After you install Windows XP – My Tips
Most users will never reinstall Windows on their computer. The Internet is awash with programs such as registry cleanup tools and utilities that tune up the performance of the PC. Some of them work better than others (or not at all), but all have the same goal. To keep the PC running smoothly as long as possible.
However there are several scenarios where there are real benefits to reinstall your operating system.
1.) Your PC is experiencing major software problems and you need to go back to the factory settings to fix them.
2.) Your PC has been infected by spyware, adware, or any other form of malicious critters.
3.) Your PC is getting older and the OS isn’t running like it used to. You can reinstall the OS to get it back to its original performance.
4.)You have just bought a new PC. Excited; you take it out of the box, plug it in, and boot it up for the first time.
XP is several years old and out of the box its not quite ready to go out in the world. So I’m including my tips for getting it ready. All the software that I am recommending is free. Although some of it may require that you have a legitimate non-pirated version of Windows. I am making that assumption, and I assume there are workarounds for those not using legitimate copies of windows. But I’m not covering those here. People will also notice that I am not including an Office suite even though its an important thing to install on your system. However because I want to recommend free stuff that I use personally (and I don’t use openoffice.org) but rather an expensive bit of software produced by the same company that makes Windows.
Installing Windows XP, Brings back memories of 2001
Important – Install all updates
After you finish your installation, this is the single most important step in making your version of windows ready to survive out in the wild. Its pretty well known that unpatched Windows are easily infected by malware unless you run all the security updates. The first thing you do after the installation is to run Windows update and get the most current updates. Be prepared this will take a long time, but it is very much worth it.
If you want to speed up this step here are some links to the XPSP2 and SP3 download. You can download them on another computer while you are installing windows and move them on to the new computer with a 1 or 2 GB usb flash drive.
Take out the trash
After the 100+ updates to get the machine current, The most annoying thing about reinstalling your OS is all the trialware, useless utilities, and desktop Icons that come pre-installed on your system. Use The PC Decrapifier to get rid of a lot of that junk.
Web Surfing changed since 01
Windows XP generally comes with Internet Explorer 6, which does not have a very good security track record. So the next step is to replace it with one that is more capable. When installing all the updates you will be asked if you want to install the new version of Internet Explorer IE7. Download it, it is much better. If you didn’t get it on windows update you can get it here.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx
In addition to IE7 I recommend that you also get the latest version of Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is very customizable and is widely supported on the net. Its always good to have a second browser.
Security Software
The next thing you are going to need is anti-virus and anti-spyware software. Microsoft’s Windows Defender is a decent anti-spyware and it integrates with Windows Security Center (which comes with SP2) very well.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx
AVG is a good free anti-virus. There is also a commercial version and Grisoft tries really hard to get users to download the pay version, but there is a link for the free version.
Other stuff to download
Lastly you should get the most recent version of some of the webs most common applications.
Newest version of Windows Media Player
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/default.mspx
Adobe Flash Player
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/
Adobe Reader
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
