, you can choose between two types of disk storage:
basic or dynamic, although dynamic disk storage is not available on Windows XP
Home Edition, or on portable computers.
Basic Disk Storage
Basic storage refers to the "normal" disk storage as
supported by MS-DOS, Windows 9x, Me, 2000, NT and Windows XP. Basic storage
uses normal partition tables, and contains basic disc volumes such as primary
partitions, extended partitions and logical drives.
The disadvantage with a Basic Disk is that you're limited to
creating four primary partitions per disk or three primary partitions and one
extended partition with logical drives.
Dynamic Disk Storage
Dynamic storage is supported in Windows 2000 and Windows XP
Professional. A disk initialized for dynamic storage is called a dynamic disk.
Dynamic disk do not use partitions or logical drives. A dynamic disk contains
dynamic volumes, such as simple volumes, spanned volumes, striped volumes,
mirrored volumes and RAID 5 volumes created by Disk Management.
The advantages of a Dynamic Disk are that its management is very
flexible. The number of volumes that you can create on a physical hard disk is
only limited by the amount of free space available. You can also extend a
volume, if it needs more space (if unallocated space is available). Dynamic
storage lets you manage disks and volumes without the need to restart Windows
after a change.
Dynamic disks offer greater flexibility for volume management
because they use a hidden database to track information about dynamic volumes
on the disk and about other dynamic disks in the computer. Because each dynamic
disk in a computer stores a replica of the dynamic disk database, Windows XP
Professional can repair a corrupted database on one dynamic disk by using the
database on another dynamic disk.
You can use both basic and dynamic disks on the same computer system. A basic
or dynamic disk can contain any combination of FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS partitions
or volumes. However, all volumes on a physical disk must be of the same type,
so either basic or dynamic.
You can upgrade from Basic to Dynamic storage at any time. Just
start Disk Management (Start > Control Panel > Performance and
Maintenance > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk
Management). Right-click the Basic disk you want to convert to Dynamic, and
click Convert to Dynamic Disk.
Note: After you convert to a dynamic disk, the dynamic volumes
cannot be changed back to partitions. You must first delete all dynamic volumes
on the disk, and then convert the dynamic disk back to a basic disk. If you
want to keep your data, you must first back up or move the data to another
volume.
Also note that after you convert to a dynamic disk, local access to
the dynamic disk is limited to Windows XP Professional and Windows 2000. If
your disk contains multiple installations of Windows XP Professional or Windows
2000, or other Operating Systems, do not convert to a dynamic disk. The
conversion operation removes partition entries for all partitions on the disk
with the exception of the system and boot volumes for the current operating
system.
Other dynamic disk limitations include lack of support for
removable storage devices (i.e., IEEE 1394 FireWire and USB-attached disks).
Windows 2000 Servers and the up and coming Windows 2003 Server line
provide fault tolerance on dynamic disks in the form of software-based
(operating system) disk mirroring (RAID-1) or striping with parity (RAID-5).
Unfortunately, Windows XP Professional does not provide fault tolerance.
You can make a Windows XP system fault tolerant, by using 3rd party
solutions, such as RAID controllers, but it is this third party hardware
solution that is providing the fault tolerance, not the Windows XP Professional
operating system.
By default, Windows XP does not come with compatible DVD
decoder software installed. To confirm if you have Windows XP-compatible DVD
decoder software on your system:
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Microsoft first introduced Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in
Windows 98 Second Edition. With ICS you can share a single Internet Connection
across your (home) network, making it easier to connect to the Internet from
your Networked computers.
There are several 3rd party products available, which let you do
the same thing. The advantage of a 3rd party product over the Microsoft
offering is that they are generally more user-friendly, and can be customized
to suit your needs. For the average home user, however, Microsoft's ICS should be
a good alternative.
In Windows 98SE you needed to perform several steps (including a
separate install of ICS) to get ICS up and running. In Windows XP, ICS is
"built-in", all you have to do is activate it.
To use ICS to share your Internet connection, the host computer
(the computer used to access the Internet) must have two network adapters: one
network adapter configured to connect to the internal network, and one network
adapter or modem configured to connect to the Internet.
To setup ICS, follow the steps below.
On the host computer (the computer used to access the
Internet)
The connection to the Internet is shared to other computers on the
local area network (LAN). The network adapter that is connected to the LAN is
configured with static IP address of 192.168.0.1 and a subnet mask of
255.255.255.0
On the client computer (any computer that needs to connect to the host
which has the Internet connection)
To connect to the Internet using the shared connection you must
first check the LAN Adapter IP Configuration then configure the client
computer:
Note: You can also assign a unique static IP address in the range
of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254. For example, you can assign the following
static IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway:
The Default gateway has to be the same for every client
computer; it is pointing to the host. The IP Address has to be different for
each client.
To configure the client computer to use the shared Internet
connection:
When you now start an Internet application (for example a Web
browser), the client computer will attempt to connect to the Internet using the
host computer's shared Internet connection.
In most cases the Obtain an IP address automatically setting
will work fine, but if you are having problems, you might try setting the IP
addresses manually.
Troubleshooting
When you enable Internet Connection Sharing on the host computer,
the host computer's LAN adapter is automatically assigned the IP address of
192.168.0.1. Because of this, one of the following situations may occur:
IP Address Conflict
Each computer on the LAN must have a unique IP address. If more
than one computer is assigned the same IP address, an IP conflict occurs and
one of the network adapters is disabled until the conflict is resolved. To
resolve this conflict, configure the client computer to automatically obtain an
IP address, or assign it a unique IP address.
Loss of network connectivity
If your network is configured with a different IP address range
than is used by ICS, you will lose network connectivity with the host computer.
To resolve this issue, configure the client computers to automatically obtain
an IP address, or assign each client computer a unique IP address in the range
of 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254.
If you want some added safety in case you forget your password, you
should create a Password Recovery Disk. To do so, open User Accounts
from the Control Panel. Select the account for which you want to create
a Password Recovery Disk; this will put you in the change 'mode'. From
the Related Tasks at the left side, choose Prevent a forgotten
password and follow the wizard to create a Password Recovery Disk.
If you upgraded from Windows NT or 2000, you will need to create
new disks. The old disks you created on the previous OS version won't work.
When you ever forget your password, you can press the 
and
you will see a link to use your Password Recovery Disk. This will verify your
access rights, and prompt you to create a new password, which you can use to
access your account. The new password is written to your recovery disk at the
same time you
If you are the only user on Windows XP, you could save some time by
having Windows XP log you into your user account automatically.
There are a few reauirements for this to work:
Windows now has some firewall capabilities build into the OS. When
you install Windows XP, the Internet connection you set up during the OOBE phase will be protected by the Internet
Connection Firewall (ICF).
When you set up a new connection, you'll need to enable the ICF
yourself. Right-click the connection and choose Properties. The ICF is
listed on the Advanced tab. When you enable ICF, at the bottom of the Advanced
tab, the Settings button becomes active. Pressing it will bring up the Advanced
Settings window, where you can customize the ICF to some extent.
Also note that ICF only blocks incoming traffic. It will not
monitor any outgoing traffic from your system. For that you'll need a real
firewall.
If you want better firewall capabilities, I would suggest Kerio Personal Firewall, which is free for home
users.
If you are having connection problems on your internal network,
check to make sure that ICF isn't enabled on that connection.
There could be several reasons for Windows XP shutdown issues. Most
will be related to device drivers, so always check if you have the latest
drivers for your devices (printer, keyboard, mouse, sound card, etc.). If you
use Easy CD / Direct CD software, it is well documented as being the major
cause of Windows XP shutdown trouble. Roxio has released new drivers to solve this
problem in Easy CD Creator 5. Take some time to read the directions on the page
to make sure you follow the right steps for installation.
If Windows XP shutdown stops responding on the saving your
settings screen, you are experiencing a known bug for which a fix is
available. To obtain the fix:
Quite a number of people have been reporting problems connecting to
Secure Web sites (the ones that start with https:// ). There are a
number of possible causes, which in turn have a number of suggested fixes.
You can test your ability to connect to SSL sites using this SSL test site.
Check Firewall/Network Configuration
Make sure that the SSL port (port 443) is open on your
network/firewall (if you have any). There are many different Firewall/Network
products, so we can't give set-by-step instructions. Check the documentation or
help file of the product you use.
Verify that Internet Explorer Is Using 128-Bit Encryption
To check:
If the Cipher Strength is anything less then 128-bit, download the Internet Explorer High Encryption Pack to your
computer's hard disk, and then install it.
Delete Temporary Internet Files
There's also a possibility of some corrupted files in your
Temporary Internet Files (TIF) storage. To clear these:
Configure Internet Explorer Security, Content, and Advanced Settings
Configure Security settings for the Trusted sites zone in Internet
Explorer:
Clear the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) slate and AutoComplete
history:
Verify that Internet Explorer is configured to use SSL 2.0 and SSL
3.0:
Verify that the Date and Time Settings on Your Computer Are Correct
Because SSL certificates have an expiry date, if the date on your
computer isn't correct, it may prevent you from connecting to secure sites. To
verify that your computer is configured with the correct date and time
settings:
