Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It provides customer and partner feedback-driven fixes into a single service pack, minimizing deployment and testing complexity. In addition to all previously released updates since SP1, SP2supports new types of hardware, and adds support for several emerging standards.

Download Service Pack 2 (SP2)

SP2 Standalone is an update for computers that have Windows Server 2008 SP1 or Windows Vista SP1 installed.

Five Language SP2 Standalone: for computers with one or more of the following five languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. If your computer has any other language installed this option will not work.

ISO for Windows Server 2008 x86/x64/ia64 and Windows Vista x86/x64

x86 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x86

x64 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista x64

ia64 for Windows Server 2008 ia64

Get Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Resources

• Download Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool
• Windows Operating System Service Pack Blocker Toolkit: Frequently Asked Questions

source: microsoft

Download Instructions for Windows 7 Release Candidate

Your PC, simplified. You told us what you want in a PC. We listened. And made hundreds of little improvements and a few big ones that add up to a whole lot less. Less waiting, fewer clicks, and less complexity. With less of what you don’t need, Windows 7 helps you do more. More work, more play, and more of everything in between. Making every task simpler and every day easier. See for yourself—get the Release Candidate.

Download instructions
Welcome to Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) testing. We're on our way to Windows 7, and if you like trying out pre-release software, now’s your chance. You get to see what's coming, and we get to see if our changes and fixes from the Beta testing are working correctly.

How do you test the software? You put it on your PC, and then do what you'd normally do. Your PC will automatically and anonymously send our engineers the information they need to verify the fixes and changes they made based on the Windows 7 Beta tests.

Here's what you need to know:
This is pre-release software, so please read the following to get an idea of the risks and key things you need to know before you try the RC.

You don't need to rush to get the RC. The RC will be available at least through July 2009 and we're not limiting the number of product keys, so you have plenty of time.

Watch the calendar. The RC will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you’ll need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010. You’ll also need to install the programs and data that you want to use. (Learn more about installing Windows.)

Protect your PC and data. Be sure to back up your data and please don't test the RC on your primary home or business PC.

Tech details/updates: Before installing the RC, please read the Release Notes and Things to Know for important information about the release.

Keep up with the news. You can keep up with general technical information and news by following the team blog. And, you can get non-technical news, tips, and offers by subscribing to the monthly Exploring Windows newsletter.

Keep your PC updated: Be sure to turn on automatic updates in Windows Update in case we publish updates for the RC.

Installation: You can install the Windows 7 RC on a PC running Windows Vista without backing up the PC—but we encourage you to make a backup for safe keeping. If you’re running Windows XP or the Windows 7 Beta, you’ll need to backup your data, then do a clean installation of the RC, then reinstall your applications and restore your data. If you need to do a backup, please see How to back up your PC for more details and a suggestion for how to backup a PC running Windows 7 Beta or Windows Vista.
To install and use the RC, you'll need to know how to:
Troubleshoot problems. You're pretty much flying solo, so you'll need to handle your own tech support, and rely on other RC testers for their know-how
Burn an ISO file to make an installation DVD
Install Windows
Backup and restore your PC
Set up a network
Create and use a system recovery disk
To learn more about the Windows 7 RC, see Frequently asked questions.
Here's what you need to have:
Internet access (to download Windows 7 RC and get updates)
A PC with these system requirements:
1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB RAM (32-bit) / 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
16 GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics processor with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Please note these specifications could change. And, some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or navigation through the use of "touch," may require advanced or additional hardware.
Get the download

The 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 RC are available in five languages: English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish. Just choose the version that fits the system you'll be using, pick your language, and click go to register for and download the RC.

Downloading the Windows 7 RC could take a few hours. The exact time will depend on your internet provider, bandwidth, and traffic. The good news is that once you start the download, you won't have to answer any more questions – you can walk away while it finishes. If it gets interrupted, it'll restart where it left off. See this FAQ for details.
Download 32-bit version Select language English German Japanese Spanish French
Download 64-bit version Select language English German Japanese Spanish French
IT pro? Go here to get your download and the resources you need.

32-bit, 64-bit? Once relatively rare, today’s more powerful PCs often use 64-bit versions of Windows. If you’re not sure what to download, just match the version you’re currently running. Here's how to check.


Information about Windows 7 is preliminary and subject to change. Some product features of Windows 7, such as the ability to watch and record live TV or navigation through the use of "touch," may require advanced or additional hardware. The features and functionality you find in the pre-release product may not appear in the final version of Windows 7. If we change the software before it's released, we'll change this information accordingly. We're not making express or implied warranties with this information.

Windows Vista: Activation and Validation

To confirm that you are running a legitimately pu rchased copy of Windows Vista in accordance with the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA), Microsoft relies on Windows Product Activation, a process which verifies your Product Key and hardware configuration online or over the phone.

While activation has been around since Windows XP was introduced, some of the measures surrounding it have been tightened as part of the new Microsoft Software Protection Platform. This chapter looks at how Activation and Validation work, though note that I don't cover any illegal methods of bypassing Activation.

LICENSING AGREEMENT
The End User License Agreement (EULA) for Windows Vista contains the terms and conditions of acceptable usage for the OS. You do not actually own Windows Vista outright; Microsoft gives you permission (a license) to use the software under certain terms and conditions.


OEM VS. UPGRADE VS. RETAIL EDITIONS
While their contents do not differ, there are some notable differences between the license conditions for OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) copies of Vista - sometimes called 'System Builder' editions - versus the Upgrade editions, vs. the Retail editions:

OEM: An OEM edition of Vista comes pre-installed on, or accompanying, a new PC and is bound specifically to that PC. If you substantially alter or upgra de the PC on which the OEM copy is installed (e.g. change the motherboard and CPU), or you attempt to install the OEM copy on another PC you will fail activation since you have breached the licensing conditions. There are several other limitations of OEM versions, including limited or no technical support from Microsoft. This is why OEM copies are the cheapest editions.

Upgrade: An Upgrade Edition requires that you already own a qualifying previous full version of Windows.

However in terms of upgrading your PC or transferring Vista to a new PC, there are no specific limitations on the number of times you can do this.

Retail: The full Retail Edition does not require the ownership of any other version of Windows, and can be installed on any PC, and allows unlimited upgrades or moves to another PC. This is why it is the most expensive edition.

However all editions of Vista must adhere to the following general conditions of use.

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF USE
Some important conditions of use you should consider from the EULA for the average home PC user are spelled out in plain English below:

The OS is licensed to one specific device at any time, namely the PC on which it is installed. You can't install the same copy of Vista on multiple PCs unless you have specifically purchased multiple licenses - one for each PC.

You can transfer Vista from one PC to another as many times as you want, as long as it is not installed on more than one machine at a time. However this does not apply to the OEM version which is always bound to the original PC for which it wa s bought or first installed on.

You can upgrade or alter the hardware in the PC on which Vista is installed as often as you wish. This does not apply to the OEM version, for which any major system upgrades may invalidate the license. If the edition includes both the 32-bit and 64-bit version of Vista, you can install one or the other, but not both at the same time. Even if you order a 64-bit version of your edition, you cannot install and use both 32-bit and 64-bit editions at the same time.

You must Activate your copy of Windows within 30 days of installation, and you must allow it to
periodically connect to the Internet to Validate - see further below for details. Some OEM versions of Vista come pre-installed and already activated, so manual activation is not required. There is a legitimate workaround to extending Activation, and it is covered below.
You are allowed to make one backup copy of the Vista DVD for your own use.

The above has been provided for information purposes only and cannot be the sole basis for any actions you take - you must read the EULA which accompanies your particular edition of Vista carefully for yourself to ensure you understand all the licensing terms and conditions as applicable to you.

ACTIVATION
This section goes through the procedure for activation, and also addresses any common issues you may experience.

PRODUCT KEY
When you first install Vista, you will be prompted to enter your Product Key, which appears as a series of 25 letters or numbers separated by dashes in the format: xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx. This key can be found on a sticker on your computer if you purchased the PC with Vista pre-installed, on the installation disk holder of your Vista retail package, or on the Vista manual. The Product Key is very important for two reasons:

The Vista installation DVD contains all versions of Windows Vista, from Home Basic through to
Ultimate - it is the Product Key which tells Vista the correct version to install.
The Product Key is integral to validating and activating your copy of Windows Vista. If the key is used by anyone else at the same time as you, or on another one of your PCs, this will invalidate your key.

Make sure you keep your Product Key in a safe place, do not share it with anyone else and if your PC or copy of Vista did not come with a Product Key then contact your retailer or the person from whom you purchased the Vista DVD and ask them to give you one as it is absolutely necessary (unless you are in a corporate or business environment). If you wish at any time to alter your Product Key while using Vista, you can do so by going to Control Panel>System and clicking the 'Change product key' link at the bottom of the box. Entering a new key will require you to reactivate. If you want to look at options for purchasing additional Product Key(s) online from Microsoft see here.

ACTIVATION
Once you have installed Windows Vista, you will have exactly 30 days within which to activate Windows.

During this time you can use Windows Vista as normal, but you will regularly be prompted to activate. To see how many days you have left before your activation grace period runs out, either click the prompt in the Notification Area, or go to Control Panel>System and click the link at the bottom of the box, or go to the Start>Search Box and type " slui" (without quotes) and press Enter.

If you are aware that your PC may undergo some further changes shortly, such as the installation or removal of key pieces of hardware it is recommended that you do not activate Windows right away. You have 30 days (or more - see below) within which to bed down your final hardware configuration and I suggest you use it.

Activating before your hardware setup is finalized could see you having to re-a ctivate repeatedly, including having to call Microsoft to complete Activation or running into other potential complications. Microsoft generally views multiple activations in a short space of time as quite suspicious.

There is a legal method by which you can extend the grace period before Activation by another 30 days, up to a maximum of 120 days in total, before you must Activate. Follow these steps to do so:

1. Open an Administrator Command Prompt - see the Vista Usage Notes chapter
2. In the Command Prompt type "slmgr -rearm" (without quotes) and press Enter.
3. Reboot your PC and you should now ha ve an additional 30 days before Activation.
4. You can repeat Steps 1 - 3 above to give you a total of 120 days maximum before Activation is required.

This is useful if you want to bed down your hardware prior to final activation, or if you want to try out one of the different editions of Vista, by not entering a Product Key during installation and extending the Activation period. However at some point you will have to Activate for your copy of Vista to be legal.

Once you are ready to activate, use one of the means further above to access the activation application and click the 'Activate Windows online now' button. When activation commences, you will automatically connect to a Microsoft server and send several pieces of information specific to your system including:

The version of the OS and the version of the activation software
Your language
Your Product Key
The Internet Protocol (IP) address of your PC
A set of non-unique hardware hashes generated based on your hardware configuration. These hashes
don't have any personal information, nor can they be used to determine the make/model of your PC.

If automa tic activation fails or you are not connected to the Internet, you will be given instructions on how to activate Vista by contacting Microsoft over the phone. If Activation succeeds you will not be required to reactivate Windows Vista again unless you substantially alter the PC's main hardware components; if your Product Key is found to be in use by another system and/or turns out to be an illegally obtained one; or if there are signs of tampering with Windows to circumvent Activation.
REDUCED FUNCTIONALITY MODE
Should you not activate successfully within 30 days, or if you do not reactivate within 3 days after any major hardware changes, or are found to be running a non-genuine version of Windows, you will enter Reduced Functionality mode in Vista. This will mean that certain features and capabilities of Vista will be disabled as detailed in this Microsoft Article. Non-genuine copies of Vista will have a 'This copy of Vista is not genuine'
stamp placed at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. You will need to successfully activate your copy of Vista to get back to normal.

VALIDATION
Alongside Product Activation, Microsoft has implemented an additional anti-piracy feature into Windows called Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Validation, or just Validation for short. Windows Vista will periodically connect to Microsoft servers to validate itself, sending similar information to that sent under Activation (see further above). This validation may also occur when you connect to Windows Update or download certain Microsoft updates. If Validation fails, the user will not be able to download updates from Microsoft, and can only download critical security updates through the Microsoft Download Center or through Windows Update set to automatically update (See the Control Panel chapter). The OS may also go into Reduced Functionality mode as discussed further above.

If you are having problems with WGA on a legitimate installation of Windows, visit the Windows Genuine Advantage Diagnostic Site. In particular, if you use Firefox as your main browser, Microsoft has released a Firefox plugin to allow WGA to work on this popular browser.


If you are still having problems with Activation or Valida tion, the only correct course of action is to contact Microsoft Technical Support for your particular country.

Windows Vista Installation, Chapter 2

FILE SYSTEMS
During the formatting of your hard drive and/or its partitions, you can choose to format using the NTFS (NT File System) or FAT32 (File Allocation Table) File System. The file system used on a hard drive determines how the drive will store and organize data, so it is an important choice.

You can see a comparison of the two file systems in this Microsoft Article. Windows Vista actually uses an enhanced version of NTFS called Transactional NTFS which allows Vista to perform single and multiple file operations more securely and with greater data integrity. This new version of NTFS also allows other changes, such as Directory Junctions and improved searching - see the Windows Explorer and Windows Search chapters for details.

In general your hard drive(s) should be formatted in NTFS only. The only possible reason for using the earlier FAT32 file system on a hard drive or partition would be for compatibility purposes if considering installing an older version of Windows, such as Windows98. If you want to convert an existing FAT32 drive or partition to NTFS, it is strongly recommended that you reformat the drive in NTFS. However if that is not possible or not desirable, you can convert the FAT32 drive to NTFS using the instructions in this Microsoft Article.


32-BIT VS. 64- BIT
The final choice to make is whether you install Windows Vista 32-bit (also called x86) or 64-bit (also called x64). The following things should be considered when deciding whether to install 32-bit or 64-bit Vista:

Vista 64-bit only runs on 64-bit Processors. Most recent CPUs are 64-bit, but specifically all Intel Pentium D, Xeon, Core 2 and Extreme Edition CPUs or newer, and all AMD Turion, Opteron, and Athlon64 or newer support 64-bit computing. Refer to this CPU List for more details. If your CPU is not 64-bit capable then you cannot install or use Vista 64-bit.

Vista 64-bit requires that all device drivers be designed specifically for 64-bit and that they be signed.

Vista 64-bit cannot use 32-bit drivers, and can only use unsigned drivers with a tedious workaround at each bootup. This can mean that some older or less popular hardware may never receive 64-bit signed drivers, because of the extra costs to the hardware manufacturer of development and having them signed. See the Windows Drivers chapter for more details.
Vista 64-bit can use more than 4GB of RAM efficiently, as the 4GB RAM limit is a technical limitation of the 32-bit architecture. See the Boot Configuration chapter for more details.

Vista 64-bit does not support 16-bit programs, and while it can use all 32-bit programs, there are usually no performance benefits when doing so. Only programs designed specifically for 64-bit computing will have improved performance under Vista 64-bit, and right now there are not that ma ny such programs.

As you can see, it appears the drawbacks of Vista 64-bit tend to outweigh the benefits, mainly due to the smaller user base for 64-bit operating systems, and hence the less software and drivers are developed specifically to take advantage of it. For more details of 64-bit computing see this Wikipedia Article, and also see this Microsoft Article. I recommend that most users install Vista 32-bit for maximum compatibility and performance under a variety of conditions. There are few practical benefits from installing Vista 64-bit, and if anything there is far more potential for problems, especially driver-related problems which are next to impossible to resolve without obtaining newer or better drivers.

Importantly, most editions of Vista do not come with a 64-bit Vista DVD; only Vista Ultimate contains the 64-bit DVD along with the regular 32-bit DVD. You will need to either specifically purchase the 64-bit version of a particular edition of Vista, or order a 64-bit installation DVD as detailed in this Microsoft Article.

INSTALLING WINDOWS
At this point you are ready to begin the actual format and installation process for Windows Vista. This section details the procedures required to install Vista, but it also assumes you have read all of the sections above and considered which options suit you best. It is strongly recommended that you take the time to research and consider factors such as whether you want a du al boot configuration, the number of partitions and/or whether you wish to use a RAID configuration prior to starting the installation process. There is no point rushing the installation, only to have to go through it again because you overlooked something.

The official Vista installation options are covered in this Microsoft Article. You can also see more detailed instructions of how to install Windows complete with screenshots using one of these guides:

Vista Upgrade Install Guide
Vista Clean Install Guide
Vista Dual Boot Install Guide

I will still run through the installation procedures step by step below, noting the various options available depending on what particular type of installation you wish to do, and include any recommendations I have:

STEP 1 - START THE INSTALL
There are two main ways to start Windows Vista installation depending on the type of install you want:

Upgrade Install or Dual Boot

An Upgrade Install or Dual Boot installation of Vista will require that you first load up your existing version of Windows and then insert your Vista DVD and run setup.exe on the disk if Setup doesn't run automatically.
This is necessary for Vista to correctly identify your existing version of Windows. If you are going to do an Upgrade Install of Vista over an existing installation of Windows XP or Windows 2000 (not recommended - see further above for details), first check this table of qualifying versions as some editions of XP/2000 cannot be upgraded to certain editions of Vista in this manner.

Clean Install

A Clean Install of Windows Vista will erase all data on the target hard drive or partition - it will not tra nsfer any existing files or settings on that drive. Make sure you have backed up all your data appropriately. To start a Clean Install, go into your BIOS and set your DVD drive as the first boot device, and make sure all your hard drives are correctly connected, configured and detected in the BIOS. Then insert your Vista DVD in the DVD drive and reboot your system, pressing any key when prompted on the screen to boot up via the DVD drive.

Note: If you are using an Upgrade Edition DVD of Vista, normally you can only do a clean install of Vista by first booting into an existing qualifying version of Windows, then selecting either an Upgrade Install or a Clean Install as above. However there is a method which allows you to do a clean install by booting up from your Vista DVD on a newly formatted hard drive. Refer to this article for details and note that it is legal only if you actually qualify to install an Upgrade Edition by owning the correct previous version of Windows.


STEP 2 - INSTALL NOW
On the first Vista Installation screen, if you booted from the Vista DVD you will be asked to select your Language, Time & Currency Format and Keyboard method. Set these correctly and click Next.

Once you've done this, or if you started Vista installation from within an existing version of Windows, the next screen you will see should have a large 'Install Now' button. Click this to start installation.

Note: If you aren't certain of your hardware compatibility with Vista or you want to migrate your settings from your current install of Windows to Vista (See Migrating Files and Settings further above), then click the relevant link. The migration link only appears if you launch the Vista setup from within an existing install of Windows. Alternatively if you booted up from the Vista DVD, the 'Repair your computer' link will be shown instead, and its functionality is covered under the Backup and Recovery chapter.

STEP 3 - GET IMPORTANT UPDATES
You will be prompted to check for importa nt updates prior to installation. If you are connected to the Internet, it is recommended that you get the latest updates now, but this can be done later manually so it is not critical.

STEP 4 - ENTER PRODUCT KEY
You will be prompted to enter your 25 character Vista Product Key. This Product Key identifies the edition of Vista you purchased. If you don't enter your key, you will be able to choose any version of Vista to install, and there is also a method for extending your Activation grace period to 120 days from within Vista such that you can test these other editions - see the Windows Product Activation & Validation chapter. Unless you want to undertake such a trial, or you still expect to make changes to your hardware configuration, I recommend entering your key now and ticking the 'Automatically activate Windows when I'm online' box.

STEP 5 - UPGRADE OR CUSTOM INSTALL
You will then be prompted to accept the End User License Agreement (EULA), which you should read and accept if you wish to continue installation. More details of the EULA conditions are in the Windows Product Activation & Validation chapter.

At this point, you will get the choice to do an Upgrade install or a Custom (Advanced) install which translates to a clean installation. The Upgrade installation option should only be chosen if you want to do an Upgrade install; all other configurations including dual boot should choose the Custom option.

If you do choose an Upgrade install, you will be given a Compatibility Report indicating which of your currently installed programs and drivers may be problematic under Vista, and you can stop installation at this point without any problems or changes to your existing Windows install if you feel there are too many issues identified. If you choose to proceed with the Upgrade installation, the procedure will be simila r to that outlined in the steps below, but not exactly the same, since for starters the target drive has to be the one on which your current install of Windows is sitting. Once again, an Upgrade installation is not recommended, however it should usually not be problematic given Vista's new installation method.

STEP 6 - SET TARGET DRIVE
The next screen is an important one, as it allows you to choose the logical drive where Vista will be installed. You should see a list of all the existing drive(s) correctly displayed in the format: Disk [No.] Partition [No.] [volumename] [driveletter]. If the drive(s) are not correctly identified, or are unformatted, then you will see If you have SATA or RAID configured hard drives, to ensure that they are correctly identified, you will need to click the 'Load driver' link at the bottom of this box, and then insert an appropriate Floppy Disk, CD or DVD containing your SATA/RAID drivers and load all the relevant controller drivers needed. Once done,
click the Refresh link at the bottom of the screen and your drives should be shown correctly. If they still aren't then you may have to abort installation (click the red X button at the top right of the screen) and either get more appropriate drivers from your motherboard ma nufacturer's website and/or check your BIOS to see if the drives are configured correctly. If Vista does not detect your drives properly at this stage you will either be unable to install Windows, or the installation will not work as intended especially if you are attempting a dual boot configuration or using a RAID configuration.

If you booted up with the Vista DVD you can choose to format or partition any hard drives here by highlighting the relevant drive and clicking the 'Drive options (advanced)' link at the bottom right of the screen. Note that this option is not available if you started setup from within Windows, so if necessary abort installation and follow the steps under the Partitioning section further above if you want to partition your drives for a dual boot configuration.

If your drives are partitioned and formatted the way you want them and are detected correctly, highlight the relevant drive or partition to which you want to install Windows Vista. Remember that if you want to create a dual boot configuration, your existing version of Windows and Vista must be on separate partitions or hard drives, so select the drive/partition on which your current install of Windows is not resident otherwise you will simply wind up overwriting (deleting) your existing Windows install.

Once the suitable logical drive is selected, and you are certain you want the installation to proceed, click the Next button. Any existing contents of the target drive or partition will be lost as Vista installs over it. Note that Vista does allow resizing and repartitioning from within Windows, so you can alter your partitions to some extent in the future without having to reinstall - see the Computer Management section of the Control Panel chapter.
STEP 7 - AUTOMATED INSTALLATION
From this point on, no user interaction is required for some time as Vista begins to copy across the
compressed image of itself to your target drive, expands it and configures the required features and updates.
Your PC will then restart and will complete installation before rebooting again.

STEP 8 - BASIC USER SETUP
Vista will then commence on the final phase of the installation which requires your input. Each section is
covered below:

User Account details: This is quite important. You will be asked to enter your preferred Username and
Password for the first User Account on this system. This User Account will have Administrator privileges -
see the User Accounts section of the Control Panel chapter and the User Account Control section of the PC
Security chapter for details. The User Account Username will also be used to label the root directory of your
personal folder, so choose something relatively simple but descriptive. If you share this PC with others, want
to have multiple user accounts, if the PC is physically accessible by others you don't trust, or you simply
have security concerns, then enter a password. If this is not the case for convenience's sake I recommend not
entering a password (leave the Password fields blank and click Next) for the moment. You can always
change these settings later. Select a user picture, and note that this too can be easily customized to any image
of your own choice later. These details are covered under the User Account section of the Control Panel
chapter.

Computer Name & Wallpaper: The computer name is primarily for identifying the PC in a network of
computers. As such you should not need to change this, the default of [Username]-PC should be fine for a
home PC. You can also select a background wallpaper for your Windows Desktop here. Once again this can
be easily customized to any image of your choice later as covered under the Graphics & Interface chapter.

Important Updates: You will be asked to configure Vista's basic security and online update settings. To
maintain good security during the initial startup period I recommend clicking the 'Use recommended
settings' option at the top, as we will modify all these options later in the guide anyway.

Time and Date: Set your correct time zone, time and date, and also I recommend ticking the 'Automa tically
adjust clock for Daylight Saving Time'.

Computer's Current Location: This screen asks you to set your location for networking/Internet connectivity
purposes. The options are Home, Work or Public Location. However ironically, for the average standalone
home PC connected to the Internet the best choice is actually 'Public Location' not Home, as this allows you
to connect to the Internet with full functionality but maintains tighter security. You can customize these
settings later as covered under the Network & Sharing Center section of the Control Panel chapter.

STEP 9 - WINDOWS EXPERIENCE INDEX & STARTUP
Vista then launches into its final setup phase, which may take a while, during which your system
performance is measured by the Windows System Assessment Tool to determine your hardware's Windows
Experience Index, and hence whether certain features will be enabled or not - see the Performance
Measurement & Diagnostics chapter for details. You will eventually reach the Welcome Center, which you
can browse or close immediately as it is not a particularly necessary feature. You will be able to disable the
Welcome Center from running at startup each time by unticking the small 'Run at startup' box at the bottom
left of the Welcome. If the box is unavailable it should be there upon the next bootup.


At this point you can continue with the rest of the guide, but a few things to keep in mind:

Make sure to go into your BIOS and reset your hard drive(s) as the first boot device if you had set your
DVD drive as the first boot device for installation purposes.
Make sure to remove the Vista DVD and any floppy disks from your drives before rebooting.
Limit any Internet browsing or other online activities until you've gone through the PC Security chapter.
Don't Activate your PC straight away if you plan to make any major physical changes to the hardware
configuration of your PC, or if you believe you'll be reinstalling Vista again within the next 30+ days;
wait until you've bedded down your configuration before activating. This is because multiple activations
within a short period of time are viewed as suspicious by Microsoft - see the Windows Product
Activation & Validation chapter for details.

Since this guide has been designed to cater to both those who are doing a new installation of Vista, and those
who are using an existing installation of Vista, it follows a roughly sequential order as to the types of things I
would recommend configuring after doing a new installation, but any chapter can also be read by itself if you want to focus on a particular topic first. I would however strongly recommend becoming familiar with the contents of the Windows Explorer and PC Security chapters as soon as possible, along with (re)reading
the Vista Usage Notes chapter at the start of this

Windows Vista Installation, Chapter 1

The methodology behind the installation of Windows Vista has changed from previous versions of Windows. Vista now uses an image-based installation method which is covered in this Microsoft Article.

Your Windows Vista installation DVD contains all the different Vista editions, and at the start of installation, the Product Key you enter identifies which edition you've purchased and will be installing.

Then as installation begins, instead of selectively copying across a large number of individual files as XP did, a complete compressed 'hardware neutral' image of a Vista installation is copied across to the target hard drive, uncompressed and overwrites the drive contents. As the installation continues, Vista then identifies your hardware and configures itself accordingly. This change in the underlying installation method has a range of practical impacts which are discussed further below, and also in Microsoft Article.

This chapter covers a series of important things you should consider prior to installation, as well as all the steps involved during the actual installation of Vista and immediately afterwards.


PRIOR TO INSTALLATION
Before we move onto the Windows installation process, we first look at the various preparations you should make and the issues you should consider prior to starting installation. Even if you've already installed Vista some of the information in the chapter is still applicable and worth reading through.

CHECK YOUR HARDWARE FOR COMPATIBILITY
Just to be safe, before purchasing and installing Windows Vista, you should make sure that all your hardware components are compatible with Vista and will run it reasonably well. To do so, check the Vista Minimum Requirements and also use the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor if you believe your system to be borderline compatible. The Advisor scans your PC and will tell you if you will have any issues, and ca n also help choose the version of Vista which su its you best. Also check this Vista Hardware Compatibility List to see if your hardware is listed as having any issues or being incompatible with Vista.

DISABLE UNUSED RESOURCES IN THE BIOS
As covered in the BIOS & Hardware Management chapter, it is important to turn off any options and resources in the BIOS which you will not be using prior to installing Windows Vista. This will ensure that you minimize any shared resources in Vista, prevent the installation of unnecessary drivers, and help minimize potential problems. Remember, you cannot manually reallocate IRQs and other system resources to your hardware once Vista is installed, so don't skip this step.

SCAN FOR MALWARE AND PREPARE BACKUPS
If you are going to transfer any data or personal files from an existing installation of Windows to Vista, it is strongly recommended that you do a complete malwa re scan of your existing Windows installation. This ensures that you don't wind up copying across infected files which ruin your new installation of Windows Vista. See the PC Security chapter of this guide or the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion for XP as relevant for full details. Importantly, if you plan to run the Vista installation from your current install of Windows, make sure to completely disable all background functionality of any antivirus programs after your scan, as they ma y interfere with proper installation of Vista.

Once you've scanned and are sure that your files are clear of any malware, the next step is to prepare complete backups of all your important information. This is covered under the Backup and Recovery chapter of this guide. Regardless of which type of install you're going to undertake, even if you choose an Upgrade install for example, I still strongly recommend having backups on disk or a separate hard drive prior to installation of Windows just in case anything goes wrong and you lose all the existing data on your drives. It is genuinely much better to be safe than sorry.
MIGRATING FILES AND SETTINGS OR UPGRADE INSTALL
If you just want to move user accounts, data and settings from a Windows XP or Windows 2000 machine to your current Windows Vista installation in an automated manner, you can use the Windows Easy Transfer utility. To access Windows Easy Transfer, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools, or go to your Start>Search Box and type "windows easy" (without quotes) and hit Enter. You will enter a migration wizard which will take you through the steps required to carry out the migration. For full details of how to handle the migra tion, see this Microsoft Article. To successfully migrate between two machines you will need either a removable hard drive, a USB 'Easy Transfer' Cable, be connected to the same network (not counting the Internet), or use CDs/DVDs. The categories of things you can migrate are:

Files and folders
E-mail settings, contacts, and messages
Program settings
User accounts and settings
Internet settings and favorites
Music
Pictures and video

If you don't want to transfer settings and files between two different machines, and instead you want to install Windows Vista over the top of an existing installation of Windows while maintaining all your files and settings, you will need to commence installation of Vista from within your current version of Windows as detailed under the Installing Windows section further below. Then when you reach Step 5 below select the Upgrade option and continue from there.

For home users I don't recommend migrating or doing an upgrade install and transferring user accounts, files and settings in this manner. Vista's new image-based installation method is quite sound compared to prior versions of Windows, and hence an upgrade install is not likely to cause problems. However to ensure that you have a clean slate to begin with, I still recommend on balance that you start with a full clean install of Vista, and then manually copy across only the files you need. If you insist on using the transfer tool or doing an upgrade install, I strongly recommend only transferring personal files, not any settings or user accounts.

MODIFYING THE WINDOWS INSTALLATION DISK
Vista's image-based installation system allows easier creation of a modified installation disk. The tools you eed to do this are in the Windows Automated Installation Kit and combined with these ImageX commands you can generate and alter a new Windows Vista disk image which may incorporate the latest drivers or other updated components, or remove unnecessary components, for use in future installations.
The easiest method to alter your Vista installation image is to use vLite. vLite is a free automated utility for creating a custom Windows Vista disk image for use in installation, a method also referred to as Slipstreaming. It allows you to select the components you wish to remove from Windows, as well as things you would like to add, such as Windows Updates, the latest drivers and so on. Once you have integrated the relevant components and removed the components you don't need, vLite generates an ISO file which you can burn onto CD or DVD and use as your Windows Vista installation disk.

I encourage you to experiment with vLite, however I strongly recommend that you research what you are doing before using this tool. Don't simply remove something from the Vista installation disk because you think that it somehow 'speeds up' your PC. Removing most components simply reduces disk space, it doesn't increase speed in the majority of cases. Removing Internet Explorer 7 for example is more likely cause problems and doesn't speed up your PC in any way at all. Removing certain other features may appear intuitive at first, but also have unintended results. For example removing the TabletPC features of Vista also winds up removing the very useful Snipping Tool (see the Control Panel chapter); removing
Windows Defender also removes access to Software Explorer (see the Startup Programs chapter). Don't fall into the trap of thinking that it is cool to strip out virtually every component of Windows and replace it with a third-party alternative - you are more likely to cripple desired functionality in Vista inadvertently or cause other problems for yourself down the track.

I recommend instead that you install Vista as normal, or use vLite to add useful components to the Vista installation disk, then later you can remove particular Windows components using the built-in Programs and Features utility (See the Control Panel chapter) or disable them as required. That way if you want any component back at any time, you can reinstall or re-enable it again very easily, whereas removing them permanently during installation can make things difficult. In any case if you need further help with vLite check the vLite Forums.

Importantly: Be aware that Vista's image-based installation system means that you face greater exposure to malware if you use a downloaded Vista installation image which you yourself have not created. Do not download or use any untrusted installation images as you could be installing serious malware on your system in the process, bypassing all security measures.

PREPARING THE HARD DRIVE(S)
Before you can install Windows, you need to think about how best to configure your hard drive(s) for optimal performance and the functionality to properly meet your needs. This includes considering whether you want to (re)format or partition any of the hard drives, whether you want to use a RAID configuration, and whether you want to dual boot Vista with another OS. It is also much easier to partition and format hard drives prior to Windows installation, though you can still do it after you install Vista. Make absolutely
certain to read the following information before proceeding with Windows installation.

DUAL BOOT OR MULTIBOOTING
Windows Vista is a relatively recent OS and is known to have some compatibility and driver issues, so you may wish to consider a dual boot configuration of Vista along with your existing version of Windows such as XP or 2000. This will allow you to use both operating systems on one machine, with a Boot Menu letting you select which to boot into each time your PC starts up. Such a configuration does not provide any performance benefits, it is simply designed to allow two or more different operating systems to reside on the same machine, totally isolated from each other. If you only want Windows Vista on your PC, you can skip this procedure.

The instructions for creating a dual boot/multiboot system in Vista are in this Microsoft Article, and more specific details and tips are in this Dual Boot Configuration article. Essentially, you need to have at least two or more partitions on your current hard drive and/or have two or more hard drives (See further below for partitioning information). You should then boot up into your existing version of Windows and insert the Windows Vista DVD and run Vista setup from there. This ensures that Vista will 'see' your existing Windows installation and configure the boot menu properly to give you the choice of booting into either OS - see the Boot Configuration chapter. Importantly, if you run SATA or RAID hard drives, for Vista to correctly identify all of your hard drives prior to installation and correctly configure the dual boot, you must have appropriate SATA/RAID drivers on a floppy disk or CD/DVD and insert them during the hard drive identification stage of Windows Setup.

In general I recommend having Vista and an older version of Windows on completely separate hard drives, as this causes the least number of problems, particula rly if you want to remove the older version of Windows eventually. Performance is also improved if each OS resides on the first primary partition of different hard drive, so for optimal performance in Vista, do not install it on a secondary partition of any hard drive - see below for more details. Some important things to note about dual boot setups:

It is strongly recommended that you install the older version of Windows first (or it must already exist) before installing Vista. It is possible to install Vista first and then install an older version of Windows afterwards, but this requires more risky boot configuration editing - see the Boot Configuration chapter.

If your older version of Windows is the active partition on the first boot drive (the drive or partition which is first booted up by your BIOS), then it will be altered to include Vista's boot manager files. If you delete or damage these boot files, or you remove the older OS, then you will need to boot from the Vista DVD and run Startup Repair to fix Vista's boot configuration, otherwise it will not bootup properly - see the Backup and Recovery and Boot Configuration chapters.

If you want to remove Vista from a dual boot arrangement and return the boot record of your earlier version of Windows to its normal state, see the Boot Configuration chapter for details.

PARTITIONING
During the formatting of your hard drive, you have the option of also partitioning your hard drive.

Partitions are simply fenced-off portions of a hard drive. By partitioning a drive you can effectively divide a single hard drive into several smaller logical drives of varying size, each with their own drive letter. For details on the potential advantages, disadvantages and optimal methods for partitioning, see this Partition Strategy Guide. If you're still not certain and you just want to install Vista on a single hard drive, I strongly recommend having a single partition (the default setup) as this keeps things simple and performance will be optimal.

On any hard drive the first Primary partition is always the fastest, and performance is still limited by how fast the single hard drive head can seek (move around to read or write) information. It can't be in two places at once, whereas with two physically separate hard drives, each hard drive's head can seek information independently, such as one drive reading game information while the other concurrently reads/writes virtual memory information in the pagefile. Therefore partitioning is not a true substitute for having two or more drives, it is most useful as an organizational tool. For example one of the major reasons you may wish to create multiple partitions is to allow you to dual boot with Windows XP and Windows Vista, as iscussed under the Dual Boot or Multibooting section above. This allows you to run Vista along with XP on the same hard drive for example, but completely separated from each other.

It is ideal to format and partition a hard drive prior to starting Windows installation, and you can do this either using a third party tool as covered further below, or you can use the built-in forma tting and partitioning functionality of XP or Vista under the Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management utility. The instructions for Windows XP are in this Microsoft Article, and the instructions for Vista can be found below and under the Computer Management section of the Control Panel chapter in this guide. You can also access these features by booting from the Vista setup disk and following the installation process covered further below up to Step 6.

Furthermore in Windows Vista, you can not only create partitions during the normal formatting process (see further below), you can also repartition a hard disk on an existing installation of Vista. To add partitions in Vista follow these instructions:

1. Go to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management or go to Start>Search Box and type "computer ma nagement" then press Enter.
2. In the Computer Management box, click the 'Disk Management' item in the left pane.
3. Select the hard drive for which you want to alter a partition from the list at the top of the screen.
4. Right-click on the drive and select 'Shrink Volume' - this will "shrink" the existing partition, freeing up space for a new partition(s) to be made.
5. In the next dialog box enter the amount in MB you want to use for the new partition; the maximum amount available is the amount of free space left on the hard drive
6. When done, click the Shrink button and the existing partition will be reduced by the amount you chose above.

You can now create a new partition in this freed up space. There are a range of other functions possible under Disk Management, but these are covered in more detail under the Control Panel Chapter.
If you use multiple partitions across a range of hard drives and you are after a utility that will make partition management easier, the most reputable one is Norton Partition Magic. It is not free, and I will not be covering it in detail here, however if you wish to undertake complex partitioning of your hard drive(s) it is a worthwhile investment. Note that Vista uses a newer version of the NTFS File System (see below), so you may have issues if you partition your hard drive using an older partitioning tool like Partition Magic. It would be best to stick to using Windows partitioning tools wherever possible as detailed above.

Finally, keep in mind that using multiple partitions on the same drive for backup purposes is not a good substitute for having backups of your important data on CD/DVD or another hard drive. Hard drives can and do become physically corrupted and this affects data on all partitions of a drive, so backing up from one partition to another on the same hard drive as your main backup strategy is not appropriate. However partitioning a single drive to create a recovery partition for Startup Repair for example can provide useful additional protection. See the Backup and Recovery chapter for more details on these topics.

RAID CONFIGURATION
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) is a common method of configuring multiple hard drives to perform better and/or provide better protection against data loss than a single hard drive. The various RAID levels are best demonstrated in this RAID Article - click the numbers at the top right of the article to see the various RAID levels demonstrated graphically, including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and RAID 0+1.

To set up a RAID array you need two or more hard drives, preferably of the same size and speed, and a motherboard with RAID support. You will then need to connect the drives and configure the appropriate RAID options in your motherboard's BIOS (include any 'RAID BIOS' options) - see your motherboard manual for instructions. If your motherboard supports RAID, there is no additional hardware required, it is all driven by Windows and the motherboard. Once onfigured correctly, the RAID configuration of multiple
drives will be seen as a single large hard drive by Windows, and treated as such.

To determine which RAID configuration best suits your needs, you will need to read the articles linked above and consider your most common PC tasks. The most commonly used RAID array is a pair of similar drives in RAID 0 formation, which provides the best all-round performance at minimal cost. RAID 0 usually beats any single hard drive configuration in terms of speed, particularly for gaming or large file movements, due to there being two independent drive heads constantly seeking data in place of one. However RAID 0 also provides absolutely no fault tolerance at all, meaning if one of the drives suffers a serious error or is damaged, you lose all the data on both drives since the data is split evenly ('striped') across both drives. Therefore if you require stronger protection against data loss, you might want to consider a RAID 5
configuration which is more costly, but far safer and still provides good performance for desktop PC usage.

While setting up striped RAID arrays - that is, RAID arrays which split data evenly across two or more hard drives (such as RAID 0 or RAID 5), you will need to determine a Stripe Size to be used in your RAID BIOS.

In general, if you are uncertain of the size to choose, use the Auto setting (if available) or a 64kb stripe. If you use the drives primarily for gaming I suggest a smaller stripe size of 16 kb, as in my experience this can assist in reducing stuttering in games.

In any case once you have connected your drives and set up your RAID array using the options in the motherboard's BIOS, you will need to have a floppy disk, CD or DVD handy with the correct RAID drivers prior to starting the Windows Vista installation procedure. Then during Windows Vista installation, on the screen where you select which drive to install Vista onto, if your RAID hard drives are not detected shown as a single logical drive with the correct size and volume name, you will need to click the 'Load driver' link, insert the appropriate SATA/RAID driver disk, load up the relevant drivers, then click Refresh on the drive selection screen. If you miss this step, the RAID hard drives may not be correctly detected by Windows Vista as one la rge hard drive, and you will not be able to install Windows on them properly or you will break the RAID array and lose the benefits of RAID.

Once Vista is installed on your RAID drives, from that point onwards there are no special considerations as such; the drives are treated as one large normal hard drive for all intents and purposes in Windows.