2-53EXAM HIGHLIGHTSCHAPTER SUMMARY■ BEFORE INSTALLING WINDOWS XP PROFE...

2-53Exam Highlights

Chapter Summary

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Before installing Windows XP Professional, you should first ensure that your hard-

ware meets the minimum hardware requirements and that your hardware is in the

Windows Catalog. Additional preinstallation tasks include determining how to

partition the hard disk on which you will install Windows XP Professional and

deciding whether to format the partition as NTFS, FAT, or FAT32.

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Your computer can join a domain or a workgroup during or after installation.

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When you install Windows XP Professional, the main difference between an over-

the-network installation and an installation from CD-ROM is the location of the

source files.

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After you connect to the shared folder containing the source files and start

Winnt.exe or Winnt32.exe, the installation proceeds as an installation from CD-

ROM. Several switches for Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe allow you to modify the

installation process. The /checkupgradeonly switch specifies that Winnt32.exe

should check your computer only for upgrade compatibility with Windows XP

Professional.

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Before you upgrade a client computer to Windows XP Professional, use the Win-

dows XP Professional Compatibility tool to generate a hardware and software

compatibility report. For client systems that test as compatible with Windows XP

Professional, run the Windows XP Professional Setup program (Winnt32.exe) to

complete the upgrade.

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The Setupact.log action log records and describes in chronological order the

actions that Setup performs. The Setuperr.log error log describes errors that occur

during Setup and indicates the severity of each error.

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You can use the Windows Update site to scan a computer and display available

critical, Windows, and driver updates. Automatic Updates is a Windows XP feature

that downloads and installs critical updates automatically. Although you can spec-

ify that Automatic Updates prompt users before downloading or installing,

Microsoft recommends that you configure it to download and install automatically

according to a preset schedule. Service packs are collections of updates (and

sometimes new features) that have been tested to ensure that they work together

correctly. Microsoft issues new service packs for its products occasionally.

Exam Highlights

Before taking the exam, review the key points and terms that are presented in this

chapter. You need to know this information.

Key Points

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You should memorize the basic hardware requirements for running Windows XP.

A 233MHz processor, 64MB RAM, and a 2GB hard disk with 1.5GB of free space

are required.

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Unless you are installing Windows XP Professional on a multiple-boot computer

that also has an operating system that cannot access NTFS partitions (such as Win-

dows 98), you should always use NTFS.

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You can use Winnt.exe and Winnt32.exe to install Windows XP Professional from

the command line by using optional parameters to modify the installation.

Winnt.exe runs under MS-DOS and Windows 3.0/3.1. Winnt32.exe runs under the