Windows XP Desktop Install Guidelines

Updated on: 2006-04-06

Here is a simple checklist-type Windows XP install procedure, to be used as a guide while installing XP Professional on a machine to be used as a desktop machine.

• Boot from the XP CD and proceed with installation formatting partitions with NTFS and quick format.
• Install AVG Free Edition from http://free.grisoft.com, and then update it until it says there are no more updates to install. Please, have in mind that there might be times when updates cannot be performed due to Grisoft’s servers overloading: you get what you pay for…
• Install SpyBot S&D from http://www.safer-networking.org, and then update it selecting all possible updates.
• Install ad-Aware from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ , and update it.
• Install XP Service Pack 2 from http://www.microsoft.com, and reboot the machine when asked to (it does take some time, even to prepare the install, so be patient).
• In the security center that appears after rebooting, enable all options (firewall, antivirus, automatic updates).
• Use the table below to disable not-needed services (adapted from BlackViper’s table), having in mind that certain configurations might need some services listed there enabled, for example a machine sharing resources (files, printers,…) does need the Server service. Use at your own risk.
• Done, you can now install the rest of the software you want/need/like, taking extra care with toolbars (do not install them) and the like, spy/ad-aware-prone software.

Windows XP services table

(Note: The table was updated on 2006-04-06 for Windows XP Service Pack 2; please have in mind that some network-related services might be needed for machines that are part of a LAN: typically a corporate LAN with SMB file and printer sharing).

Display Name	Default	SAFE
Computer Browser	Automatic	Disabled
Distributed Link Tracking Client	Automatic	Disabled
Error Reporting Service	Automatic	Disabled
Help and Support	Automatic	Disabled
IMAP CD-Burning COM Service	Manual	Automatic
Indexing Service	Manual	Disabled
Net Logon	Manual	Disabled
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing	Manual	Disabled
Performance and Log Alerts	Manual	Disabled
Portable Media Serial Number	Manual	Disabled
QoS RSVP	Manual	Disabled
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager	Manual	Disabled
Remote Registry	Automatic	Disabled
Secondary Logon	Automatic	Disabled
Server	Automatic	Disabled
Smart Card	Manual	Disabled
SSDP Discovery Service	Manual	Disabled
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service	Automatic	Disabled
Uninterruptable Power Supply	Manual	Disabled
Universal Plug and Play Device Host	Manual	Disabled
Web Client	Automatic	Disabled
Windows Time	Automatic	Disabled
Wireless Zero Configuration	Automatic	Disabled
WMI Performance Adapter	Manual	Disabled

Some performance enhancing tips

After you have installed XP, you can apply the following performance-enhancer tips, presented in no particular order. As always: use at your own risk.

Disable Eye-candy

We all know eye-candy is great… but it also consumes a lot of RAM. In computers with less than 512MB (and even in computers with that much, or more…) it is advisable to disable all eye-candy, meaning: no nice window borders and buttons, no nice menu bars, task bar, … only the “good old” gray windows and buttons and menu and task bars, with a single-color blue title. To do so, right click on My Computer, select Properties from the pop-up menu, open the Advanced Options tab, and click on the Settings button of the Performance item. Then, in the Visual Effects tab, select the adjust for better performance option. As an alternative and “in the middle” solution, you can select the Custom option and (un)check the items you want in the list.

Disable System Restore

The system restore function of Windows XP is great, allowing you to revert a change that made “damage” to your system (you have to be able to boot your system AFAIK) … but it also can take lots of disk space, depending on how often you (un)install software (and how much). To disable system restore, right click on My Computer, select Properties from the pop-up menu, open the System Restore tab and put a check mark in the 1st option. An alternative is to change the limit (system-dependent) to use for the system restore function with the slider in the middle of the window.

Keep Your System Updated

I already hear you crying “I do keep my system updated”, or “updated, why?”. Well, an updated system is supposed to be a more secure system than an outdated one, and also updates come with bug fixes (and with new bugs) too. Do install all updates proposed by the automatic update feature (the little world with the windows logo icon on the taskbar).

Use Free Software

Kiss Outlook Express goodbye, and Internet Explorer too, and MSN too… you get the idea. Free software, formerly available only on free OSes like Linux, is available for Windows too: GIMP, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, GAIM, Inkscape, OpenOffice, Apache, MySQL… to name just a few. I won’t tell you here the advantages of free software, you can read more about free software at the FSF site. I will just tell you that you should prefer free software over proprietary software whenever possible and that you should check sites like The Best 46 Freeware Utilities to have an idea of all the free (and excellent) software you can get for your Windows system: use it.

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