SiliconMage

Earlier, many computer manufacturers like Compaq, Dell as well as assemblers would sell computers with the OS (usually Windows XP) pre installed . However, due to increased competition, many manufacturers are not supplying any licensed software with the low end models of the computers they sell.

The customers are expected to select and the install the operating system they want. Some customers may want to install a free Linux based OS and may not be willing to pay extra. Also the current OS offered by Microsoft, Windows Vista runs very slowly on computers who do not have sufficient memory. So many customers who purchase Windows Vista have to contact the customer support and request that the software be downgraded to Windows XP Pro.

Today many manufactured computers available in the market come with free DoS installed. No CD is provided, only single page instructions that the free Dos software can be obtained from freedos.org.

To install a new Operating System (OS), the following steps have to be taken after booting the PC from the CD drive:

• first delete the existing partition using D

• Use C to create a partition

• Specify the size of 1st partition

• Then specify next partition size

8 MB will always be reserved for system partition MB

After all the connections have been completed, power on the computer by connecting  both the monitor and CPU to a suitable power supply. Ensure that the earthing is proper, else it could damage the computer components and reduce the life of the computer.

Press del while the computer is booting to enter the BIOS and check all the basic BIOS entries to ensure that all the settings are correct.
Depending on your system configuration, you may want to enable or disable various settings - the motherboard manual may have reccommendations for this.

If there is no problem at the BIOS level, the CPU will search for an Operating System installed on your HDD.

For a brand new HDD, if you are installing Windows XP, the following steps have to be taken

• Insert the Windows XP installation CD in the CD ROM drive and reboot.

• Press del again to enter the computer BIOS settings to set CD Rom drive as the first boot-up device.

Reboot your computer to start the Operating System (OS) install. The OS system install will take some time, and you will prompted to provide the license key.
Once Windows XP is completely installed, the other additional hardware like modems, network card, sound card can also be installed.  The drivers for these peripherals can be usually downloaded from the manufacturer website.