Install Windows Vista

Step 1 - Place Windows Vista DVD in your dvd-rom drive 

and start your PC. Windows Vista will start to boot up and 

you will get the following progress bar. 

Step 2 - The next screen allows you to setup your language, 

time and currency format, keyboard or input method. Choose 

your required settings and click next to continue. 

Step 3 - The next screen allows you to install or repair 

Windows Vista. Since we are doing a fresh install we will 

click on "install now". 

Step 4 - You can now type the product key that came with 

your Windows vista.

Step 5 - If you do not enter the product key you can still 

proceed with the installation in which case Windows will ask 

you which version of Vista you have purchased. Windows 

Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, Business etc. 

Select the version you have purchased and click next.

                   Please note, although you can select any version of 

Windows and proceed to next stage. It is not good idea to 

select a different version to the one you have purchased 

because you will not be able to activate Windows at a later 

stage. Windows Vista can detect which version you have 

purchased once you enter your product key

Step 6 - Tick "I accept the licence terms" and press next.

 

Step 7 - Choose the type of installation you want to perform. 

You will notice that upgrade option is disabled as we have 

booted from the DVD-R. Therefore we can only select 

Custom (advanced) option which basically installs a clean 

copy of Windows from scratch.

Step 8 - Choose where you would like to install Windows 

Vista. If you have a new unpartitioned hard drive you would 

get your hard drive listed as shown on the image below. If 

 have have an old hard drive with data or other partitions it 

 will show up as logical drives. You can select the drive 

options (advanced) to format, delete, or create new 

partitions. Because I am using a single new hard drive I will 

select next to continue. Windows will create a partition and 

 format it using NTFS files system.

Step 9 - Windows starts the installation process and starts 

copying all the necessary files to your hard drive as shown on 

the image below. It will go through various stages of the 

setup and will reboot your system few times. When your PC 

reboots it attempts to boot from CD as its the first boot 

device. Do not press any key during the boot prompt so 

Windows Vista will continue with the installation by booting 

from your hard drive. 

Step 10 - After installation copy process is complete you are 

presented with the Setup Windows dialogue box as show 

below. At this stage you need to choose a user name, 

password and a picture for your user account. The account 

you create here is the Administrator account which is the 

main account for your Windows Vista that has all the 

privileges. Click next continue.

Step 11 - Now you need to choose your computer name and 

desktop background. Click next to continue.

Step 12 - Choose whether your want to Help protect 

Windows automatically. Select "Use recommenced settings" 

to continue.

Step 13 - Review your time and date settings. Select your 

time zone, correct the date and time and click next to 

continue.

Next screen presents you to select your computers current 

location. You can choose between home, work, public 

location. Choose home to continue. You will finally get a 

"Thank you" screen which confirms the end of the interactive 

installation process. This is not the end of the setup process. 

There are still many after installation configuration to be 

 done. Click next to continue. 

Step 14 - Windows now runs a benchmark type of 

application which checks the performance of your system. 

You will see a status bar at bottom which shows the progress. 

Once the process is complete you will be presented with the 

logon screen.

Step 15 - Finally you have the logon screen. Just type your 

password and press enter or click on the arrow to logon to 

Windows Vista for the first time.

Step 16 - Soon as you logon you will be presented with 

welcome center. You can use the welcome center to 

configure, customize, and update Windows vista.

Step 17 - Finally you need to check if all your hardware has 

been detected correctly. You can do so by checking your 

device manager. To access device manager click Start menu 

-> Control panel -> System -> Device manager. You will see 

all your hardware listed as shown below. You need to check if 

you have any yellow exclamation marks next to the name of 

the device similar to "USB 10/100 LAN" on image below. 

This indicates the driver has not been installed for this 

device. 

At this stage you need to install Windows Vista drivers by 

double clicking on "USB 10/100 LAN" or your device. The 

properties dialog box will appear. Click on Reinstall Driver. 

Then you can choose whether you want to install the driver 

from the internet (if available) or install manually from a CD 

or other media

Once you have removed all the yellow exclamation marks 

from the device manager your Windows Vista configuration 

would be fully complete.