Chapter 10: Windows

Installation

IT Essentials v7.0

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 Chapter 10 - Sections & Objectives

 10.1 Modern Operating Systems

• Explain operating system requirements.
– Describe the functions of operating systems.
– Describe operating system software and hardware requirements.
– Explain the process of upgrading an operating system.
 10.2 Disk Management
• Create a partition in Windows using the Disk Management utility.
– Explain disk management.

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 Chapter 10 - Sections & Objectives

 10.3 Install Windows

• Install a Windows operating system.
– Install a Windows operating system.
– Describe custom installation options.
– Describe the boot sequence and registry files.

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 10.1 MODERN OPERATING SYSTEMS

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 Basic Functions of an Operating System

 The operating system has four main roles:

• Control hardware access - The operating system manages the interaction
between applications and the hardware. To access and communicate with the
hardware, the operating system installs a device driver for each hardware
component. A device driver is a small program written by the hardware
manufacturer and supplied with the hardware component. The process of
assigning system resources and installing drivers can be performed with Plug
and Play (PnP). The operating system automatically detects the PnP-
compatible hardware and installs the driver for that component. The operating
system then configures the device and updates the registry, which is a
database that contains all the information about the computer.
• The registry contains information about applications, users, hardware, network
settings, and file types.
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 Basic Functions of an Operating System

 The operating system has four main roles:

• Files and Folder Management - The operating system creates a file structure
on the hard disk drive to allow data to be stored.
• A file is a block of related data that is given a single name and treated as a
single unit. Program and data files are grouped together in a directory.
• The files and directories are organized for easy retrieval and use.
• Directories can be kept inside other directories. These nested directories are
referred to as subdirectories.
• Directories are called folders in Windows operating systems, and
subdirectories are called subfolders.

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 Basic Functions of an Operating System

 The operating system has four main roles:

• Provide user interface – Enables the user to interact with the software and
hardware.
• There are two types of user interfaces:
– Command Line Interface (CLI) – The user types commands at a prompt.
– Graphical User Interface (GUI) – The user interacts with menus and icons.

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 Basic Functions of an Operating System
 The operating system has four main roles:
• Manage applications – The operating system manages all programs to ensure that the
correct resources are allocated to the applications. The operating system locates an
application and loads it into the RAM of the computer. Applications are software programs,
such as word processors, databases, spreadsheets, games, and many other applications.
The operating system ensures that each application has adequate system resources.
• Application programming interface (API) is a set of guidelines used by programmers to
ensure that the application they are developing is compatible with an operating system.
• Here are examples of APIs:
– Open Graphics Library (OpenGL) – Cross-platform standard specification for
multimedia graphics
– DirectX – Collection of APIs related to multimedia tasks for Microsoft Windows
– Windows API – Allows applications from older versions of Windows to operate on
newer versions
– Java – APIs related to the development of Java programming
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 Terms

 All devices require an operating system before they can be operated.

 The OS boots the computer and manages the file system.
 OSs can support more than one user, task, or CPU.
 The following terms are often used when describing an operating system (OS):
• Multi-user - Two or more users have individual accounts that allow them to
work with programs and peripheral devices at the same time.
• Multitasking - The computer is capable of operating multiple applications at
the same time.
• Multiprocessing - The operating system can support two or more CPUs.
• Multithreading - A program can be broken into smaller parts that are loaded
as needed by the operating system. Multithreading allows different parts of a
program to be run at the same time.
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 Windows Operating Systems

• Windows 7 – This is an upgrade from Windows XP or Vista.

• Windows 8 – This introduced the Metro user interface that unifies the Windows
look and feel on desktops, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.
• Windows 8.1 – This is an update to Windows 8 with improvement to make
Windows familiar for users with devices that use touch interfaces.
• Windows 10 – This is an update from previous versions of Windows. It was
designed for PCs, tablets, embedded devices and Internet of
Things devices.
• It is critical to consider what customized applications will be
installed when determining the version of Windows to install
on a desktop computer.

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 Compatible System Software and Hardware Requirements

 To make an OS recommendation, a technician must review budget constraints,

learn how the computer will be used, determine which types of applications will be
installed, and whether a new computer may be purchased. These are some
guidelines to help determine the best OS for a customer:
• Does the customer use off-the-shelf applications for this computer? Off-the-
shelf applications specify a list of compatible operating systems on the
application package.
• Does the customer use customized applications that were programmed
specifically for the customer? If the customer is
using a customized application, the programmer of
that application specifies which OS to use.

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 32-bit vs. 64-bit Processor Architecture
 32-bit Windows Operating System and x86 Processor Architecture
• Capable of addressing 4 GB of RAM
• x86 uses a Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC)
• x86 processors use fewer registers than x64 processors
• 32-bit programs are stored in the C:\Program Files (x86) folder.
 64-bit Windows Operating System and x64 Processor Architecture
• Capable of addressing 128+ GB of RAM
• Enhanced performance for memory management
– Adds additional registers (allows the CPU immediate access to data) specifically for
instructions that use a 64-bit address space
• Additional security features
• Process much more complex instructions at a much higher rate
• x64 architecture is backward compatible with x86
– Supports 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems
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 Types of Operating Systems
 Desktop Operating Systems
• Intended for use in SOHO environment.
• Supports a single user.
• Shares files and folders on a small network with limited security.
• Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, and Linux are a few examples.
 Network Operating Systems
• Contains features that increase functionality in a networked
environment
• Supports multiple users.
• Runs multi-user applications
• Robust and redundant
• Provides increased security compared to desktop operating systems

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 Customer Requirements for an Operating System

 OS Compatible Applications and Environments

• Before recommending an OS, the technician must:
– Customized applications to be installed.
– Review budget constraints.
– Learn how the computer will be used.
– Determine which types of applications will be installed.
– Determine if a new computer needs to be purchased?
 Use Compatibility Mode when you have an application that was
created for the earlier version of Windows.

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 Checking OS Compatibility

• An OS must be upgraded periodically to remain compatible with the latest

hardware and software.
• Before upgrading the operating system, check the minimum hardware
requirements of the new OS to ensure that it can be installed successfully on the
computer.
• Microsoft provides the Get Windows 10 application
that is automatically downloaded and installed via
the Windows Update service on computers
running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and
Windows 8.1.

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 Windows OS Upgrades

• The version of an OS determines available upgrade options. For example, a 32-

bit OS cannot be upgraded to a 64-bit OS. Windows 7 and Windows 8 can be
upgraded to Windows 10 but Windows Vista and Windows XP cannot.
• To upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10, use the Windows 10
Update Assistant available on the Download Windows 10 website. It walks you
through all the steps in the Windows 10 setup process.
• Computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista do
not have an upgrade path to Windows 10 and require
a clean installation. Windows 10 installation media can
be created using the Create Windows 10 installation
media tool.

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 Minimum Hardware Requirements and Compatibility

 Customer may need to upgrade or purchase additional hardware to support the

required applications and OS.
 A cost analysis will indicate if purchasing new equipment is a better idea than
upgrading.
 Possible hardware upgrades:
• RAM capacity
• Hard drive size
• CPU
• Video card memory and
speed
• Motherboard

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 Data Migration
• When a new OS installation is needed, user data must be migrated from the old OS to the
new one.
• The User State Migration Tool (USMT) is a command line utility used to capture the
company user accounts, files, operating system settings, and application settings for
migration
• The Windows Easy Transfer is used to help migrate personal files and settings when
switching from an old computer to a new one. Not supported in Windows 10.
• PCmover Express is a tool for transferring selected files, folders, profiles and
applications from an old Windows PC to a Windows 10 PC.
• Upgrade Assistant is a tool used to help download and install feature updates on your
device.
• The Get Windows 10 app is used to test whether the hardware and software on the
existing system are compatible to upgrade operating
systems.

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 10.2 INSTALL WINDOWS

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 Storage Device Types
 The two most common types of data storage devices used today:
• Hard disk drives
• Flash memory-based drives such as solid-state hard drives and USB drives
 When the storage device type has been chosen, it must be prepared to receive
the new operating system.
 Modern operating systems ship with an installer
program.
 Installers usually prepare the disk to receive the
operating system, but it is crucial for a technician to
understand the terms and methods involved in
this preparation.
 Formatting is the process of creating a file system
in a partition or volume for file storage.
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 Hard Drive Partitioning
 Partitioning is term used to describe a logical drive that can be formatted to store data.
 Finding and launching the operating system is one of the responsibilities of computer
firmware, which needs to know the partition scheme. Two partition scheme standards are
master boot record (MBR) and globally unique identifier (GUID) partition table (GPT).
• Master Boot Record - The MBR contains information on how the hard drive partitions
are organized. The MBR is 512 bytes long and contains the boot loader, an executable
program that allows a user to choose from multiple operating systems. MBR is commonly
used in computers with BIOS-based firmware.
• GUID Partition Table - Also designed as a partition table scheme standard for hard
drives, the GPT makes use of a number of modern techniques to expand on the older
MBR partitioning scheme.
GPT is commonly used in
computers with UEFI
firmware.

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 Partitions and Logical Drives
• The primary partition is a physical section of a hard disk that contains the OS files and is
usually the first partition. It cannot be subdivided.
• The active partition is used to store and boot an OS by default.
• If more than 4 partitions are needed on an MBR disk, one partition can be designated an
extended partition.
• An extended partition is often used to organize data storage by subdividing it into as
many as 23 logical sections.
 A logical drive is a section of an extended partition, used to separate information for
administrative purposes.
• A basic disk (the default) contains partitions such as primary and extended, as well as
logical drives which are formatted for data storage.
• A dynamic disk can create volumes that span
across more than one disk.
• Formatting creates a file system on a partition
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for file storage. 22
 File Systems

 File systems differ in properties of speed, flexibility, security, size and more. Here are five
common file systems:
• File Allocation Table, 32 bit (FAT32) - Supports partition sizes up to 2 TB or 2,048 GB.
Used by Windows XP and earlier OS versions.
• New Technology File System (NTFS) - Supports partition sizes up to 16 exabytes, in
theory. NTFS incorporates file system security features and extended attributes.
– Default file system for Windows 7, 8, and 10
• exFAT (FAT 64) - Created to address some of the limitations of FAT, FAT32, and NTFS
when formatting USB flash drives, such as file size and directory size. One of the primary
advantages of exFAT is that it can support files larger than 4GB.
• Compact Disc File System (CDFS) - Created specifically for optical disk media.
• NFS (Network File System) - NFS is a network-based file system, that allows file
access over the network. NFS is an open standard which allows anyone to implement it.

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 10.3 INSTALLATION AND BOOT
SEQUENCE

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 Account Creation
 Authentication is when users enter a username and password to access a user
account. Windows uses Single-Sign On (SSO) authentication, which allows users
to log in once to access all system resources. User accounts allow multiple users
to share a single computer using their own files and settings.
 Windows 10 offers two account types:
• Administrator – Have complete control
over a computer. Users with this type of
account can change settings globally and
install programs.
• Standard User – Have limited control
over a computer. Users with this type of
account can run applications, but they
cannot install programs.
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 Finalize the Installation

 Windows Update
• To update the OS after the initial installation, Microsoft Windows Update is used
to scan for new software and install service packs and patches.
 Device Manager
• After installation, verify that all hardware
is installed correctly. The Device
Manager is used to locate device
problems and install the correct or
updated drivers in Windows.
• The figure shows the Windows Update
and Device Manager utilities on
Windows 10.
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 Disk Cloning

 Installing an OS on multiple computers takes time. To simplify, administrators

usually elect a computer to act as a base system and go through the regular
operating system installation process. After the OS is installed in the base
computer, a specific program is used to duplicate all the information on its disk,
sector by sector, to another disk. This new disk, usually an external device, now
contains a fully deployed operating system and can
be used to quickly deploy a fresh copy of the base
operating system and any installed applications
and data.
 If an undesirable setting is accidentally included
during the base installation, an administrator can
use Microsoft’s System Preparation (Sysprep) tool
to remove it before creating the final image.
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 Other Installation Methods

 Windows has several different types of custom installations:

• Network Installation – This includes Preboot Execution Environment (PXE)
Installation, Unattended Installation, and Remote Installation.
• Image-based Internal partition Installation - This is a Windows image stored
on an internal (often hidden) partition that can
be used to restore Windows to its original
state when it was shipped from the factory.
• Other Types of Custom Installations –
This includes Windows Advanced Startup
Options, Refresh your PC (Windows 8.x only),
System Restore, Upgrade, Repair installation,
Remote network installation, Recovery
partition, and Refresh/restore.
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 Remote Network Installation

 With remote network installation, the OS installation files are stored on a server.
The client computer can access the files remotely. A software package such as
Remote Installation Services (RIS) communicates with the client, stores the setup
files, and provides the necessary instructions for the client to access the setup
files, download them, and begin the OS installation.
 If the client computer does not have an OS
installed or needs a new OS, a special
environment must be used to boot the
computer, connect to the network, and
communicate with the server to begin the
installation process. This special
environment is known as the
Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE).
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 Unattended Network Installation
 To perform a Windows Unattended installation, setup.exe must be run with the user options
found in the answer file. Instead of prompting the user, Setup uses the answers listed in the
file.
 To customize a standard Windows 10 installation,
use the System Image Manager (SIM), to create
the setup answer file. The answer file is copied to
the distribution shared folder on a server. At this
point, you can do one of two things:
• Run the unattended.bat file on the client
machine to prepare the hard drive and install
the OS from the server over the network.
• Create a boot disk that boots the computer and
connects to the distribution shared folder on the
server. You then run a batch file containing a set
of instructions to install the OS over the network.

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 Recovery Partition

 Some Windows computers contain a section of the disk that is inaccessible to the
user called a recovery partition.
• Contains an image that can be used to restore the computer to its original
configuration.
 Often hidden to prevent it from being used for
anything other than restoration.
 To restore the computer using the recovery
partition, you often must use a special key or
key combination when the computer is starting.
 Sometimes, the option to restore from the
factory recovery partition is located in the
BIOS or found in Windows.
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 Upgrade Methods
• In-place upgrade - This will update the OS and migrate apps and settings to the
new OS. The System Center Configuration Manager (Configuration Manager)
task sequence can be used to completely
automate the process. When upgrading
Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10, the
Windows installation program (Setup.exe) will
perform an in-place upgrade, which automatically
preserves all data, settings, applications, and
drivers from the existing OS version.
• Clean install - Another way to upgrade to a
newer version of Windows is to perform a clean
upgrade. Because a clean install will wipe the
drive completely, all files and data should be
saved to some form of backup drive.
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 Boot Sequence for Windows

 Power on Self Test (POST)

 POST for each adapter card that has a BIOS
 BIOS reads the MBR
 MBR takes over control of the boot process and starts BOOTMGR
 BOOTMGR reads the Boot Configuration Data file to know which OS to load and
where to find the OS on the boot partition
 BOOTMGR invokes WINLOAD.EXE in order to load the NTOSKRNL.EXE file and
HAL.DLL
 BOOTMGR reads the registry files and loads device drivers
 NTOSKRNL.EXE starts the WINLOGON.EXE program and displays the Windows
login screen

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 Windows 10 Boot Sequence
1. PreBoot – The PC’s firmware initiates a Power-On Self Test (POST) and loads firmware
settings. This pre-boot process ends when a valid system disk is detected. Firmware reads
the master boot record (MBR), and then starts Windows Boot Manager.
2. Windows Boot Manager – Windows Boot Manager finds and starts the Windows loader
(Winload.exe) on the Windows boot partition.
3. Windows operating system loader – Essential drivers required to start the Windows
kernel are loaded and the kernel starts to run.
4. Windows NT OS Kernel – The kernel loads into memory the system registry hive and
additional drivers that are marked as BOOT_START. The kernel passes control to the
session manager process (Smss.exe) which initializes the system session, and loads and
starts the devices and drivers that are not marked BOOT_START.
Phase Boot Process BIOS UEFI
1 PreBoot MBR/PBR (Bootstrap Code) UEFI Firmware
2 Windows Boot Manager %SystemDrive%\bootmgr \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
3 Windows OS Loader %SystemRoot%\system32\winload.exe %SystemRoot%\system32\winload.efi
4 Windows NT OS Kernel %SystemRoot%\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
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 Windows Boot Sequence
 After POST, the BIOS locates and reads the configuration settings stored in the CMOS
memory.
 The boot device priority is the order in which devices are checked to locate the bootable
partition.
 The BIOS boots the computer using the first
drive that contains a valid boot sector.
 This sector contains the Master Boot
Record (MBR). The MBR identifies the
Volume Boot Record (VBR) which loads
the boot manager, which for Windows is
bootmgr.exe.
 Hard drives, network drives, USB drives,
and even removable media can be used in
the boot order, depending on the capabilities
of the motherboard.
• Used for system repair
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 Windows 7 Startup Modes
 Pressing the F8 key during the boot process opens the Windows Advanced Boot Options
menu. Users can select how to boot Windows. 4 startup options:
• Safe Mode – A diagnostic mode used to troubleshoot Windows and Windows startup.
Functionality is limited as many device drivers are not loaded.
• Safe Mode with Networking - Starts Windows
in Safe Mode with networking support.
• Safe Mode with Command Prompt - Starts
Windows and loads the command prompt
instead of the GUI.
• Last Known Good Configuration - Loads the
configuration settings that were used the last
time that Windows started successfully.

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 Windows 8 and 10 Startup Modes

 Both Windows 8 and Windows 10 boot too quickly

to use F8 to access startup settings. Instead, hold
the Shift key and select the Restart option in the
Power menu. This will display the Choose an
Option screen.
 To get the startup settings, select Troubleshoot,
then from the next screen select Advanced options.
Inside Advanced options select Startup settings,
then on the next screen select Restart. The
computer will then restart and display the Startup
Settings menu shown in the figure.
 To choose a startup option use number or function
keys F1-F9 that corresponds to the desired option.
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 Task Manager

 Details pane
• Provides more information and shows processes from all user accounts on your
system.
• Same information as the Processes tab in Windows 7 displays.
• Used to set the priority for a process.

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 10.4 CHAPTER SUMMARY

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 Chapter 10: Windows Installation

• Explain operating system requirements.

• Create a partition in Windows using the Disk Management utility.
• Install a Windows operating system.

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