XP OS INSTALL: Typical or Complete?

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As a novice XP user and non-IT professional, when doing the clean install,
would it be better to choose the Typical setting or the Complete setting
which will install all the extras? I guess I'm concerned that the system
should have all it needs/depends on, including extras, to run properly
without my having to worry about installing items later.

As an adjunct to the above, can I presume that the Setup process will
automatically configure the security settings on my standalone machine at the
appropriate place in that process? I hope this makes sense!
 
CEC4 said:
As a novice XP user and non-IT professional, when doing the clean install,
would it be better to choose the Typical setting or the Complete setting
which will install all the extras? I guess I'm concerned that the system
should have all it needs/depends on, including extras, to run properly
without my having to worry about installing items later.
Click to expand...
I would make a complete install.
As an adjunct to the above, can I presume that the Setup process will
automatically configure the security settings on my standalone machine at
the
appropriate place in that process? I hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...
You may not make that assumption.
Jim
 
CEC4 said:
As a novice XP user and non-IT professional, when doing the clean install,
would it be better to choose the Typical setting or the Complete setting
which will install all the extras? I guess I'm concerned that the system
should have all it needs/depends on, including extras, to run properly
without my having to worry about installing items later.

As an adjunct to the above, can I presume that the Setup process will
automatically configure the security settings on my standalone machine at
the
appropriate place in that process? I hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...

Typical is probably ok, but if you don't want to worry about needing to
install things later and if disk space is not an issue, then go for
Complete.

Configuring security settings is sort of a broad concept... what do you
mean? Windows XP does not come with a built-in virus scanner, so that is
something you would need to acquire separately. It does have a basic
firewall built-in, and if you have the Service Pack 2 version of XP, it
would be enabled by default. Your CD should tell if you if it has Service
Pack 2 built-in or not. If not, you should get it as soon as possible
because it adds a lot of security features. You can download it or order a
free CD from Microsoft. Plenty of information about how to get SP2 and how
to configure and use the security features here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx
 
CEC4 said:
As a novice XP user and non-IT professional, when doing the clean install,
would it be better to choose the Typical setting or the Complete setting
which will install all the extras? I guess I'm concerned that the system
should have all it needs/depends on, including extras, to run properly
without my having to worry about installing items later.

As an adjunct to the above, can I presume that the Setup process will
automatically configure the security settings on my standalone machine at the
appropriate place in that process? I hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...


If one makes the effort to ask this question, then, by all
means, take the time to buy several good texts on Windows XP
and understand all of its components and facets. Only after
this can one decide whether or not to do a typical, custom
or complete install. Also understand that by selecting for a
complete install, it is possible to delete unwanted components,
resulting in a custom installation. But a typical installation
means having a version of Windows XP that has been defined by
a sight-unseen programmer who thinks he/she knows what you might
want in your Windows XP installation.
 
CEC4 said:
As a novice XP user and non-IT professional, when doing the clean install,
would it be better to choose the Typical setting or the Complete setting
which will install all the extras? I guess I'm concerned that the system
should have all it needs/depends on, including extras, to run properly
without my having to worry about installing items later.

As an adjunct to the above, can I presume that the Setup process will
automatically configure the security settings on my standalone machine at the
appropriate place in that process? I hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...

Typical will install the basics that every almost every computer needs,
of the Microsoft platform - this does not mean special drivers for
hardware, doesn't mean special other software.

Complete would be a mistake in most cases - do you really need IIS and
FTP and SMTP running on your workstations?
 
CEC4 said:
As a novice XP user and non-IT professional, when doing the clean install,
would it be better to choose the Typical setting or the Complete setting
which will install all the extras? I guess I'm concerned that the system
should have all it needs/depends on, including extras, to run properly
without my having to worry about installing items later.

As an adjunct to the above, can I presume that the Setup process will
automatically configure the security settings on my standalone machine at
the
appropriate place in that process? I hope this makes sense!
Click to expand...

Is this a page that appears in XP home? I did not get this dialog with
XP pro. Pro just installed according to my hardware.
 
Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions. I have considered them
all. I wanted to get the experiences from those who have done this a few
times, successfully. I will be clean installing XPHomeSP2 and also have
NAV2005 using their IWP firewall along with reinstalling MSAS beta1 latest
version, and Office Pro 2003.

I have been doing a lot of reading/printing out of MS KB articles, and have
the latest deluxe edition of XP Inside Out by Ed Bott et al as my 'bible', to
get a handle on the whole process, as well as emailing my computer mfrer
(Dell). Of course, have found out all the other bits I need to, eg drivers,
BIOS updates, formatting/partitioning etc. I think I will go for the
complete install and then remove/disable unneeded components and services.
Thanks again. Cheers!
 
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