[CelestialTeardrop]

Regarding an XP sp3 machine:

This is the first time in 5 years that I'll be doing a Dell factory restore (to hopefully improve performance and such) and I was hoping for some advice (besides the obvious back everything up and make a note of your current settings/installed programs).

I know I should first download the sp3 installer (and perhaps firefox) and have it on a flash drive/cd to install before even going online after the restore, but is there anything else that would be good to prepare in advance?

Thanks

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Windows Installer 4.5 to help remove any programs you dont need. Another thing, in my experience installing XP i prefer to install all the updates prior to SP3 first. There's about ahh 112 give or take. thats all i can think of.

[Ectech]

Windows Installer 4.5 to help remove any programs you dont need. Another thing, in my experience installing XP i prefer to install all the updates prior to SP3 first. There's about ahh 112 give or take. thats all i can think of.

[CelestialTeardrop]

Thanks Ectech!

Would Windows Installer 4.5 be used after the reinstall to remove unwanted factory-installed programs, or something of that nature?

Hmm, the ~112 updates prior to sp3, would they all be included in sp2? Or is there some way to get them in one batch instead of one-by-one (without going online until they are installed)? I was hoping to avoid connecting to the internet until everything is as updated as possible with being online.

[Ectech]

Would Windows Installer 4.5 be used after the reinstall to remove unwanted factory-installed programs, or something of that nature?

correct.

Hmm, the ~112 updates prior to sp3, would they all be included in sp2? Or is there some way to get them in one batch instead of one-by-one (without going online until they are installed)? I was hoping to avoid connecting to the internet until everything is as updated as possible with being online.

There are several different versions available of XP. Allowing Windows Update to scan your machine and provide the updates needed is the best way.

Be sure to cleanup the computer as much as possible before connecting to WIndows Update.

[edge2022]

remove unwanted factory-installed programs

For this purpose the PC Decrapifier was created: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/

You would need SP3 on a flash drive before you connect to the internet b/c without the hotfixes you can be infected in minutes.

[Ectech]

For this purpose the PC Decrapifier was created

Sorry Edge but that program is garbage.

[edge2022]

I used it a couple of times, and it seemed to clean up the trialware stuff (Norton, MS Office) that is preloaded on some computers. The other way would be to uninstall the programs yourself.

[Ectech]

Certain programs yes it will remove completely. But not all that it claims. Which could lead to more error's.

[CelestialTeardrop]

It's not really a problem for me to uninstall trial software manually, just takes a bit of time.

I just don't want to leave any holes unpatched before connecting to the internet, since like Edge said:

You would need SP3 on a flash drive before you connect to the internet b/c without the hotfixes you can be infected in minutes.

So I guess what I really want to know is: Is it all right to first install SP3 (for example from a flash drive), then go online and run Windows Update? Or do the updates need to be applied in a particular order?

[edge2022]

So I guess what I really want to know is: Is it all right to first install SP3 (for example from a flash drive), then go online and run Windows Update? Or do the updates need to be applied in a particular order

Install SP3 and a security suite (AV and firewall) when you are disconnected. After that, you are safe to connect to the internet, update your security suite, and download Windows Updates.

A good AV is Avast: http://www.avast.com...ast_4_home.html
Use that with the Comodo firewall: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/
When you install Comodo, and you already have an AV suite, make sure that you only install the firewall, not Comodo's AV.

[CelestialTeardrop]

Install SP3 and a security suite (AV and firewall) when you are disconnected. After that, you are safe to connect to the internet, update your security suite, and download Windows Updates.

Ah, ok. When Ectech said to install (about 112) updates released prior to SP3 before installing SP3 itself, I thought installing them out of chronological order might cause some problem. I know SP1a or SP2 must be installed before installing SP3, so I wasn't sure which prior-to-SP3-updates were being referred to (I'm guessing the ones between SP2 and SP3, though SP3 is supposed to include all previously released updates).

Install SP3 and a security suite (AV and firewall) when you are disconnected. After that, you are safe to connect to the internet, update your security suite, and download Windows Updates.

A good AV is Avast: http://www.avast.com...ast_4_home.html
Use that with the Comodo firewall: http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/
When you install Comodo, and you already have an AV suite, make sure that you only install the firewall, not Comodo's AV.

I use Norton Internet Security 2009, and it will be the first thing installed

Thanks for all your help!

[edge2022]

SP3 should be a cumulative update to Windows (I think).
Anyways, after installing a security suite you can download the update from: http://v4.windowsupd.../en/default.asp

After all the praise I gave Norton I started to have my bad experiences with it just now. But since it is an overall solid suite, I would recommend you to use it.