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Before You Start

Re-installing your Operating System is nothing to be scared of but do not be mistaken, it is quite drastic and how you go about things will have a big effect on the way your system runs.

Before you start re-installing your OS there are two main things that need to be done first: -

Back Up any important data that you need. You should be doing this anyway because hardware can fail at any point and if a hard drive fails your data will be gone if not backed up. In this instance you need to back your data up because if you are going to go to all the trouble of re-installing your OS you may as well do it fully on a cleanly wiped disk. So you will need a copy of your data files when you have finished installing so you can copy them back on to the computer. Don't just think about actual files, also consider things like E-mails, favorites, program settings and product keys to install the programs needed to open these files again.

Device Drivers are the programs which tell the OS how to use the hardware in the machine, for example your sound or network cards. When you have finished installing the OS you will need to load the device drivers so the hardware in your machine will work. You usually get these drivers on a disk when you buy the actual hardware. If you do not have these disks any more you can also normally download the latest drivers for the piece of hardware from the manufacturers web site, however this will not be helpful if you re-install the OS before thinking and then realize that you can not access the internet for your drivers as the network card driver is not installed.

Once you have taken care of backing up your files and making sure you have any device drivers needed you can move on to installing the OS.

Running The Installation Process

Starting the Setup process for Vista is pretty much the same as for XP.

You can insert the disk and start running the setup program from inside Windows. As with XP the only time you should really bother with this method of starting setup is if you want to upgrade, say XP to Vista, and keep all of your settings intact. In my experience the process of upgrading XP to Vista in this way is fraught with danger and, in my opinion, not worth the hassle.

The other, and for me preferred way of starting setup is to place the Vista DVD into the drive and boot the computer using this. As with XP you may need to change the boot priority of your disks or use a boot menu to choose the DVD but you should end up seeing the following message.

When you see this message on the screen you need to tap any key on the keyboard, for example the space bar. You do not get very long to actually press the key so as soon as the message appears you need to hit it.

You will be able to tell that the Vista install process is starting as you will see the following screen indicating that it is loading the setup files.

The above screen can take a minute or so to load all of the required files but when it has finished you will be greeted by the following screen.

After a short period the screen will turn into a blue / green colour and the mouse pointer appears.

The first screen of any great importance is now shown.

For the next two screens if you want to exit setup you can click on the close cross on the top right of the window.

This screen allows you to choose your language, keyboard settings and time zone. Change any settings that do not marry up with where you live and then click on the Next button. At this point make sure that the Language to install is your language.

The next screen shows the setup options available.

If you want to learn more about some of the key things you should know before Installing Vista you can click on the Link at the bottom of the page.

If you want to try to recover a system that is not quite working correctly you can choose the Repair your computer link at the bottom of the page. This link will give you various options which are available to try to diagnose and repair problems.

To continue with installing Vista click on the Install now button.

After clicking next you will be asked to wait for a few minutes and then you will be presented with the screen asking you to insert your Product Key.

If you are installing an OEM version of Vista which came with your computer you may not see the following screen.

From this point forward if you click on the red close cross in the top right of the window you will be taken back to the initial setup screen, which is the screen directly above.

At this screen you should enter your Product Key. If the Key you entered is valid there will be a green tick by the end of the box. If the key is not correct then you should go back and re-check you have entered it correctly.

At this point you are asked if you want Windows to automatically activate Vista when you next go online. If you leave this box checked then Vista will try to activate automatically. If you uncheck this box then you will need to manually run through the activation process before 30 days is up or the OS will lock.

From this point forward if you wish to go back to change any settings entered you can click on the back arrow in the top left of the window.

Once you have correctly entered the product key click on the Next button.

The next screen, which is shown above, gives you the End User License agreement. You can only move forward if you check the box to accept the agreement. Once you have done this you can click on the Next button.

This will give you the screen which is shown below and asks if you want to upgrade you OS to Vista or if you want to run a custom install.

As we have not started this setup process from within Windows we can not upgrade the system so the only option available to us is the custom install. So to move forward click on the custom install option.

The following screen will be seen next if you are installing Vista on a blank hard drive. If you are installing on a drive which already has partitions or Operating Systems installed then you would see the relevant partitions listed.

If a particular drive is not listed and you need to add drivers for the drive controller then you can click on the Load driver link which will then prompt you to add the disk with the relevant driver files on it.

If you wanted to install Vista on the disk and make just one big disk then you could just click on Next here and the install process will start.

If you want to delete, format or create partitions then you can click on the Drive options (advanced) link as shown below.

If you choose the Advanced drive options you will be given the screen shown below which is pretty much the same except you now have the options to create, delete, format and extend partitions.

From the picture below you can see that I have already clicked on the New link and created a 40GB drive.

If you have partitions on the drive which you do not want, for example you want to delete all the partitions and make one big disk, then you can click on the Delete link.

This will not only delete the partition but the disk that it represents so any data on the drive will be erased by doing this.

If you want to format the drive before installing, which will wipe all data on it, then select the disk you wish to format and click on the Format link.

This will show you the following confirmation box advising that a format will erase all data on the drive.

In my opinion if you are going to go to the trouble to re-install the OS you may as well go the whole hog and start with a completely fresh install so I normally always format the drive. This of course means that you would have needed to back up your files before starting this process.

If you choose to format the drive this takes a minute or so where you will find the egg timer on the screen and none of the Links can be chosen. When the format has completed the Links and Next button come live again.

Once you have your partition ready for the Vista install make sure that the correct drive is selected and click on Next.

The actual install process will now start. This is shown below.

As you can see there are progress indicators on the screen as to what is left to be completed.

Setup will work its way through copying and expanding the files, installing features and installing any updates which will take you to the screen shown below.

After this the computer will inform you that it is going to restart. This does not mean the install process has finished so do not take the DVD out of the drive.

The computer will then restart and resumes the install process. The screen which indicates that it is preparing to load windows for the very first time is displayed.

Setup will now indicate that it is completing the installation process.

The computer will then again shut down and restart.

Next you will be asked for your Name, a Password and password hint if you want to set a password. If you do not want to set a password then you do not have to but if you set a password you must confirm it by entering it twice.

You must enter a name and this will be your Username. At this screen you also have an option to change the picture associated with your username. To change you picture just click on the picture you want to use.

The next screen gives you the option to change the desktop picture of your user. If you want to change the desktop image just click the image you want to use and click Next.

Next you will be asked how you want Windows to protect itself with regards to downloading updates. If you have an Internet connection then I would advise that you should Use recommended settings. This will allow Vista to download all updates as soon as they are available.

If you only want to install critical updates you can click on Install important updates only.

If you want to keep control of what updates are downloaded and when then you can click on Ask me later.

You will next be asked to choose your time zone and set the correct time and date for your computer.

When you have done this click on Next.

You will next be asked you current location.

If you are running a business network and the security policies for the network are controlled centrally then you should choose Work.

If you plan on connecting your computer directly to the Internet by ways of a modem or you are setting the computer up in a public location then you should choose Public Location.

Most people though should choose Home as this is for people that are on a simple home based network where there may be a few computers sharing an Internet connection.

Once you have given all this information you are thanked and need to click on Next.

Just when you think you are getting to the end of the process you come up against a screen advising that Windows is checking your computers performance. Every time I have seen this it seems to take ages.

You will get a few different screen shots to read while the Operating System is assessing the capabilities of your computer.

Once this has finished Vista will start to boot for the first time.

If you have set a password for your user then you will see the following screen asking you to log on. If you get to this screen type in the password you set earlier and press enter or click the arrow.

The computer now starts to log in to your user account for the first time.

As this is the first time your user has logged on the desktop settings need to be copied from a default set of settings and applied to your user. Your desktop is now prepared.

Finally before your computer is ready to go any programs which need to set up any personal settings will do so.

Finally you are logged on to Vista for the first time. The Welcome Center, Task bar and Sidebar are all in view and your computer is ready to go.

Installing Windows Vista is quite a straight forward process and it is a process a lot of people who never had to re-install XP will find that they are going to have to do.

People are finding problems with Vista and the main reason for this is that the programs they were using perfectly fine on their old XP machine were not written for Vista so although you may think the program is working fine it could well be that web cam software that has caused your DVD drive to suddenly become inaccessible or that free Anti virus program that is causing your computer to freeze.

So again as with XP, if you have come to this point to get your system working don't just rush ahead and install everything all at once again. Install the drivers one by one first and then the programs one by one, checking each time that the system is stable so you can discount the last program installed.

When You Have Finished Installing The Operating System

Once you have finished installing Windows Vista your next steps are pretty much the same as those for XP. These include: -

Make Sure Anything You Install Is Vista Compatible. The main thing to consider with Vista is that although you may feel that a program or driver has been as steady as a rock on your old computer so it will be fine on this one, you need to ask yourself was your last system a Vista computer and if not is the program or driver you are about to install Vista compatible.

If it is not then don't install it and blame the computer manufacturer when your computer is constantly crashing. Check with the program or driver manufacturer to see if there is an updated program or driver.

Install Any Device Drivers Needed For Your Hardware.

The first thing that you need to do after a re-install of Vista is to make sure that you install any drivers that are needed for the hardware devices on your system. XP had problems with lack of driver support when it was released. Unfortunately Vista has been exactly the same so for the near future it is worth keeping an eye out for any updated drivers that might become available for your hardware.

To check if you need to install any drivers on your computer click on the Start button and then RIGHT click on My Computer, which will open a menu (shown on the right). Choose Manage from the menu and left click it.

In Windows Vista you will not see the Computer management window straight away, the first thing you will see will be the annoying User Account Control warning that requires you to confirm that you want to make system changes.

Once you click on Continue the Computer Management window will open, which is shown below: -

As you can see from the image there is a section called Other devices, next to the question mark icon. This means that these pieces of hardware need a device driver installed for them to work.

This device is showing as Multimedia Audio Controller so we know it's the sound card but sometimes the descriptions can be a little unhelpful in working out which piece of hardware needs a driver installed.

You can install the device drivers in two ways. You can RIGHT click the word Multimedia Audio Controller and select update driver from the list that is shown. You will then be asked if you want the computer to search for the driver automatically or point it to a specific location where you have saved the files. If you point to the location of the files then the OS will try to install the drivers from the files saved in this location.

If you select to locate the drivers automatically the OS will look in various locations on your PC and Microsoft's download center to see if it can find any drivers for the device. Whichever you choose if the OS can not find the driver files the hardware will not be correctly installed.

The other way to install the drivers for the device is to run the setup file on the disks provided with the hardware or by downloading these files from the manufacturers web site and running them.

The best option is to download the latest drivers from the manufacturers web site and use these and with Vista it is a good idea to keep checking for updated drivers for your hardware as there are still a great deal of bug ridden drivers around for popular hardware on the market.

Install Any Microsoft Patches For Your Computer

As time goes on vulnerabilities and bugs in the software will be found so to make sure your computer is up to date you should use Windows Update to download all available patches and hot fix's from Microsoft. This not only means that your computer will be more secure but you may also find that those annoying little problems get magically fixed.

If you have turned Automatic Updates on, which you should, the first few times you connect your computer to the Internet you may find that the connection seems slow and it takes ages to turn the computer off after this. This will be because updates are being downloaded from Microsoft in the background to be installed when the computer is shut down.

Microsoft have already released quite a few patches and updates for Vista so the amount of updates needed to get your system fully patched up is growing day by day. The argument about faulty products just does not stand because it's pretty much impossible to say that millions of different applications made by different companies are all going to work perfectly on massively diverse systems all being held together by Vista.

Windows Update is slightly different in Vista in that it does not run from inside a web browser but has it's own program window. It still does the same thing though. No matter how many times you need to run it you should run Windows Update again and again until there are no more available updates.

Install Any 3rd Party Programs

This subject has been a big headache at present because people don't quite seem to understand that Vista is not XP and programs that were written for XP will not necessarily run OK on Vista. People have been installing all of their programs on to their new computers without bothering to check to see if these programs are Vista compatible and this has been causing a lot of annoying problems like computer freezes and crashes.

Before installing anything on Vista you should check that it is Vista compatible. If it is not or you are not sure then you should not be installing it.

Don't install stuff that you are never going to use because even though you may not be using it there is no point in having it take up space and alter your system for no reason. Also even though the programs are not being run they may still be using up resources on your computer with library files being loaded into memory and services running in the background just in case you run the program.

You should also make sure that you are installing a decent quality program that is capable of providing all you want from it. If cheap, unknown, unsupported tat screws up your computer you've got nobody to get support from.

When you buy new software install it and then keep the original disks and product keys safe as if you need them in the future, like you need them now, and you have lost the product key or disk then you may end up having to pay for it again.

The first thing you should install is a decent quality Anti virus program and make sure it's kept updated and ran periodically. You should be careful with this aspect though as Vista and Anti virus programs have had problems working together so far.

From here install the rest of the applications that you are going to use.

Replace Any Previously Backed Up Data

At this point the last thing left to do is replace all of your backed up data and put your personal settings back onto your computer. This might include copying music and personal files back into the 'My Documents' folder, setting up E-Mail accounts and importing backed up E-Mails and contacts, replacing your Favorites and setting up peripheral devices like printers and cameras etc...

This is the point where you personalize your computer back to the way that you like it to be and then you should find that you are ready to go.