Windows Setup is an

installer Installation (or setup) of a computer program (including device drivers and plugins), is the act of making the program ready for execution. Installation refers to the particular configuration of a software or hardware with a view to making it us ...

that prepares a hard disk drive for a

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

installation by executing two processes: a) initializing the drive and b) copying system files to that drive in order for the operating system to be run locally (see ''

Volume Volume is a measure of occupied three-dimensional space. It is often quantified numerically using SI derived units (such as the cubic metre and litre) or by various imperial or US customary units (such as the gallon, quart, cubic inch). ...

'').
The early versions of Windows required an existing compatible version of

DOS DOS is shorthand for the MS-DOS and IBM PC DOS family of operating systems. DOS may also refer to: Computing * Data over signalling (DoS), multiplexing data onto a signalling channel * Denial-of-service attack (DoS), an attack on a communicat ...

operating system in order to be installed. The

Windows NT Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system. The first version of Win ...

family, from 3.1 through 6.0 featured text-based installation that prompted users to a GUI wizard in the final steps. The 9x family installer was similar to NT despite it being

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few o ...

-based. Additionally, it did not need preinstalled DOS as a requirement. With the release of Windows NT 6.0 ( Vista), Microsoft introduced a fully graphical setup environment and

UEFI UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) is a set of specifications written by the UEFI Forum. They define the architecture of the platform firmware used for booting and its interface for interaction with the operating system. Examples ...

support (partial in Windows Vista and 7, full UEFI support on Windows 8 onwards).

Windows 1.x and Windows 2.x

The installation of Windows 1.x,

Windows 2.0 Windows 2.0 is a major release of Microsoft Windows, a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on December 9, 1987, as a successor to Windows 1.0. The product i ...

, Windows 2.1x requires that a compatible version of

is installed. The user must specify any hardware such as mice or printers during installation. After the installation, Windows was to be started either manually by typing " WIN.COM" at the

command prompt Command Prompt, also known as cmd.exe or cmd, is the default command-line interpreter for the OS/2, eComStation, ArcaOS, Microsoft Windows (Windows NT family and Windows CE family), and ReactOS operating systems. On Windows CE .NET 4.2, ...

, or configured for automatic startup by adding WIN.COM to the end of

AUTOEXEC.BAT AUTOEXEC.BAT is a system file that was originally on DOS-type operating systems. It is a plain-text batch file in the root directory of the boot device. The name of the file is an abbreviation of "automatic execution", which describes its functio ...

Windows 3.x

The installation of

Windows 3.0 Windows 3.0 is the third major release of Microsoft Windows, launched in 1990. It features a new graphical user interface (GUI) where applications are represented as clickable icons, as opposed to the list of file names seen in its predeces ...

Windows 3.1x Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series ran as a shell on top of MS-DOS. Codenamed Janus, Windows 3. ...

and Windows 3.2 requires that a compatible DOS operating system is already installed. The installer attempts to detect network cards, mice, and other hardware on its own but will rely on the user to specify hardware if it cannot find them. After the installation, Windows was to be started either manually by typing "WIN.COM" at the command prompt, or configured for automatic startup by adding WIN.COM to the end of AUTOEXEC.BAT.

Windows 9x

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of operating systems. The first operating system in the 9x family, it is the successor to Windows 3.1x, and was released to manufacturi ...

- 98 and

Windows Me Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...

do not require MS-DOS. The first phase of setup prepares the hard disk partition for use by Windows by formatting it to a compatible file system, then runs scandisk, and, if the hard disk appears to be ready for installation in terms of free space and disk integrity, then it will copy files to the selected installation folder (typically C:\WINDOWS). The first phase of setup resembles the interface of Windows 3.x. Once this phase is finished, the computer reboots and setup resumes from the hard disk, but still requires the installation media to continue copying files and drivers. At this point the user will be asked to provide a

product key A product key, also known as a software key, serial key or activation key, is a specific software-based key for a computer program. It certifies that the copy of the program is original. Product keys consist of a series of numbers and/or letters ...

Windows NT

Before Windows Vista

The setup process introduced with

Windows NT 3.1 Windows NT 3.1 is the first major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, released on July 27, 1993. At the time of Windows NT's release, Microsoft's Windows 3.1 desktop environment had established brand recognit ...

remained in effect until the release of

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

. The general process is: * The user inserts the installation media, initiates the process, and Setup loads various hardware and file-system drivers. ** If any third-party drivers are needed in order to detect an SCSI or RAID system, setup pauses and requests the supply of a driver on a floppy disk. See F6 disk. * The user is then presented with a text-based interface which gives three options 1) install Windows, 2) repair an existing installation, or 3) quit setup. * If the user decides to install Windows, he/she is presented with an agreement that they must accept before Setup will continue. Prior to Windows 2000, the user was required to scroll to the bottom of the agreement before they were permitted to agree. * The user must create or select a partition, then a filesystem (either

NTFS New Technology File System (NTFS) is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft. Starting with Windows NT 3.1, it is the default file system of the Windows NT family. It superseded File Allocation Table (FAT) as the preferred fil ...

or FAT). If either of these file systems is already present and there is no version of Windows already on the disk, it is also possible to leave the current file system intact. * The hard disk is checked for errors and space requirements, then, if it passes the check, Windows will be installed. * After the text-based phase of Setup is finished, the computer reboots and starts a graphical phase of setup from the hard disk, prompting the user to reinsert the installation media, to enter the product key, and then it continues copying files and drivers. All versions of Windows NT up to

Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...

, except for Windows XP Home Edition, prompt the user to enter an Administrator password. On

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft and oriented towards businesses. It was the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was released to manufacturing on December 15, 1999, and was offici ...

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...

and Windows Server 2003, the

Recovery Console The Recovery Console is a feature of the Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. It provides the means for administrators to perform a limited range of tasks using a command-line interface. Its primary function is to ...

is included to repair damaged installations. It allows the user to repair disk and boot record errors, and copy missing or corrupted files to the destination folders.

After Windows Vista

and subsequent operating systems all utilize

Windows Preinstallation Environment Windows Preinstallation Environment (also known as Windows PE and WinPE) is a lightweight version of Windows used for the deployment of PCs, workstations, and servers, or troubleshooting an operating system while it is offline. It is intended t ...

(Windows PE) as the installation environment. Windows PE features a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inste ...

with mouse support from the beginning, rather than requiring a text-only phase as in previous versions. The concept of F6 disks has been improved to provide support for computers without floppy drives; the loading of drivers from

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

s and

USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since firs ...

s is now supported. Support for installing Windows onto FAT partitions has been dropped; Windows must be installed onto an

partition.

Windows 8 and later

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for downl ...

introduces a new secondary installer known as the Upgrade Assistant, replacing Windows Setup for upgrade installations. Designed to be simpler and faster than previous installation methods, it analyses the system's hardware and software for compatibility with Windows 8, allows the user to purchase, download, and install the operating system, and migrate files and settings from the previous Windows installation in the case of a clean install. Windows Setup is still used when booting from installation media.

References

{{reflist Windows components Installation software