Windows XP Home Edition: The Missing Manual

The Setup Wizard

Most of the installation procedures described here wind up at the Setup Wizard, which debuts with a Welcome to Microsoft Windows screen. This wizard guides you through the process of:

• Identifying how you plan to connect to the Internet (dial-up modem, cable modem/DSL, or network).

• Activating your copy of Windows (Figure A-3).

  

  Figure A-3. Top: Let’s activate Windows! During activation, your PC sends Microsoft a list of 10 internal components of your PC. This, ladies and gentleman, is copy protection. If you ever try to install Windows XP onto a second machine, it will notice that the components aren’t identical, and you’ll be locked out after 30 days (see Section A-3). Bottom: If you don’t have an Internet connection, you can do this process by telephone, although it’s much less convenient and takes a lot longer.

• Registering it (a completely optional process—if you’d rather not get junk mail, click “No, not at this time”).

• Configuring your Internet connection, if you don’t already have one.

• Setting up names for the first five user accounts (Chapter 16), if they aren’t already set up.

Tip

The Setup Wizard asks only for names, not passwords. When the installation is complete, you might consider making a beeline for the User Accounts program in the Control Panel, in order to set up passwords for your newly hatched accounts (and to set up more than five accounts, if necessary). ...