Windows Installation and Configuration

Options

You can install Windows in several ways, and the best methods and options to use depends on the situation you encounter. The following provides a quick review.

Boot Methods to Use for Installation

On systems with a DVD drive, you can perform a clean install or an in-place upgrade of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 (see previous sections for limitations) from the standard instal-lation media (CD for Windows XP, DVD for Window Vista and Windows 7).

For systems without a DVD drive but with a CD drive, you can install (or upgrade to) Windows XP from the CD drive. However, Microsoft no longer offers a DVD to CD media swap for Windows Vista, and Windows 7 is available only in DVD media format.

If you have access to a DVD drive on another system and a USB flash drive, you can create a bootable USB flash drive to use as an installation source for Windows Vista and for Windows 7, or you can connect an external DVD drive to your system to use the standard media.

You can use the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) to install Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 from a network source. There are various third-party methods to do this, or, for Windows Vista and Windows 7, you can use the Windows Automatic Installation Kit (Windows AIK) available from the Microsoft website.

Installation Types

Windows XP, Vista, and 7 support the following installation types:

Upgrade installation (XP > Vista, Vista > 7)—Data, programs and settings are retained.

Clean installation—No data, programs, or settings are retained. Can be run to an emptydrive or to a drive with an existing Windows installation (the folder for which is renamed as \Windows.old).

Unattended installation—A normal clean installation of Windows XP, Vista, or 7 requiresthe user to provide input at various times during the process. To simplify and speed up

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installations, you can use tools included as part of the Windows AIK to create a special Windows image that can be installed without user intervention. Before the release of Windows AIK, Windows XP used Sysprep for this purpose. With either Sysprep or AIK, you create an answer file that provides the information needed when the installation process prompts for items such as username and so on.

Multiboot installation—If you leave adequate space on the hard disk unpartitioned duringWindows installation, you can install a newer version of Windows into the unpartitioned space. At system startup, you can choose which version of Windows to start.

Image deployment—Windows 7 is specifically designed for image deployment, making itpossible to create a single image and deploy it to a variety of hardware. While Windows XP and Windows Vista also support image deployment, the images used must be configured for specific hardware configurations. Microsoft provides a variety of tools for image deploy-ment.

Remote network installation (PXE)—As mentioned earlier, you can use this method for aclean installation.