Upgrading Windows XP - Term Paper Example

? Upgrading Windows XP Upgrading Windows XP Upgrading your personal computer to Windows XP Professional is not an easy task. As to many, it seems that there is just a need to buy an installation CD, insert it into the CD-ROM and execute the setup and there it is, your PC is upgraded. However; this is not the case. The upgrading process can face many problems and failures. In order to avoid those problems, you need to make sure that your PC is ready to get upgraded by finding issues that may prevent the upgrading process from becoming unsuccessful. (Simmons, 2005, p. 378). Preparing Your PC for an Upgrade Before you start upgrading your PC, you need to know and record the existing hardware and software configuration of your PC and then perform the following tasks: 1. Know your upgrade path: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows NT 4 Workstation are the operating systems that can be upgraded to Windows XP Professional directly. 2. Know the hardware requirements: A Pentium processor with 233 MHz is required or 300 MHz or higher processor speed is recommended. Minimum 64 MB RAM or higher is recommended. Minimum hard disk required is 1.5 GB or higher. An SVGA monitor is good enough or you can get a higher resolution monitor as well. (Donald & Chellis, 2005, p. 96). Windows XP is very demanding. Hence, before an upgrade, the aforementioned hardware requirements should be met to facilitate the installation process plus to prevent any post installation hardware failures due to incompatibility. More details regarding the hardware requirements are discussed as follows: a. Processor: In today’s computers, a 2 to 3 GHz processor speed would be efficient to run Windows XP. On checking your current processor configuration and if it is not at least 233 MHz, you would need to buy a new processor and install it as an upgrade. b. Random access memory: Once you have upgraded your PC’s processor, you are required to upgrade the RAM as well. RAM is the volatile memory that allows your computer to execute current programs and processes. Increasing the RAM size of your computer, makes the computer run faster and better. For Windows XP, you need to have at least 64 MB of RAM. This is a minimum amount. Ideal would be to have a 128 MB of RAM. Today computers come with a 256 MB RAM; so this is perfect amount to run the Windows XP on your system. c. Hard disk space: During and after installation, the Windows XP requires some hard disk space for storage. Hard disk is the non-volatile memory in your computer. It is capable of storing data and information permanently. It saves the operating system in it also. In order to upgrade your PC, you need to be sure that you have 650 MB free hard disk space to allow Windows XP to store its files. If you do not have enough free hard disk space, you need to make free space by deleting files, application programs and the like which you no longer need in your PC. d. Other requirements: You need an SVGA or higher resolution monitor, CD-ROM or DVD –ROM drive, a keyboard, and a mouse. You can also upgrade your internet connectivity speed and upgrade to a faster internet connection. You need to have good sound card, video card and speakers. If you have chosen to connect to a LAN, you would need a network adapter card upgrade. Furthermore, you can also get a tuner card to be able to watch television on your computer. These are options that can be considered after the installation but pondering over these before installation is a better option. (Simmons, 2005, p. 379-381). Whenever you are upgrading your operating system, you need to be sure of your data which you do not intend to loose. If the upgrade takes place in a smooth manner, then your entire data is still safely residing on your hard disk memory. However; problems may arise during upgrade which can cause your data to get lost. Therefore, in order to be safe and careful, make a back up copy of all the important data residing in the hard disk of your computer. Using the back-up utility option, you can create a back up file of the entire data and then save this file to another safe location or you can just simply copy and paste the data on any other storage device like a floppy disk or a CD. Also check your device drivers. A driver is software that allows your computer to interact with the hardware device. Hence, each hardware device has its own driver installed in the computer. With each hardware upgrade, you need to make sure that their required drivers are installed also. (Simmons, 2005, p. 381). Tools Used to Check Performance after Upgrade The easiest way to check performance of Windows XP on your PC is through the use of Windows Task Manager. It has the capability of checking the relative level of performance by processor. During upgrade, the resource load on the processor is needed to be known, so the Windows Task Manager is a useful tool for that. It can be used to check system performance and track the tasks running on a system at any time. Task Manager doesn’t provide TCP/IP connectivity across a network in order to measure performance of other systems unlike other performance tools. It is standalone. When you open up the Task Manager, the taskbar shows a small green colored graph that is the CPU meter. As resources are being used, the shape of this graph varies with the resource load being put on the processor. This tool is used by users who want quick trouble- shooting of their individual system. (Columbus, 2004, p. 30). Memory and processor are the two main benchmarks which help to determine the system’s performance. On upgrading the RAM, there was an increase in the system’s performance as shown by the task manager. However; upgrading memory follows the law of diminishing returns which suggests that the more you increase the memory, the less performance boost. (Ogletree et al., 2002,p. 547). The upgrading of processor to a higher speed also showed some change in system performance. But it is a tricky process as different kinds of processors require the need for different motherboards. During upgrade, a 300 MHz Intel processor was installed but then it was changed to Pentium III 800 MHz processor speed. This was because the motherboard present inside the PC was not giving good performance results with the 300 MHz processor speed. This is because different processors need different motherboards as mentioned earlier as well. As memory was already bought and installed, the second option could not be used. The second option was: for a 300 MHz, we could have bought another compatible motherboard, but that in this case the new motherboard would not be able to use the current memory and we would have to buy new memory as well. (Ogletree et al., 2002, p. 549). Conclusion As easy as it looked, upgrading the existing PC with Windows XP required lots of efforts and hard work. These efforts were just necessary to avoid future problems that can occur due to the upgrade. Hence, best possible system requirements were given strict consideration. Existing system configuration was also scrutinized. Furthermore, performance check was made each time an hardware upgrade was made which was being done so that Windows XP runs on the system as efficiently as possible. Works Cited Columbus, Louis. (2004). The MS-Windows XP Professional Handbook. New Delhi, India: Firewall Media. Donald, Lisa. Chellis James. (2005). MCSA/MCSE Windows XP Professional Study Guide. United States of America: Neil Edde. Ogletree, Terry William. Glenn, Walter J. Regas Rima. (2002). Windows XP Unleashed. United States of America: Sams Publishing. Simmons, Curt. (2005). How to do Everything With Windows XP. United States of America: McGraw Hill. Read More