Vista Installation Guide

Vista Clean Installation

This guide will take you through a clean installation of
Vista Ultimate. This is not overly detailed, but then if you
want advanced details, then you probably are a Power User
and really do not need my guide.

Quick Study

With the DVD in
the drive, power on the system and watch for the
"Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" message
to appear. When it does, strike a key and you'll
see the screen where Vista is loading files.

I really thought
that eventually this splash screen would have a
logo or something to make it a bit more
interesting. Obviously I was wrong. Fancy that.

After a few
moments the Install Windows screen appears where
you select the Language, Time and Currency
format, and Keyboard or Input Method.

This is the main
Install Windows screen where it all starts.
There are a couple of different variations on
this screen depending on system and
configuration, but essentially you simply press
the Install Now button to proceed.

Once again it's
time for the Product Key and talk about
activation. Unlike XP and previous Windows
offerings that stopped dead if you didn't have a
product key, this is no longer the case with
Vista. You aren't required to enter a key at
this point, although there are some strongly
worded cautions about the potential for data
loss if you choose not to enter the key. There
is also a check box to select whether or not
Vista will be automatically activated.

If you chose not
to enter the Product Key in the previous step,
this screen will pop up asking you to confirm
that you do not want to enter the key. The same
warning of potential data loss is present and an
additional warning has been added that you may
need to purchase another edition of Vista if you
continue without entering the key. Pressing [
Yes ] will return you to the screen where the
key can be entered. Selecting [ No ] will take
you to the screen below.

Declining to
enter the product key in the previous step
brings you here where you must select the
edition of Windows that you purchased. The
warning makes it clear that if you select a
version you don't have a key for, you'll either
have to purchase that version or reinstall Vista
and select the proper version. This screen is a
two step process; selecting the appropriate
version and then certifying you have selected
the version of Vista by using the checkbox. Once
those two items have been completed the [ Next ]
button is activated.

Next up is the
Vista license terms. Simple choice; click [ I
accept the license terms ] and the install
continues. If you decide not to check the box
you'll want to make use of that red 'X' in the
upper right hand corner of the screen.

Now it's time to
select the type of installation. Upgrade or
Custom are the choices, but as you can see in
this case Custom is the only option. There are
two items of note. The first is under Custom
where it states you can use this option to make
changes to the disks and partitions. This is
true to a point. You can create and delete
partitions and resize a partition using the
'Extend' command. The second item of note is if
you want to 'Upgrade'. you need to start the
installation from inside Windows.

After the type
of installation has been determined it's time to
decide where to install Vista. As you can see
from the screen capture the options in this
scenario are limited.

There is one 20GB hard
drive available and it's all unallocated space.
If your intention is to allocate the entire
drive to Vista with no additional partitions for
other uses, all you have to do is click on Disk
0 and then click the [ Next ] button. The
installation will continue.

That's the absolute minimum step.
If however you want to partition the drive and
format it (unnecessary at this point, but
possible) then click on 'Drive Options' for
additional choices.

This is an
example of how you could divide up the drive
into separate partitions before continuing the
installation. I used the 'New' option to create
a 10GB partition in the unallocated space. This
will become the primary partition and leave
another 10GB as unallocated space.

This is what it
looks like after the initial 20GB of unallocated
space has been divided. The first 10GB of space
on the drive is now identified as Partition 1
and the second 10GB remains as unallocated
space. If desired you could select the remaining
unallocated space and use the [New] command to
create another partition and either/both can be
formatted using the [Format] command.

Notice that the [ Extend ]
command is also available for use. Clicking it
will allow you to 'extend' Partition 1 into the
unallocated space. Unlike some partitioning
programs that allow you to resize a partition in
two directions (larger/smaller), the 'extend'
command uses the current size of the partition
as the minimum size and allows you to increase
or 'extend' it to include the available
unallocated space.

Once you've
finished up the install location and click [
Next ] it's just a matter of waiting as Vista
goes through the install motions. They are true
to their word on this screen when they say the
system will restart several times.

How long will it take to install
Vista? I've experienced timeframes all over the
spectrum from 30 minutes to over 5 hours, but
for a clean install on a relatively modern
system I'd be surprised if it took over an hour,
and the majority of installs I've done have been
in the 30 - 45 minute range.