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Hi Folks, Here is the latest consolidation of the Vista notes I have collected from various newsletters. It is lengthy, but there is a lot of good stuff in here. Enjoy. Here is the Lockergnome guide on Installing Vista: Introduction To Installing Vista (Part I)You can perform two different types of installations depending on what you want to achieve and on the existing configuration of your computer. For example, if you do not want to lose any of your customized settings, then you probably will not want to perform a clean installation of Windows. On the other hand, if you want to return your computer to its original pristine condition, you should opt for a clean install of Windows. The two types of Windows installations include:
Upgrade
Note: If you are running Windows
2000, you must perform a clean install of The easiest way to find out if your
computer can run Clean
Installation The main advantage to performing a clean install is that it cleans up your computer by getting rid of all the old files and programs that you no longer use and it gets rid of problems you may have been experiencing under the old setup. In other words, it returns your computer to pristine condition. Generally, performing a clean install results in a more reliable computer. Aside from the amount of time that it takes, the main disadvantage to this installation type is that you have to reinstall applications and restore any data. The next installment of this
article will look more closely at performing a clean installation of
Introduction To Installing Vista (Part II)
You should complete some
pre-installation steps before jumping into the Vendors design their operating systems to run on a minimum set of hardware requirements to ensure adequate performance. Not meeting these requirements often results in a failed installation or at least poor performance. The minimum hardware requirements
for Vista Home Basic
Vista Home Premium, Vista
Business, Vista
Note: A Windows Aero-capable graphics card is a graphics card that meets the following requirements:
Keep in mind when you are choosing hardware that these are the bare minimum requirements to run the operating system and does not take into account any network services or applications that may be running on the computer. Plan to increase these requirements for optimal performance. Microsoft has also published the
Vista Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) which is a list of products that
work with In the next installment of this
series, I will continue looking at some of the important pre-installation
tasks that you need to perform before installing Introduction To Installing Vista (Part III)If you have ever taken a vacation, you can appreciate how smoothly things go when the trip is pre-planned, meaning tickets are booked, hotel accommodations are reserved and sightseeing trips organized. For those of you who prefer to fly by the seat of your pants, I am sure you have run into problems (that are avoidable with some pre-planning). Installing an operating system is in some ways similar. Before rushing into the installation, you should take a bit of time to plan the process and complete some of the pre-installation tasks. This ensures that the installation process goes more smoothly. One of the things you should do before installing any operating system is to assemble all the additional software that you might need. Aside from a copy of the operating system, you should consider obtaining the following software components so they are on hand after the installation:
Service
Packs Microsoft releases service packs for its operating systems to distribute updates for an operating system to its customers. Users can visit the vendor's Web site to download the service pack for installation or order the service pack on CD-ROM. The purpose behind service packs is to fix known issues with an operating system, keep the product up-to-date, as well as introduce new features. Service packs can include any of the following:
It is common for vendors to release multiple service packs over time for a single operating system. Usually the service packs are cumulative so any new service packs will contain the fixes within a previous one along with additional updates. Most people choose to install the latest service packs on their computers. It is an important step in maintaining a secure computer. You can download service packs from the Windows Updates Web site or you can use Automatic Updates to automatically download and install it for you. Gathering Important
Drivers Manufacturers frequently update drivers for their hardware components. Even if you have the drivers that came with the device, it does not hurt to visit the manufacturer's Web site to see if a newer version is available. Important drivers may include:
Introduction To Installing Vista (Part IV)
A clean installation of Essential
Application Essential applications vary depending on the hardware in a computer and the tasks you want to perform. If you plan to do word processing, Microsoft Office may be an essential application. Conversely, if you plan to use your computer for digital imaging, photo-editing software may be top on your list. Typically, essential applications will include:
If you plan to install any older
applications, you should also visit the vendor's Web site to verify that
the software is compatible with Now that you are familiar with some
pre-installation tasks, you are ready to move on to installing Introduction To Installing Vista (Part V)
The easiest way to start a new
installation of
If you did not provide a product
key during setup, activation can be delayed for up to 30 days during which
you will receive periodic reminders that the product still needs to be
activated. However, after 30 days With the installation of Introduction To Installing Vista (Part VI)
Even though Most devices come with a CD or floppy disk containing drivers. For optimal performance, I recommend using the drivers included with the device or visit the manufacturer's Web site to obtain the very latest driver version. Some drivers may also be available through Windows Update. You can use Device Manager to install or update drivers for devices. Device Manager remains unchanged from previous versions of Windows. It provides a graphical view of the hardware that is currently installed on your computer. It also lists the device drivers and resources associated with each device. The installation of device drivers may vary between manufacturers. Typically, if the device is Plug and Play, plug the device into your computer and the driver should be installed automatically. You can also use the Add Hardware wizard to install devices. The following steps outline how to use Device Manager to install updated drivers:
Introduction To Installing Vista (Part VII)One of the most important measures you can take to prevent viruses from infecting your computer is to install anti-virus software. Anti-virus software is a program designed specifically to detect and remove viruses, making it an essential application to install. Once you install anti-virus software, it scans your computer and cleans any viruses it finds. Since
Note: Before
purchasing anti-virus software, make sure that it is supported by
Since new viruses are constantly
being created, the makers of anti-virus software have to constantly update
their database with new fixes for detecting and removing them. So
installing anti-virus software does not necessarily mean your system is
secure. You have to make sure you update the signature files for the
anti-virus software so it can detect and remove new viruses. Generally you
can update the signature files over the Internet. Spyware is almost as undesirable as viruses because it can monitor our actions on the Internet. Some companies have been known to use spyware to gather data about customers. Even though it is not illegal, the spyware running on your computer may be tracking and sending data from your computer to another server on the Internet. Introduction To Installing Vista (Part VIII)Ensure a Firewall is Running Before Going Online! Connecting to the Internet has many advantages. However, it also exposes your computer to the possibility of intrusion and virus attacks. One of the major downfalls of the Internet is that there are people who dedicate their time to looking for ways to attack other unsuspecting users. One of the ways that you can
protect your computer against Internet attacks is to implement a firewall
solution between the Internet and your computer and private network. This
is becoming more and more important as people store personal information
on their computers such as bank account numbers, credit card data, tax
information, and so on. Not implementing a firewall makes this information
accessible to attackers. If you are looking for a fast, easy
firewall solution, you can take advantage of the firewall component
included with A firewall solution can be a challenge to implement, especially for a user with limited experience. Windows Firewall provides a simple method of protecting your network and requires little to no configuration. You can use it to secure a single computer with an Internet connection or to secure a small network of computers. So how does the Windows Firewall protect your computer? The firewall inspects each packet that is destined for the private network. It maintains a table to determine which incoming traffic was initiated on the local network, for example, a user on the private network accessing an FTP server on the Internet. Any incoming traffic resulting from this request would be allowed through the firewall. If an inbound request was not initiated by the local computer or a computer on the private network, it is not allowed through the firewall. The Windows Firewall is enabled by
default in You can test the integrity of your firewall to determine if any weaknesses exist. Doing so is not difficult because many Web sites will put your computer's defense system to the test. For free too! There are several trusted Web sites you can visit that offer free tools for scanning your computer to detect any existing security weaknesses. For example, www.grc.com or the Symantec Security Check available from the Symantec Web site (www.symantec.com). In any case, once you have your firewall enabled, don't assume you are safe and clear from Internet attacks. You may be surprised to see the results of a security check and all the holes that may still exist. In the final installment of this series, I will talk about the installation of some common applications. Introduction To Installing Vista (Part
IX)
Most new computers come with CD/DVD burning
devices. When you purchase a computer that has a burner with it, it should
include the software you need to use it. If it is not installed, proceed
with the manufacturer's instructions. You can do so using the steps outlined
below: 1.
Click Start, point to
All Programs, point to Accessories, and click Windows Explorer.
2.
Right click your CD
burner within Windows Explorer and click Properties.
3.
From the Properties
window, select the Recording tab. 4.
Clear the check box
beside the option to Enable CD recording on this drive.
5.
Click OK.
DVD Player Application Office Suite The following Microsoft Office versions are
support:
To install a version of Microsoft Office you need
the CD, a valid product key and access to a CD-ROM drive. The CD drive can
be local or a shared CD-ROM drive on a network. The installation processes
various slightly between Office versions. If you have the CD readily available, insert it into the CD-ROM drive. If the autoplay feature is enabled, the installation wizard automatically appears to walk you through the rest of process. ============================================== And of course the guide on upgrading to Vista: Upgrading To Vista (Part
I)
You have decided to upgrade to If your system is currently running Windows, you
might be able to upgrade directly to
Note: If you are running Windows 2000, you must
perform a clean install of The easiest way to find out if your computer can
run Microsoft also publishes the Vista Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), which is a list of products that work with
Upgrading To Vista (Part
II)
Most vendors design their operating systems to run
on a minimum set of hardware requirements to ensure adequate performance.
Ignoring these requirements can result in a failed installation. Verify
that the hardware in your system meets the minimum hardware requirements
before upgrading. The minimum hardware requirements for Vista Home
Basic
Vista Home Premium,
Vista Business, Vista
Keep in mind when you are choosing hardware that
these are the minimum requirements to run the operating system. They do
not take into account any network services or applications that may be
running on the computer. Plan to increase these requirements for optimal
performance. Upgrading To Vista (Part III)You also need to consider
application compatibility before you upgrade to The easiest way to find out if your
applications are compatible with You can install the Upgrade Advisor
on all 32-bit editions of XP and all 32-bit editions of Vista (except for
Note: If .Net 2.0 and MSXML6 are not installed, the Upgrade Advisor will alert you and provide a link to where they can be downloaded. Once you have reached the Vista Upgrade Advisor Web page, click the Download button. When prompted, click the Save button. Once the download is complete, click the Run button and proceed with the steps below.
You have now completed the
installation of the Vista Upgrade Advisor and you can begin scanning your
computer to verify that it is Upgrading To Vista (Part IV)
The Vista Upgrade Advisor is a
valuable tool to both network administrators and home users. It lets you
perform the following tasks prior to upgrading to
In part three of this series, you installed the Vista Upgrade Advisor on your computer and now you are ready to scan your computer. With the Upgrade Advisor window open, start the scan by click the Start System Scan option. While the tool scans your computer,
it prompts you to select the features you plan to use. The Upgrade Advisor
uses this information to guide you in choosing the version of Click Next to proceed with the next
step - assessing your hardware. The Upgrade Advisor presents a message
indicating that your hardware can or cannot run the core experiences of
After you review the hardware
report, click Next to move onto the Software Assessment. Now the Upgrade
Advisor looks at the programs, applications and drivers installed and
whether you need to update any software to support Review the Software Assessment report and click Next. The Vista Upgrade Advisor is now complete. The final screen presents the options to print or save the final report. Click Close to exit. You should now have a good
indication as the whether any additional actions are required before
upgrading to Upgrading To Vista (Part
V)
Assuming that you have completed all the necessary
pre-upgrade tasks, you can begin the upgrade process by inserting the
Vista DVD into your drive. If autorun is enabled, click Install Now from
the Install Windows screen and proceed with the steps described
below. 1.
When prompted, type in
the license key. Click Next. 2.
Accept the end-user
license agreement. 3.
Click Upgrade.
4.
At this point, setup
might warn you if it detects any incompatible hardware and software.
However, if you ran the Vista Upgrade Advisor, you should have no
problems. 5.
Setup will proceed to
perform the following tasks: o
Copying Windows Files o
Gathering files o
Expanding files o
Installing features and updates
o
Completing upgrade This process can take several minutes and your
computer will reboot a few times. 6.
When prompted, choose
how you want to deal with automatic updates. Click Next.
7.
Select your time zone,
time and date. Click Next. 8.
Select your computer's
location: Home, Work or Public Location. Click Next.
9.
Your computer will
reboot. At this point, the upgrade is almost complete.
Upgrading To Vista (Part
V)
Assuming that you have completed all the necessary
pre-upgrade tasks, you can begin the upgrade process by inserting the
Vista DVD into your drive. If autorun is enabled, click Install Now from
the Install Windows screen and proceed with the steps described
below. 1.
When prompted, type in
the license key. Click Next. 2.
Accept the end-user
license agreement. 3.
Click Upgrade.
4.
At this point, setup
might warn you if it detects any incompatible hardware and software.
However, if you ran the Vista Upgrade Advisor, you should have no
problems. 5.
Setup will proceed to
perform the following tasks: o
Copying Windows Files o
Gathering files o
Expanding files o
Installing features and updates
o
Completing upgrade This process can take several minutes and your
computer will reboot a few times. 6.
When prompted, choose
how you want to deal with automatic updates. Click Next.
7.
Select your time zone,
time and date. Click Next. 8.
Select your computer's
location: Home, Work or Public Location. Click Next.
9.
Your computer will
reboot. At this point, the upgrade is almost complete.
Upgrading To Vista (Part VI)In the previous installments of
this article, I outlined how you can upgrade an existing computer to
If you want to transfer your settings between your current computer and the new one, you need to connect two computers. The easiest way is to do this is using a special USB cable designed to work with Windows Easy Transfer. You also need to install the application that came with the cable or download the Windows Easy Transfer program from Microsoft (Windows Easy Transfer). You need to install the program on your current PC. After that, the rest of the process is straightforward. Connect your current computer to your new computer using the Windows Easy Transfer USB cable. The Windows Easy Transfer program will start and walk you through the process of transferring your files and settings to your new computer. All versions of Windows support basic disks. A basic disk supports the following:
A basic disk also supports different types of Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) including volume sets, stripe sets, mirror sets, and stripe sets with parity. Vista Business,
You can upgrade a basic disk to dynamic disk using the Disk Management console. Click Start, right click Computer and click Manage. Click Storage and click Disk Management. Click Disk Management. Right click the appropriate disk and click Convert to Dynamic Disk. There are things you need to keep in mind when converting to a dynamic disk. In order to revert to a basic disk, you must back up all your data, delete the existing volumes and repartition the disk. You can then convert to a basic disk using the 'convert basic' command. Next, you cannot upgrade to a dynamic disk of you are using a mobile computer. Finally, dynamic disks are not accessible under pre-Windows 2000 operating systems. If you are dual booting with an older version of Windows, the dynamic disk will not be readable. In the next installment of this article, I will more closely at converting from a basic to dynamic disk. Basic And Dynamic Disks In Vista (Part II)
You can convert a basic disk to a dynamic disk by completing the steps below:
Alternatively, you can also use the 'convert dynamic' command from the Command Prompt. Unfortunately converting back to a basic disk is not as simple but you need know the general process that has to be completed. Your very first step will be to back up data on the volumes. You can then use the 'convert basic' command from the command prompt to return the disk to a basic disk. The next installment of this
article will look at configuring dynamic disks under Basic And Dynamic Disks In Vista (Part III)Now that you are familiar with basic and dynamic disks, you can move on to performing some basic disk management tasks such as creating, shrinking, extending and formatting simple volumes. In
New in To shrink a volume:
Once the operation is complete, the free space that you reclaimed will appear as unallocated space within Disk Management. As with XP, To extend a simple volume:
In the final installment of this
article, I'll outline some of the additional disk management tasks that
you can perform in Basic And Dynamic Disks In Vista (Part IV)It is common these days for someone to move a hard disk between two computers. When you move a dynamic disk from one computer to another, the status will appear as "foreign" within the Disk Management console. You will be unable to access any data on the disk until you import the disk into the computer's system configuration. If you have moved a dynamic disk from one computer to another, you can use the steps below to import it. The steps below assume that you have already physically added the foreign disk to the computer.
You should now be able to access the data that is stored on the new disk. The important point to remember any time you remove or add a physical type to a computer is that you have to open the Disk Management console and select the Rescan Disks option from the Action menu. And on that note, you should now be able to tackle many disk management tasks. Managing Dynamic Disks In Vista Part INote: Dynamic disks are
only supported on the Business, Basic versus Dynamic
Disks Dynamic disks were introduced in Windows 2000 and any earlier versions of Windows do not provide support for this type of disk. Dynamic disks support the following disk configurations:
If you are running Windows 2000 or
later, you can use the standard basic disks or convert to dynamic which
allows you to take advantage of additional features. When you first
install Many people often ask the question "Why convert from basic to dynamic?" The main reason is to take advantage of additional features that include:
Managing Dynamic Disks In Vista Part II
You can upgrade a basic disk to dynamic disk using the Disk Management console. Click Start, right click Computer and click Manage. Click Storage and click Disk Management. Click Disk Management. Right click the appropriate disk and click Convert to Dynamic Disk. It is important to remember that dynamic disks are not accessible under pre-Windows 2000 operating systems. This is important if you are dual booting with an older version of Windows. Any dynamic disks will not be readable under the legacy version of Windows. Unfortunately converting back to a basic disk is not as simple but you need know the general process that has to be completed. Your very first step will be to back up data on the volumes. You can then use the 'convert basic' command from the command prompt to return the disk to a basic disk. Now that you are familiar with the steps you must complete to convert between basic and dynamic disks, you can begin learning how to manage dynamic disks. Managing Dynamic Disks In Vista Part IIIThe Disk Management console is the main interface for managing basic and dynamic disks. Once you open the console, you will see a graphical display of all the disks installed on your computer as well as the volumes configured. Management tasks can include
creating and extending volumes, formatting volumes, changing drives
letters, importing disks, and so on. The following sections will discuss
how these management tasks can be performed under Creating and
Extending Volumes In
New in To shrink a volume:
Once the operation is complete, the free space that you reclaimed will appear as unallocated space within Disk Management. As with Windows XP, To extend a simple volume:
Managing Dynamic Disks In Vista Part IVYou can use the Disk Management
console to format or reformat dynamic volumes. To format a dynamic volume
in Keep in mind that you can convert from FAT to NTFS without having to reformat the volume. In other words, you will not lose any data. However, this is a one time conversion. In order to revert back to FAT, you will need to reformat the volume. Typically you should choose NTFS
over FAT32 because of the additional features it supports such as file
level security, disk compression, file encryption, and disk quotas.
Changing the Drive Letter Assigned
to a Dynamic Volume To access the Disk Management console, right click Computer and select Manage. Under Storage, click Disk Management. The drive configuration of your computer will be displayed in the details pane. You can change the drive letter by right clicking any volume and selecting Change Drive Letter and Paths. Click the Change button and use the drop down arrow to select the drive letter you want to assign to the volume. Click OK. Click Yes to confirm your actions. Two points you must keep in mind when performing this procedure. You cannot change the drive letter assigned to the boot or system partition using this method. Second, some programs may refer to specific drive letters for environmental variables. Changing the drive letters may result in such programs not functioning correctly. Managing Dynamic Disks In Vista Part VOne of the perks of using dynamic disks is that you can move physical disks between computers. A dynamic disk will have a status of foreign when it is moved from one computer to another. You will be unable to access any data on the disk until it is imported into the computer's system configuration. If you have moved a dynamic disk from one computer to another, you can use the steps below to import it. The steps below assume that you have already physically added the foreign disk to the computer.
You should now be able to access the data that is stored on the new disk. Remember that any time you remove or add a physical type to a computer you have to open the Disk Management console and select the Rescan Disks option from the Action menu. Summary I know it is a lot, but hopefully you found something here that was useful to you. More Next Friday, Please feel free to forward this to anyone that you think might be interested in it. If they wish to subscribe, they can click on the link below. If this was forwarded to you and you wish to subscribe,
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