Windows XP (home/pro)

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The suggested way to install Windows XP to a clean HTPC machine
- Boot from CD with XP bootdisk image
- Set bootpartition (C:\) size to minimum of 1044Mb
- Install XP
- Boot to Windows
- Move swap file to D:\ or other drive

Disable all unnecessary actions
These are located in Control Panel -> System (-> Performance)
- Disable all 'automatic update' things
- Disable ctfmon.exe (see: OFFXP: What Is CTFMON and What Does It Do? )
- Languages: Alternative User Input -> Not Available
- Kielet: Aluekohtaiset...->kielet->tiedot->kielipalkki->ota tekstin lisäpalvelut pois.

Disable all actions for CDROM and DVDROM discs
- Start with: My Computer->CD/DVD-Asema->ominaisuudet->automaattinen käynnistys
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\CDRom -> Autorun = 0 (see: How to Enable or Disable Automatically Running CD-ROMs ) You need to reboot after changes in registry.

Change DVDROM letter to Z:
The reason for this is to have the ROM drive always as a certain letter. Now, if you add extra drives (USB, HDD) to your machine, you don't have to do any configuration for software that use drive letter.
- Control Panel->Valvontatyökalut->tietokoneen hallinta->levyn hallinta.
- (see: HOW TO: Change Drive Letter Assignments in Windows XP )

Disable “fast user switching”
- Control Panel\User Accounts, click the "Change the way users log on or off" button, and uncheck "Use Fast User Switching".

Remove unnecessary services
- Run MSCONFIG. There are a lot of things that are started on your box. I removed quite a lot of things there. From services section I removed almost everything. Eugene's DVD player needs 'Taustatulostuohjain' (background printing?).

Make a backup
Now, when you have a stable HTPC system, make a backup of your C:\. Use Ghost or similar for this. If you for some reason break your system, just drop back your working copy.

Installation

Win 98se/ME

Other nice things to do

Good optimization hints can be found from http://www.extremetech.com/

Optimize boot up time
Try optimizing the boot up with BootVis (see: BootVis.exe Tool ). Though, I did not notice any speed up.

Remove trashbin from desktop
This uses a registry trick (see: reginfo to remove trashbin). Copy paste to notepad and save as hidebin.reg.

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons]
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\
ClassicStartMenu]"{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\HideDesktopIcons\
NewStartPanel]"{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}"=dword:00000001r

Uninstall "Hidden" Windows Components
- Open SYSOC.INF [in your windows\INF directory]
- To remove Windows Messenger, edit "hide" out of the line that reads
- msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 -> msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,7
- Save the file, close it, and open the Add/Remove Program applet.
Feel free to edit hide everywhere it appears in the SYSOC.INF file to reveal other removable Windows XP components.

Offer DMA To All Your ATAPI Drives
DMA mode data transfers require much less CPU overhead than PIO-mode transfers.
- Open the System Properties dialog and select the Hardware tab.
- Click the Device Manager button. Expand the entry for IDE/ATAPI controllers.
- Select the primary channel and click on Properties, and then choose the Advanced Settings tab. For each device listed, change the transfer mode to "DMA if possible." Don't worry; devices that aren't capable of DMA mode will still work just fine.
- Repeat the process for the secondary channel.

Unable to set DMA To All Your ATAPI Drives
- Windows XP (others too?) will check for errors on HDD transfer. If you get six errors IF you for some reason can not get your device to run with DMA
- Regedit: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEMS\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E96A-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}". The Default Value should be "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
- Go to "0001" key if your device is on Primary IDE Chanel or "0002" if your device is on Secondary IDE channel.
- Change the MasterDeviceTimingModeAllowed or SlaveDeviceTimingModeAllowed to 0xffffffff depending if your device is master or slave.
- Close Regedit.
- Go to device manager select "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" and the corresponding IDE chanel go to "Advanced Settings" Tab and Set Transfer Mode to PIO and then to DMA if available again

Unable to delete (or rename) AVI files
(from: http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=1467)
This is due to XP (explorer in particular) trying to create a preview for it. Now because the file is corrupted or incomplete, it cannot read it properly, hence, it will not release the file. This prevents explorer from doing this. As usual, backup the registry key before deleting it.
- Open regedit and go to: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
- Delete the value you find there.

Extra software

These are additional software you might need:
- WinZip
- DirectX 8.1
- GPU drivers (nVidia detonators 21.83 (win98/winME))
- Sound card drivers (Terratec DMX drivers full 5.12.01.3057: WinME notices this as a Crystal Fusion. Update the WDM interface for SPDIF output.)
- H+ drivers v2.3b