Dan Warne24 July 2006, 9:32 AM
Vista's installation process is dramatically different to any previous version of Windows: rather than being an 'installer', the install DVD is actually a preinstalled copy of Windows that simply gets decompressed onto your PC.So how does it adjust to your hardware? Can you slipstream updates and drivers into it? We asked Microsoft Australia and got some surprising answers.
Vista’s installation process is dramatically different to any previous version of Windows: rather than being an 'installer', the install DVD is actually a preinstalled copy of Windows that simply gets decompressed onto your PC.
So how does it adjust to your hardware? How do you slipstream updates and drivers into it? Can you also 'preinstall' your favourite apps into your Vista DVD?
And most importantly, can you build a custom Vista install DVD that doesn't install all the 'free AOL trial' crap that typically comes bundled in with Windows?
We asked Microsoft Australia Technology Specialist for Windows Client, John Pritchard how it all works and got some surprising answers.
Dan Warne: Vista’s “image based install” basically means that what you get on your Vista DVD is a preinstalled image of Vista, is that right?
John Pritchard: Yes, what users’ DVDs will contain is the install Windows Imaging (.WIM) file, which is basically our operating system folders wrapped up into one image file.
The users will put their DVD in, boot off it and run the setup and it will look to them like they are doing an install, but what it is really doing is grabbing the install.wim and executing that as an upgrade or clean install depending on what the user wants.
Dan Warne: So it’s basically decompressing a preinstalled version of Vista onto the hard drive, and when you do an upgrade, it’s basically putting a clean install of Vista on there and migrating your XP settings into Vista, right?
John Pritchard: Yes, that’s right, it’s a compressed image. We will ship it with fast compression, and then users just need to have the space on the hard disk for that image to be offloaded and decompressed.
There’s also the advantage that it is file-based, not sector-based image, so you can install the image onto your hard drive without overwriting other data.
We also have advanced User State Migration with Vista. Users can take their settings from a previous version of Windows, migrate them off the PC and put them into an installable format for a new PC.
So, for example if they wanted to wipe their XP installation completely and start again with Vista, they could take their data off their XP installation with the User State Migration Toolkit and then restore it into Vista once they’ve completed their installation.
The User State Migration Toolkit can collect settings from Windows 2000 and XP SP.
Dan Warne: So is that something that ordinary consumers could use to migrate data from an old PC to a new Vista PC? Would it be easy enough for consumers to use?
John Pritchard: Yes, it would be easy enough for consumers to use, though in that market there’s also the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
James Bannan: I’ve used the XP Tool, the Transfer Wizard, a number of times for upgrading computers. The User State Migration Tool is more powerful but it is command-line based, so not as user friendly. You’d certainly find that power users would be drawn to it, definitely, especially as you can combine it with the WIM file image being a file based imaging format, meaning it’s not an overwrite of your whole hard drive (unless you wish it to be).
Dan Warne: So in terms of the way the WIM sys