Clean Install Windows Vista With Upgrade DVDs

Traditionally, you are required to have a previous installation of Windows before you can upgrade, e.g. have Windows XP on your system before using Windows Vista Upgrade DVDs. But like I said...traditionally.

1. Boot from the Windows Vista Upgrade DVD and begin the setup program.

2. When prompted to enter your product key, DO NOT enter it. Click "Next" and proceed with setup - this will install Windows Vista as a 30-day trial.

3. When prompted, select the edition of Windows Vista which you have purchased and continue with the setup.

4. Once setup has been completed and you have been brought to the desktop for the first time, run the install program from within Windows Vista.

5. This time, type in your product key when prompted.

6. When asked whether to perform an Upgrade or Custom (advanced) install, choose Custom (advanced) to perform a clean install of Windows Vista.

7. Once setup has completed for the second time, you should be able to activate Windows Vista normally. You can also delete the Windows.old directory which contains information from the first Windows Vista installation.

To do this without owning a previous version of Windows as specified by Microsoft is illegal.

This is the way i did if when i 1st got vista and it works great.

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PSN: PTU360 250GB (40GB Model PS3) - 35 PS3 games + 41 on the HDD
Live: PTU 360 Xbox360 x2 (Pro + Elite) - 102 360 games + 32 XBLA games
Why not stop by the XS Facebook Group

Vista is usable with a lot of tweaking, i.e. unlocking the admin account and disabling all the rubbish services. Nice guide tech, I will probably use this in the future. My next challenge with Vista is building a custom Vista Ultimate with vlite.

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You will have to let us all know how you get on with that LS

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PSN: PTU360 250GB (40GB Model PS3) - 35 PS3 games + 41 on the HDD
Live: PTU 360 Xbox360 x2 (Pro + Elite) - 102 360 games + 32 XBLA games
Why not stop by the XS Facebook Group

Well I finally gave it a whirl. I totally noobed the upgrading the HDD on my lappy process, I stripped one of the small phillips head screws so bad I couldn't even get it out so my new 320GB 7200RPM HDD is still sitting in the box.

I was so pissed I decided to install the custom vLite iso and format the crappy Vista Home Premium with all the nonsense on the stock 120GB HDD. I first legally acquired the Vista Ultimate 64 bit SP1 Performance edition. It had a ton of useless crap stripped out already. Then I edited that with vLite, took out some more useless stuff, disabled unnecessary services, and added in the drivers for my XPS m1330. I was a bit wary, but I was also tired of all the nonsense Vista comes with.

Deleting the partitions and installing was easy. Initially I was getting BSOD, due to the ACHI driver not being installed properly with vLite. I enabled IDE emulation, booted into safe mode, installed ACHI drivers for 64 bit Vista, reenabled ACHI in bios, and then it worked fine. The Bluetooth and display drivers didn't take well with vLite, so I had to reinstall those manually. Speaking of ACHI drivers for 64 bit Vista, you need to get those from Intel's site, the ones on the Dell site do not support 64 bit Vista. Once I sorted out the drivers, it boots and shuts down a lot faster than the crappy OEM Vista Premium.

If anyone is thinking about slapping a custom Vista on their lappy and is a bit leary of installing XP due to scarce drivers, it is definitely doable and streamlines Vista quite nicely. Bottom line is if you can use nLite, you can use vLite.

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