The check for any missing drivers is via the Device Manager Step 12 and you should post on the Microsoft OS forum if you run into problems there. These can be updated if you wish but I would recommend leaving these well alone. Sometimes if these updates go wrong, things seriously break. If you have no problems with any of these devices then leave them be. You may look through Applications to see if you find anything else useful. Note for Windows XP it is generally better to slipstream the SATA drivers using nlite see here opposed to using a floppy Disk as floppy disks are obsolete.
Step 7a is for advanced users, most regular users should skip it. Not all systems have card readers. Remove any USB devices in particular external hard drives! DBAN will then load. The easiest way to use DBAN is by typing autonuke and then pressing enter. You should get these two screens. DBAN will then begin to securely format your hard drive. Note DBAN can take a very long time to securely format a large capacity hard drive. When completed you should get a screen like this.
Hopefully it will say DBAN succeeded although sometimes it mentions an error. Most of the times that it has mentioned an error to me it has actually fully formatted the drive and ran for the same length of time as it should i. Note using DBAN may sometimes cause some issues with product activation using upgrade product keys as the original version of Windows is not there. To get around this reinstall the old operating system, activate it and then proceed with the clean install of Windows XP.
This step is only for systems shipped with Media Direct. These systems will have a MediaDirect button in close proximty to the power button as shown below. If your system doesn't have this button skip this step.
The partitions for Media Direct must be set up before the installation of Microsoft Windows otherwise pressing the Media Direct Button while the system is powered down can corrupt your Operating System.
It should look like the following:. Power down your computer. Select option 1 recommended or option 2. Note: The application must be installed after the system drivers while on the Windows Desktop Step 14a. This will begin the Windows setup. The first screen of the setup will prompt you to press F6 if you are needing to install a SATA driver from a floppy diskette.
This screen flashes in a couple of seconds, if you miss it you will have to press F3 2 screens down and start again. The next screen is important. Here you may create a partition, or delete any existing partitions.
The way you do this is optional. I am just going to select the largest partition and select Enter. It will then begin to format. Once it is formatted Windows will begin to copy files to the partition. The setup will copy all the files and then reboot the computer. The computer will restart and the setup will continue. You will be asked to input your Regional and Language options American is usually default.
Select customise and change to your own preferences I have selected U. Click OK and then select details to ensure the keyboard is also set to as your desired. Select OK and finally change the top from US to your personal preference or the American Keyboard layout will still selected. Select OK. In the next screen enter your name and organisation.
You will then be asked for network settings, choose typical unless you want to configure everything yourself. Choose a Workgroup, just make one up of your own and put all your home computers on it or choose a Domain if you have a large organisation. Don't worry if it looks bad, likely the Video drivers aren't installed yet.
The setup is almost finished. Here the Welcome to Windows XP Theme starts playing unfortunately most people don't hear it as the sound drivers aren't installed at this point Click next. You will be asked for network settings, most people won't have their network drivers isntalled so i recommend just selecting skip.
Note for non-Dell Media you will likely have to input a product key. For Dell media this and activation should be sorted out automatically in the BIOs. Note for XP Media Centre Edition there will be a few additional steps, it will install the Media Centre Edition programs, you shouldn't touch your computer at this point.
It often works out better installing the latest Service Pack and Internet Explorer before installing the system drivers Downloaded at Step. It prevents a great deal of problems with Windows Update. The Installation of Microsoft. Ensure you keep to the order listed above for best results. You should again have downloaded these at Step 4 and have them readily accessible on a USB stick or External Harddrive. Running the. For some older systems the drivers will have individual instructions which you will need to follow.
Unfortunately often no installer runs and the file just extracts. To actually install the driver you will need to navigate to the folder where the driver extracted to and run any setup. Many users think they have installed the driver when they haven't. We will take for example R the chipset driver for my Latitude D Double click the downloaded. Select yes. Select Ok. At this stage the setup should start and you should follow through with the installation. If it does not the driver is not installed.
I usually tell it not to reboot until I install all the drivers it is faster this way and always worked for me however it is probably best to reboot when prompted. You will get a prompt if you need to activate. If using a Dell disc on a Dell system in the method described above, then this shouldn't happen.
Press the [Windows] and [Pause Break] or go to start, right click computer and click properties. If you have an error, you likely have not installed a system driver and should quickly check that you haven't missed downloading or installing something. Right click the device with the error and select properties.
Go to the driver tab and select Hardware IDs. If you wish you can check the Windows Update Catalogue with this information. In order to help us assist you with driver issues on the forums, start a new post in the Microsoft OS forum , include the above information alongside the model of Dell and the Operating System. Note restart your computer after installing all the drivers and then recheck for an error. I also recommend installation of WIndows Firewall Control.
So I am not going to argue or force my opinion here. Just ensure that you install a security suite that you trust. Microsoft Office is not downloadable and you should have a separate installation CD and Product Key for it. For Office use your product key obtained by Belarc advisor Step 1. For more details about the Microsoft Product Identification Card see here. Microsoft Office will require a product key, you will need to purchase one if you don't have one.
Microsoft Works does not require any product key. If you don't have a Microsoft Office license you should use Microsoft Office Web Apps which has tight integration with SkyDrive and the same functionality or slightly more than Office Starter. Microsoft Mathematics may also be installed, this is essentially a free graphics calculator for Microsoft Windows. Useful third party additions for the full versions of Microsoft Office are Mendeley Desktop Reference Manager and Mathtype both have free and paid versions.
The free versions should suffice most users. Users may also install Windows Live Essentials Suite. Follow the instructions here. Skip Step 14a if your system doesn't have Media Direct. For the systems with Dell Media Direct, once on the windows desktop, insert the media direct disc It should autorun, install the application, if it doesn't you should navigate to the WindowsMD3 folder and click setup. Use the updater within Media Direct to get it to the latest version.
For some unknown reason Dell does not provide Dell Webcam Software under the drivers and downloads page for most systems. Here is the download link Dell Webcam Software R You may wish to download the latest version of Skype before installing the webcam driver. Dell Support Centre may be downloaded and installed from here. It only works on home systems and does not work on Precision, Latitude or Optiplex systems. It may not be compatible with very old Windows XP systems.
Dell Dock is also not provided on the drivers and downloads page. Here is the download link Dell Dock. Copy the files from your external hard drive backup to my documents, my pictures and my videos. You may need to install an addin when you get to Microsoft Update select "run Add-on":. Select Software optional and review any optional updates you wish to install. Select install now to the left, this will take you to the review and install updates. Select Install Updates at the top of this list.
Visit Windows Update again to check if there are any more updates. Some more may be listed that required the previous updates to be correctly installed. You may need to do this 2 or 3 times. It will tell you when Windows is up to date. Therefore many users opt to stay clear of BIOS updates completely. I personally tend to update the BIOs if available after a clean install.
On this screen is the model number and the BIOS revision. The BIOs revision typically this of either 2 formats:. Restart computer. Then double click the file and run it as an administrator. Don't touch the computer until the BIOS update is complete. It should automatically log you off, update the BIOs and restart the computer. Don't power down the computer during the BIOs update as this will ensure your system is rendered completely useless.
Ensure both the battery is at full charge and the AC adaptor is plugged in when updating the BIOs on a laptop. This will give you a taskbar on each monitor completing your Windows experience.
Note you get a 30 day free trial of each product; for the Actual Multiple Monitors after 30 days this will revert to the free version its worth having around. The professional version is of course better and I recommend using it or Actual Windows Manager. See here for a comparison between the professional and free version.
I wrote a small wiki on their software here it needs updated however. For more software recommendations look to the bottom of my Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office Downloads wiki.
When you can select the advanced setup. The larger software vendors e. Ask, Google, Bing microsoft pay for bundling their toolbars within the installer. Thus the cost of the software can be made lower or distributed for free in some cases.
The advanced setup allows users to disable installation of these toolbars and other programs which they don't want. For Internet Explorer 9 see:. Note some things work better in Internet Explorer than in the other browsers e. Firefox has a variety of third party extensions. You can of course use all three and switch between them for individual tasks. Microsoft are beginning to phase out support for Windows XP and finally will ditch all support completely in That's everything done, you should have a fully functional system with peak performance.
Please leave these in the comments below. If you are experiencing any further problems, post on the correct forum ensure that you provide basic information such as what Operating System you are trying to install or have installed e. Windows XP 32 bit and the model of the Dell e. Dell Latitude D Feedback for these wikies and your overall forum experience is welcome in the Has the Forum Helped You?
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Obsolete wiki: This wiki is updated to pdf format here Windows Reinstallation Guide and several other wikies are combined into this pdf. Step 1. Back up your data. Step 2. Use Belarc Advisor Belarc Advisor will obtain details about your system. Step 3. Hopefully you already have the Dell XP reinstallation disc which should look like one of these: Dell are currently shipping out most of their systems without reinstallation DVDs. Step 4. NET Framework Version 2. NET Framework Version 3.
NET Framework Version 4. Download and save the files to an external hard drive. Step 5a. Once the model is selected you need to select the correct OS: Once you have selected Windows XP look at the categories Click the category to expand it e.
If you get the following error message: Press back on the browser. In the address bar check the URL. Then press [Enter]. The page will refresh and look identical to before This time select Single-File download and it should now work. Once done press back several times to return here: Ensure it looks the same as before number of categories and number of drivers under each category , if not change the OS to BIOS and back to Windows XP.
Step 5b. Look here if you are having issues with the Drivers and Downloads page also note that sometimes the Dell FTP website has drivers for additional operating Systems The Dell FTP Website has all versions of each driver released by Dell for a particular model.
United States English. Ask a question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Genuine Benefits. What's in it for you? Sign in to vote. Tuesday, July 25, PM. The term "CPU" simply means Windows XP Professional can be installed on a computer having either one 1 or two 2 physical processors. Windows XP Home Edition can only be installed on a computer having just one 1 physical processor.
Wednesday, July 26, PM. That doesn't still answer the question. Microsoft official documentation regarding it's licensing, procedures and restrictions is extremely spotty and it's very hard to find official easy-to-understand answers to some common questions and misconceptions. Or if you find one, you can't find the actual license text that says the same thing. In many cases the documentation has a bad case of 'It's like this, because we say it's like this.
I've been scouring the internet looking for a definitive answer from Microsoft on this and I couldn't find one. I've found a few forums where they state as much but I'd prefer to get my information straight from the horse's mouth. If you could link me to a Microsoft article that says as much I'd greatly appreciate it.
Thank you, Shane. As I said, I've found a few forums that say as much but I need proof directly from Microsoft that says different. Thank you. Then click on "End-User License Agreement". Microsoft grants you the following rights provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this EULA:.
You may install, use, access, display and run one copy of the Software on a single dell windows xp professional 1-2cpu specs free download, such as a workstation, terminal or other device "Workstation Computer". The Software may not be used by more than two 2 processors at any one time on any single Workstation Computer. Sign in. United States English.
Ask dell windows xp professional 1-2cpu specs free download question. Quick access. Search related threads. Remove From My Forums. Answered by:. Archived Forums. Genuine Benefits. What's in it for you? Sign in dell windows xp professional 1-2cpu specs free download vote. Tuesday, July 25, PM. The term "CPU" simply means Windows XP Professional can be installed on a computer having either one 1 or two 2 physical processors.
Windows XP Home Edition can only be installed on a computer having just one 1 physical processor. Wednesday, July 26, PM. That doesn't still answer the question. Microsoft official documentation regarding it's licensing, procedures and restrictions is extremely spotty and it's very hard to find official easy-to-understand answers to some common questions and misconceptions.
Or if you find one, you can't find the actual license text that says the same thing. In many cases the documentation has a bad case of 'It's like this, because we say it's like this. We don't have to explain ourselves to you, peon'. Nowhere you can find clear explanation with quotes of the license terms that spell out why you can't install it to two computers.
Buy another license. In every case, the first MS solution is 'Buy another license', and you have to hop thru many hoops to get any other answer - even if you are right and MS is wrong which naturally depends on the exact case. Friday, July 28, PM. Microsoft grants you the following rights provided that you comply with all terms and conditions of this EULA: 1. Terms of Use. Privacy Statement.
