Datasheet
Installing Windows Vista
21
The Windows Vista DVD is bootable. To start the installation, you simply restart your
computer and boot to the DVD. The installation process will begin automatically.
We will discuss how to install Windows Vista in more detail in the next
section.
If you are installing Windows Vista from the network, you need a distribution server and
a computer with a network connection. A distribution server is a server that has the Windows
Vista distribution files copied to a shared folder. The following steps are used to install Win-
dows Vista over the network:
1. Boot the target computer.
2. Attach to the distribution server and access the share that has the files copied to it.
3. Launch setup.exe.
4. Complete the Windows Vista installation using either the clean install method or the
upgrade method. These methods are discussed in detail in the following sections.
You can also install Windows Vista through an unattended process,
which is covered in detail in Chapter 2, “Automating the Windows
Vista Installation.”
Performing a Clean Install of Windows Vista
This section describes how to perform a clean install of Windows Vista. As explained in the
previous section, you can run the installation from the optical media or over a network. The
only difference in the installation procedure is your starting point: from your optical drive or
from a network share. The steps in the following sections assume you are using the Windows
Vista DVD to install Windows Vista.
There are three main steps in the Windows Vista installation process:
1. Collecting Information
2. Installing Windows
3. Set Up Windows
We cover each of these steps in detail in the following sections.
The following sections give the details of the installation process to show
how the process works. But you should not actually install Windows Vista
until you reach Exercise 1.1. In that exercise, you’ll set up your computer to
complete the rest of the exercises in this book.
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