Installing Windows XP on Thin Client

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:30 am

I was able to install XP Home Edition on my HP 5720, which I upgraded to 8GB flash and 1GB RAM. I took my legal (just to emphasize "legal") XP Home Edition CD and simply copied all the files to an external hard drive which I bought for backup purposes. Since I'm currently running Windows Vista on my main PC, I thought I would try to install XP onto my Thin Client. I made a new folder called "Windows2" and simply copied and pasted all files on the XP CD right into this new folder. I happened to have a serial to USB cable and connected the USB side to the external hard drive (as it was the only option) and connected the other end to my Thin Client's serial port (which is the smaller connection). I believe I could have used the parallel port as well if I had the appropriate cable. I also believe a USB to USB will work as well. I then simply executed the setup file in my Windows2 directory and the installation began. However, I did run into a bit of a problem when the install came to a point that it could not install some of the initial files. However, I simply pressed ESC about 10-15 times to bypass installation of these files and eventually the install continued. Apparently these initial files are not needed as the install completed successfully. I now have XP Home Edition with all the updates, including SP3.

XP Home is better than XPe. The bootup time is not any different than XPe and my magicJack is working fine without any need to tweek or install any additional software.

PTravel · Post by **PTravel** » Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:42 am

There's a much easier way to do it:

First copy the XPe Windows directory to a USB or network drive.

Then, start with a fresh (blank) 8 gb flash drive.

Run the installation of Windows from a USB CD or DVD drive. Do not do an upgrade -- have it do a fresh install.

Once XP has installed, open Device Manager. You will see a number of devices did not install correctly because the drivers were not included with XP.

For each such device, right click and select Update Drive. You will find the driver in either the Windows, System32 or Driver folder on the copy of XPe Windows that you saved earlier.

Once you're done, you're done. You'll have a full control panel and everything will be supported.

If you do a search on EWF here, you will find where you can download the Enhanced Write Filter that will work under full XP. Then you're set.

I recently did this for a t5730 on which I installed a full (and legal) copy of Windows XP Pro. If you're going to do any networking, I'd strongly recommend XP Pro over XP Home.

stroths · Post by **stroths** » Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:14 pm

I'm starting to see more and more people running XP Pro on their TC's and my main concern is that I don't see anyone mentioning the issues with XP Pro (or home) and flash memory.

I just created a thread with info and fixes to make your TC faster and save the life of your flash memory.

http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/runn ... t3807.html