Reinstalling Windows XP

[Ryguy@Home]

Ok so I just reinstalled windows xp to fix my many problems. Everything seems great now(all my problems are gone). When I got my computer it came with winxp and everything was already setup. I have a few questions about setting it up.

1. How do I setup windows update?

Why isn't it in my start menu? Is that normal? When I double click the program in the "system 32" folder nothing happens. When I go to "www.windowsupdate.com I can get into it but before I reinstalled windows xp all I had to do was click the link on my desktop. When I click "scan for updates" it says it is scanning but it stays at 0% (of the scanning). I waited 5min but it stayed at 0%. Is this normal because I have to install so many updates or something?

2. What is the "microsoft virtual machine"? Can I download it anywhere? I wanna chat!

3. Do I have to reinstall drivers for my hardware? When I go to "add or remove hardware" it says that my graphics card is already installed but I havn't done anything yet? Are there any drivers for my graphics card (gf2mx200) that I have to install? I do have a cd for it. Do I have to reinstall my: Printer, Cd burner, Speakers(don't think so they seem to work awesome), my gaming controller, anything else?

Thank you.

 

[Hipster Doofus]

In answer too

1/ Dunno. Great help that was.

2/Do a search on the forum. This was discussed a couple of days ago & can be downloaded. (microsoft now have back at their site)

3/XP has a lot of drivers. If it's working OK then you could leave it at that.

 

[mcdruid]

Ryguy,

Not too sure about the Windows Update (there is a menu item in IE6 under Tools to go there, by-the-way). Did you get a dialogue to ask you if you want to install something like the 'Update Manager' software from Microsoft? Sounds like you probably did & said yes if you get as far as checking for updates, but just thought i'd check.

As for drivers - XP's own drivers work pretty well for most things - your printer etc.. will probably work fine unless you want any special features of the manufaturer's software (the things that monitor ink levels etc..?!) CD-ROM's and CD-RW's typically don't need extra drivers.

However - your graphics card might benefit from installing a some of the nVidia detonators, for OpenGL support apart from anything else. Search on the forums for 'Detonator' - the various versions get discussed quite a lot, or look at XP-erience's guides etc.. - I think there's a benchmark / comparison of different detonator versions with different cards.

Finally, if your speakers aren't working that'll be a problem with your soundcard - what soundcard do you have? Whether it's a separate card, or onboard your motherboard, it might be worth getting an up-to-date driver off the web, or installing from your CD's that came with the PC.

Hope some of this helps!


cheers,