What should you install after a new Windows XP installation?
The first things to install after installing Windows are the
system drivers. That way, all of your hardware will work properly
with Windows. Otherwise, the system will be slow, some USB ports
might not work, any RAID features might not work (or not properly)
there might be no sound, and the screen resolution and refresh will
likely be horrible. The best driver to install first is often the
network driver. If you have that one, you can get all the other
drivers if you don't have them.
After installing the system drivers, you would likely want to
install your favorite applications, games, and utilities. If you
like a lot of music and movies, you should find a good codec set
and install it so your machine can play all the various
formats.