Set up a machine for my friend

My friend got a old Pentium III 866 computer and asked me to set up for him. I know that when I set it up, I need to keep the following factors in mind:

- He doesn't know much about computer, and yet got a lot of crazy spyware and stuff while surfing the Net.
- He doesn't have much money, so I need to install items that makes him productive and yet keep the cost low.

I originally planned to install Windows 98 SE on his machine, which is the OS that comes with the machine. But the Win98SE is just too crappy in today's standard:

- No USB native support.
- Unstable and doesn't support true multitasking.
- No need update from Mircrosoft at all.

The machine is a Compaq Desk Pro EN866 with 20Gb harddisk, CDR Recorder, 4xx Mb memory. Not the greatest, but should be very much enough for daily usage.

So here's what I did, step by step:
1. Reformat the 20Gb harddisk.
2. Use a Windows 98 boot disk to add system in the harddisk by "sys c:"

- Install Windows 2000 Professional Traditional Chinese edition

3. Use the Windows 98 boot disk to boot up with CDROM Support. Make a directory called setup2k on C: drive. Copy the complete i386 directory to the setup2k directory.
4. Go to C:\setup2k, run WINNT.
5. Install Windows 2000 Professional.

- Windows 2000 is gonna be the only paid software on the machine. I was thinking of installing the latest CEntOS instead but ... nah ..... . I choose Windows 2000 Professional because it is the latest OS that DOES NOT HAVE ACTIVATION built into the OS. So it won't bitch for licence, and my friend can always able to do the latest update without being nagged by Microsoft.

6. Install the missing drivers: video, network and audio.
- This is the most annoying part, because I only got the machine and nothing else. And I found that in HP web site under Compaq DeskPro EN866 driver section, there are multiple possible video, audio and network setting possibility. AFter tons of trial and error, I found that my friend's desktop actually has the following hardware:
* Video: Intel 82815 Graphics controller (Need graphics driver for Intel 810/810E/815/815E Chipset) --> SP16518.exe
* Audio: SoundMax Integrated Digital Audio --> SP21180.exe
* Network: Intel Pro/100 VM Network Connection--> SP14707.exe

After installing all the drivers, it's time for security items.
7. Install the following software:
* Windows 2000 SP4 (Traditional Chinese)
* Windows 2000 SP4 Security Rollup 1
* Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 (which will update the build in 5.0 browser to 6.0)
* Spybot Search and Destory 1.4
* AdAware SE 1.5
* SpywareBlaster
* ZoneAlarm
* AVG Free Edition (Great antivirus software)
* Rootkit Revealer (in case Sony strikes)

After all secruity tools installed, updated, patched the whole system to the MAX (meaning, all tools are uptoday, and the OS has NO critical security update need to apply), it's time for application software:
8. Install the following application software:
* OpenOffice 2.0 (great free M$Office alternative)
* Firefox 1.5 (much better web browser than ...err ... you know)
* Flash Player for Firefox

9. Modify the name for the shortcuts of the installed application so my friend who doesn't know computer stuff knows that Firefox is a Internet Explorer alternative, and OpenOffice Write is an alternative for Microsoft Word.

10. Finally I use ACronis Disk Director 9 boot disk to create a security zone and a back up of the OS partition, just in case my friend screw something up, and I can simply rollback the whole setup to the current status.


There are a few more action items that I need to do after my friend brought home the machine:
- Set up password. Right now the administrator password is blank. Not good.
- Learn some basic computer security knowledge, like how to scan virus and spyware, no to put stupid crappy Sony audio CD in the computer (damn rootkit).