This document contains important information about installing Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 Edition for computers with the following processors: AMD Athlon™ 64, AMD Opteron™, Intel® Xeon™ with Intel Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) support, and Intel Pentium® 4 with Intel EM64T support.
Important: Windows XP Professional x64 Edition cannot be successfully installed on 64-bit Intel Itanium®–based systems. Upgrading to Windows XP Professional x64 Edition from a previous version of Windows is not supported.
Both this document and the Setup screens will guide you through installation and show you how to connect your computer to a network.
Click a link to go directly to that section:
Before you install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, make sure your computer meets the following minimum hardware requirements:
Note: If you are using a high-end video card for rendering three-dimensional graphics, or if you are using computer peripherals other than the minimum hardware requirements, make sure your computer hardware is compatible with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
For network installation, you will need the following:
Before you install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, you should also decide which file system to use (see File Systems) and whether to partition your hard disk (see Disk Partitions).
First, decide whether your computer is joining a domain or a workgroup. If you do not know which option to choose, or if your computer will not be connected to a network, select the workgroup option. (You can join a domain after you install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.)
If your computer is currently connected to a network, request the following information from your network administrator before you begin Setup:
To connect to a network during Setup, you must have the correct hardware installed on your computer, and it must be connected by a network cable.
Setup for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is divided into two phases.
During the first phase, Setup copies files to the computer, checks your hardware, and configures your installation. You can also choose to create multiple partitions during this phase. Your computer will restart at the end of this phase.
During the second phase, Setup gathers information, such as regional options, user name and password, and network information. When Setup is done, your computer will restart.
It is recommended that you create a single data partition for installing the operating system. If you want to dual-boot another operating system now or in the future, you need to create two partitions. For more information, see Disk Partitions.
To install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition:
Your computer restarts automatically when this first Setup phase is complete.
Note: If you have difficulty joining a domain during Setup, join a workgroup instead. You can then join the domain after you finish installation. See the next section, Provide Workgroup or Domain Information, for more information.
During or after Setup, you must join either a workgroup or a domain. If you will not be working on a network, select the option to join a workgroup. You can choose to change your selection after Setup has completed.
A workgroup consists of one or more computers with the same workgroup name. A peer-to-peer network is an example. Any user can join a workgroup by typing the workgroup name—you do not need special permissions to join a workgroup. For Setup, you can provide an existing workgroup name, a new workgroup name, or you can use the workgroup name that Setup suggests.
A domain is a collection of computers defined by a network administrator. Unlike joining a workgroup, which you can do yourself, joining a domain requires permission from the network administrator.
To join a domain during the setup process, you must already have an existing computer account in the domain you want to join, or have the rights to create one (see Obtain Network Information).
To join a domain, you must provide your user name and password.
Your user account identifies your user name and password, the groups you are a member of, which network resources you have access to, and your personal files and settings. Each person who regularly uses the computer should have a user account. The user account is identified by a user name and a password, both of which the user types when logging on to the computer. You can create individual user accounts after logging on to the computer by using an account with Administrator rights.
Setup automatically creates an Administrator account during installation. When you use this account, you have full rights over the computer's settings and can create other user accounts on the computer.
Logging on as an Administrator after you install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition gives you the administrative rights that you need in order to log on and manage your computer. Specify a password for the Administrator account. For security reasons, you should always assign a password to the Administrator account. Take care to remember and protect your password.
To create a user account:
This section provides more detailed information that can help you make decisions about how you install Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
Disk partitioning is a way of dividing your hard disk so that each section functions as a separate unit. You can create a partition to provide a place to back up data or to dual-boot with another operating system. When you create partitions on a disk, you divide the disk into one or more areas that can be formatted for use by a file system, such as FAT32 or NTFS file system.
During the first phase of Setup, you can create and delete partitions. Follow these guidelines for partitioning:
After Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is installed, you can use Disk Management to further partition the unallocated space. For more information about Disk Management, open Help and Support Center from the Start menu in Windows.
A file system is the method by which information is stored on a hard disk.
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition supports the NTFS file system or one of the file-allocation table file systems (FAT or FAT32). To set up a dual-boot configuration, you should select one file system for all of your partitions: FAT32 or NTFS.
NTFS is the recommended file system for use with Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. It has all of the basic capabilities of FAT, but it also has the following advantages over the FAT and FAT32 file systems:
FAT32 is an enhanced version of the FAT file system that can be used on drives ranging from 512 MB to 32 GB. FAT and FAT32 offer compatibility with operating systems other than Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.
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