On the first screen, click Next to display
the Install Windows screen shown Figure 1-1. From here, click Install
now to proceed.
On the next page, setup asks for your product key, which you can read off
the DVD sleeve or the sticker on your PC case. Mercifully, Microsoft now
allows you to skip this step??”leave the field blank, click Next, and then
answer No??”so you don??™t have to waste time fishing around for the sticker
and typing the excruciating 25-digit key. This is a particularly nice time-saver
in the event that setup fails and you have to start over, or if you??™re only setting
up a temporary Vista installation for software testing or data recovery.
Reduce Vista??™s Footprint
When you install Vista, the setup program basically unpacks a standard
installation from a disc image on the DVD. This is why there are so few questions
asked during setup, no optional components to include, and no way to
exclude the tons of sample media files Vista includes. Sure, once Vista is
installed, you can subsequently go through it and thin out this bloated
behemoth, but wouldn??™t it be easier to lighten the load before you install?
Fortunately, there??™s vLite, a free utility available at http://www.vlite.net/,
which lets you customize your Vista installation before you install a single file
to your PC. It requires a functional PC (and a DVD burner) to run, but, of
course, you can always install Vista as-is first, and then wipe your hard disk
clean before you install the vLite version.
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