installing a fresh copy of windows from scratch

[jaysen]

i'm trying to install a new copy of windows xp proffessional on a vaio FE11S.

like a previous post mentioned, the install off the recovery partition (recovery disks) results in a sluggish windows media. I understand that this makes it easier for the novice to get a fully functioning machine, but is it possible for me to install the new XP pro and only all the hardware drivers? ie. without the bundled software.

I'd also like to install some of the software utilities, like the recovery utility and viao update. Is there somewhere on the sony site where i could download these?

otherwise quite happy with the vaio.
thanks in advance
jaysen

[jaysen]

to clarify - i meant a sluggish windows xp - media edition

[jaysen]

i should have asked this first - but is there any danger in NOT performing the application recovery from the restore partition?

...i noted for example that the application recovery installed seemingly important things like bluetooth stack manager

thanks in advance

[tonybeard]

Welcome to the club
Follow these instructions to retain your functionality. Also I turn off the system restore and defrag over and over to condition the hard drive then defrag occassionally this will seat the software into a place to reduce latency. Also make sure you get the XP updates and all windows programs first then start layering in the macromedia then adobe last. Just seems to work better that way. My system is like lightning. I also use Tune Up Utilities 2006 to repair orphaned links etc.