Reinstalling Vista

VISTA INSTALLATION

A few days ago my operating system destroyed my naturally sunny disposition by committing suicide.  Since this is the fourth time I’ve had to install Vista and each time I forget steps or do things in the wrong order so that it takes longer than it should, I decided to record the sequence of events for myself and my posterity.

Vista is currently (early 2008) an unstable operating system. This means that the odds are pretty good that you will need to (re)install Vista a few times. Here’s how I do it. [With thanks to http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070201#story1. It is a sign of the immaturity of Microsoft’s operating system design that most of the steps that follow are controversial in one way or another. Alas.]

1. Buy a Vista Upgrade: As of this writing (early 2008), there is no functional difference that I am aware of between a Vista Upgrade and a Vista Full Version. You can use either version to upgrade your computer from a prior Windows operating system; or you can use either version to do a de novo installation onto a freshly-formatted hard disk in case you need to totally wipe out an earlier version of Windows before installing. Since the Vista Upgrades are cheaper than the Full Versions, I recommend that you buy a Vista Upgrade to Vista Home Premium.
2. Back up everything you want to save: If you need to repartition drives, etc. the installation process will destroy everything in the partition you install Vista on. If you do not need to (re)partition or (re)format drives, the installation process should not destroy the data on your drives; however, it is a good idea to back things up anyway.
3. Boot from the installation DVD: Put the install DVD in your CD/DVD drive and boot the PC from the Vista installation DVD.
4. Select “Install Now”, but don’t enter the product key! Also, do not select to automatically activate Vista. Continue and confirm that you don’t want to enter the product key.
5. Don’t lie about the version of Vista that you are installing: You would be sorry later.
6. Select the “Custom(Advanced)” install, not the “Upgrade”: At this point you will be given the option to repartition or format your drives. If you don’t know what this means, don’t worry about it. If you do know what this means and need to do it, go ahead, but be aware that this is the point of no return!
7. Install Vista, but do not activate Vista: Vista copies its files onto your drive. Create username and password as necessary. (I find typing a password each time I want to use my own computer too annoying for words, so I leave the password blank.) After the installation is complete do not activate Vista. First, you need to install the Vista upgrade as follows…
8. Run the DVD’s setup.exe program from the Vista desktop: Normally, if you eject and then re-insert the DVD the setup.exe program will run automatically.
9. Select “Install Now”: Do not get the latest upgrades for installation.
10. This time around, enter the Product key from your Vista packaging: Enter the product key, but turn off the option to “Automatically activate Windows when I’m online”.
11. Now select “Upgrade”: It seems weird, but it works (as of January 2008).
12. Let Vista install itself again: Enter username and passwords as necessary.
13. Now activate Vista by phone: Go to Start/Control Panel/System and Maintenance/System. Click to activate your installation:
    1. Save the Activation Code: If this is the first time you’ve installed this copy of Vista, follow the menus to the point where you are given the option to choose telephone activation. Activate by telephone! You will be given a phone number to dial and you will need your Product Key. At the end of the phone activation you will be given a 48 digit activation code. Write it down and store it with your installation DVD. Use the activation code to activate Vista. [Note: if you use the easier internet-based methods to activate your copy (which admittedly don’t involve typing 48 character activation codes) you are exchanging information with Microsoft’s servers. They might not use the information they gather against you, but then again they might. Consider that if your operating system crashes you will need to reinstall your copy of Vista. Microsoft could conceivably check its database at that point and discover that your copy of Vista has already been activated. To Microsoft, that might look suspicious. It is a recipe for disaster for you. Why take the chance? Microsoft is not known for its customer-friendly policies.]
    2. Use the Activation Code you saved from the original Vista installation: If this is a reinstallation of Vista, follow the menus to the point where you are given the option to choose telephone activation. Manually type in the 48 digit activation code that you saved from the last installation. [For instance, my code is 354474-581606-570742-116991-161172-697084-126715-805481.]

You can install Vista from scratch in a little less than 2 hours. Software backup/restore will take more time. Customizing Vista will take more time. Loading your application software and configuring it will take more time.

For an example, my Vista installation became unstable on 25 January 2008 about noon when it stopped talking to my Bluetooth keyboard. I tried to repair the situation but within 8 hours of increasingly desperate driver reloads, etc. I had completely lost the user interface – no Bluetooth keyboard or mouse, no PS/2 keyboard or mouse. Luckily I found an old USB mouse in a dusty box in the garage. Although Vista complained mightily, I was able to use the mouse alone to backup everything on the system before it completely crashed. I spent all day Saturday and all day Sunday working to get Vista reloaded and all my software reloaded. It took me 31 hours total.

RELOADING SOFTWARE

After installing Vista, all system drivers and application software must be reloaded.

1. Video Display: Vista doesn’t recognize… Load Video Card Drivers from CD

2. Change Vista display resolution to 1920 x 1200 @ 60 Hz. [Display is Dell 2407 WFP-HC] Reboot.

3. Internet Connection: Load Netgear WG111 v 3 Drivers for USB 2.0 adapter. Allow the installation disk to run the wizard. When prompted, enter the WEP Hex key manually. The key is [XXXXXXXXXX]. The computer should find the local 802.11(g) network.

4. Install Vista Updates: Start/Control Panel/Windows Update, etc.

5. Install Remote Printer Driver: Pixma MP 530 from disk.

6. Install Wireless Print Server: WPSM54G from disk

7. Attach Local Printer: HP PSC 1410. Drivers load automatically.

8. Configure Speaker/Sound. Download sound device driver from Microsoft.

9. Attach Bluetooth Adapter: Do not use the Bluetooth installation software on disk! Drivers load automatically. Connect to keyboard. Load SetPoint 3.3 from disk.

10. Load Microsoft Office and FrontPage: Activation code for Office is on the installation sleeve

11. Configure Outlook Email Accounts: Also import any saved .pst files.

12. Load Visual Studio 2005: Requires download of extensive update

13. Reload Backup Files.

a. Software

b. Project Documentation

c. Project Data

d. Other Stuff

14. Reload Application Software:

a. Lightning Download

b. 7-Zip

c. Anonymizer

d. Corman Lisp

e. Retrospect – Western Digital Software

f. Qt & Visual Studio Integration: compile static version

g. IcoFx

h. XEmacs & SLIME

i. CLisp

j. Ghostscript

k. GSView

l. Tex/LaTex

VISTA CUSTOMIZATION

Out of the box, Vista is an unbelievably annoying operating system. You will want to make several changes in order to live sanely with Vista.

User Account Control: Stop the nag! Start/Control Panel/User Accounts and Family Safety/User Accounts/Turn User Account control on or off. Uncheck the feature and restart your computer. Then Start/Control Panel/Security/Security Center/Change the way Security Center alerts me/Don’t notify me and don’t display the icon.

Automatic Updating: Turn it off! Start/Control Panel/Security/Windows Update/Change Settings. Set the button “Never check for updates (not recommended)”. If you do not do this Vista will periodically check for software updates. When it finds one it will download it and install it. Most updates require a reboot, so your system will reboot. If you are doing something like a long calculation or editing a file or downloading a large file when the system reboots, all your work will be trashed.

Drag something useful to your desktop: Go to Start/All Programs/Accessories and drag a Command Prompt to the Quick Launch portion of your task bar. Right click the icon, select Properties/Shortcut/Advanced/Run as Administrator. (The task bar is along the bottom of the screen; the Quick Launch portion is to the immediate right of the Start button on the far left of the task bar.) Go to Start and drag Computer to your Quick Launch. Go to Start and drag Internet Explorer to your Quick Launch.

Expand the size of your Quick Launch area: Right click on the task bar. Uncheck the “Lock the Taskbar” menu item. Grab the Quick Launch area handle and drag it right as much as you need. Right click on the task bar. Recheck the “Lock the Taskbar” menu item.

Turn off autoplay: Start/Control Panel/Hardware and Sound/AutoPlay. Deselect “User AutoPlay for all media and devices”. Go to “Software and Games” and change default to “Open folder to view files…”

Adjust blinking cursor: Start/Control Panel/Ease of Access/Ease of Access Center/Make the Computer Easier to See/Set the Thickness of the Blinking Cursor: 2

Set up Internet Explorer: Start IE7. Tools/Internet Options/General/ set home page to www.google.com. Tools/Internet Options/General/Tabs:Settings. Set “Open home page for new tabs instead of a blank page”.

View hidden files: Start/Control Panel/Appearance and Personalization/Folder Options/View/. Select “Show hidden files and folders”. Deselect “Hide extensions for known file types”. Deselect “Hide protected operating system files”. Start/Control Panel/Appearance and Personalization/Folder Options/View/Search/. “Always search file names only”.

Update path: Start/Control Panel/System and Maintenance/System/Change Settings/Advanced/Environment Variables/Path += “.;c:\bin;”