An Old School Geek’s approach to Installing & Setting Up a Windows PC

Diskpart is IMO the best tool available for HD partitioning.

If the entire disk will be used for a single Windows system partition (apart of course possible partitions created by system like System Reserved, Recovery and such) then I see nothing against letting the installer to do the partitioning.

This, of course, is just my personal opinion. Other geeks might give you another opinion :)

This one is more a collection of guidelines for a successful setup. If you are interested in more in-depth approach, check this tutorial: Windows 7 Image - Customize in Audit Mode with Sysprep

This thread is a few years old, but it still demonstrates that your computer can be infinitely configurable and personalized. Yet, outside of the users I know online, the people I know use it right out of the box with no changes.

RoWin7 said:

This thread is a few years old, but it still demonstrates that your computer can be is infinitely configurable and personalized. Yet, outside of the users I know online, the people I know use it right out of the box with no changes.

Yes, new computers sold with pre-installed Windows do not require the user to install operating system. The main purpose of the instructions is to show how a clean install can be done, when required, be it a PC you have assembled by yourself, or you for any reason want to wipe disk clean and start from scratch.

Kari

You're still here, Kari

People I know outside of my forums just throw them out or send them to a recycler when they need a new OS. And they usually toss all their data out with the machine. Even in my computer club, I know only maybe 5 people who know how to install/change an OS. And these are all hobbyists.

I mentioned to several friends that 10 is a nightmare, so I'm staying with 7, and the answer is always "I haven't had any problems with 10."

I might need your help setting up my next machine within this month.