So, I had to install WindowsXP today…
Since VMWare Fusion has worked out so well, I was finally able to get rid of the last remaining Microsoft Windows computer in our house by installing WindowsXP on our shiny 20″ iMac. We still need Windows for Quicken since the Mac version of Quicken is not even close to the Windows verion and can’t even import all of your Quicken for Windows data. Since we’re giving our old Dell PC away I thought I would completely wipe the hard drive, boot from the WindowsXP CD and give them a nice, clean computer to start with.
I forgot how long this process takes when starting from scratch. I had to load WindowsXP, then I had to use another computer to find any 3Com NIC drivers that would work, then I went straight to Service Pack 2 to reduce the amount of updates needed. SP2 took quite a while to install, especially since it forces you to backup all your system files in case it has to revert back to them.
Then I ran Windows Update. 91 updates. Wow. After they completed and the system rebooted, I ranWindows Update again. 10 more updates. Rebooted. Installed IE7. Windows Update. More updates. .NET. Windows Update. More Updates. Might as well grab Silverlight while I’m there. Oh, can’t forget Adobe Reader, Flash Player, and Shockwave Player.
It looks like I’m finally finished as I am watching it go through its (hopefully) last reboot now. No way can there be any more updates for this thing. Total time, somewhere between 4 and 5 hours – and I have Verizon FIOS – 15Mb of glorious bandwidth delivered over fiber to our home.
So thankfully it’s over. Maybe I’m done building WindowsXP machines now. The machine is too old to run Windows Vista, but I know from experience that Vista SP1 took somewhere between 1-2 hours to update on a brand new Dell computer. That’s still a long time to me.
What did you do with your Saturday?
This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Microsoft, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.