Here is more, also from HardOCP:
The Method
Obviously you'll need the Vista Upgrade DVD, and the key but you won't need the key just yet, at least not during the installation. Why? Because Vista allows you to install itself without the requirement of inputting the key during the initial phases of setup, that's why.
So, when you're ready to get started, and you know how you want to set everything up, put in the DVD and boot the computer off it. I'm not going to offer opinions on how to partition your drive, nor how much space Vista is going to require, etc. Those things are for other threads and forum postings, this one is strictly about the clean install and that's that.
Step 1 - The Actual Installation
Boot the computer off the Vista Upgrade DVD and begin the installation. When the first screen appears, click the appropriate button to continue. Do everything as requested up till the screen where it asks for your Product Key. When that screen appears, click No.
A warning dialogue will pop up babbling on about not putting in your Product Key at that time, and we know and expect this, so click No again. After a few moments the next window appears listing all the various editions of Vista you can actually install. ALL EDITIONS of Vista are on that DVD, but we're not concerned with the others, only the specific Upgrade edition you actually purchased or you got as part of the Express Upgrade program.
Choose the actual edition of Vista you actually have because the Product Key that came with it will only work with that edition, understand? Make the selection by highlighting the choice on the list of editions, and then put a check in the checkbox saying you've made your selection.
On the next screen you'll see the EULA - the End-User Licensing Agreement. It wouldn't hurt to read it, really, if for no other reason than bragging rights someday when you can honestly and truly say, "Yes I read the damned EULA, once." After you read it or you just blow it off, click Next to continue.
The upgrade install option won't be available, and we could care less about that anyway, so click the section where it mentions the clean install method.
On the next screen you'll need to select the partition you wish to install Vista on. There are two things that will happen here: a) you'll see the hard drive(s) in your system, or b) you won't. I'm not going to turn this into an SATA installation guide; there are other guides to address those issues if required. If Vista can't see the specific drive you want to install it on at that point in the installation then you're dead in the water and need to work on getting the SATA drive(s) detected properly with SATA controller drivers or you'll need to modify your BIOS to allow the SATA controller to work in ATA mode so Vista can "see" it.
If Vista can see your drive(s), then now is the time to either select an entire drive to install Vista on or create a partition for Vista to go on. Again, I'm not going into the fine details here, there are plenty of guides out there that can handle this aspect of installing an OS.
Once you've set up the partition(s) the way you want and you're ready to commit to the actual installation finally, highlight the specific drive or partition that you want to install Vista on and click Next. That's when it's time to get up, stretch, go outside and get some fresh air, make lunch, read the newspaper, etc. Doesn't matter, but obviously sitting there and watching a bunch of files be decompressed and copied isn't my idea of an efficient use of time so, go do something.
Come back in maybe 20-30 minutes, maybe less depending on how powerful your machine is and you'll either be done with the install (Vista reboots itself several times during the installation) or you'll catch the progress as it continues.
If it's still going, go get some more fresh air, etc. If it's done, you'll be staring at the screen where you input your username, password, etc. I don't need to explain all this; you can figure it out.
Finish the installation completely all the way to the Desktop and when you're there, that's when it's time for...
Step 2 - Finish Him!
When you're at the Desktop, staring at all the pretty colors, the Sidebar, etc, that's where you want to be. Don't do anything else at this point because you're not done just yet.
The following commands can be done anytime in the next 30 days after the installation - they do not have to be done immediately after the installation is complete. Why would doing this immediately after the installation be a bad idea? Well, earlier in this post I explained why the 30 day "grace period" exists in the first place, so... it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway, it's my post) that activating Vista as soon as you install it is a very bad idea because you may encounter some hardware or software issues that need to be resolved.
Software issues won't affect activation, or require activation to be redone. Hardware, however, is precisely what causes activation issues in the first place, so the trick here is to resolve all the hardware incompatibilities or driver issues before you activate Vista. And yes I know drivers are software so in some respects they could be part of the reason why activation becomes required again, but I'm not here to argue semantics to that degree.
So take the first few minutes to open Device Manager (fastest way is press and hold the Windows key - the one with the Windows flag on it, also known as the Start key and then press Pause which is typically just above and to the left of the Numeric keypad on most keyboards, it's next to the PrintScreen and ScrollLock keys). Doing this brings up System Properties, and Device Manager is the top link on the left pane, Click that once, and you'll get your UAC prompt asking for permission to continue since this operation gives you direct access to hardware controls and device installation/uninstallation.
Now take a peek and see what devices don't have drivers natively and then go from there. Again, I'm not going to go into incredible amounts of help or details here; there's simply no way to cover every conceivable possibility. Suffice to say the idea is simple:
You want to resolve every single hardware incompatibility, driver support issue, ACPI issues (any non-compliant driver will break ACPI functionality in Vista and that means neither sleep or standby nor even hibernate functions will work properly and you'll have problems), or basic stuff just going wrong. I've said it once, twice, 10,000 times and I'll say it again: "It's the drivers... it's always the drivers..." and I've never been proven wrong yet.
For our purposes, we'll just be hypothetical and say your machine is fully supported, every single hardware device has proper support, everything works perfectly (HA!) and you're ready to activate Windows Vista. When that time comes, here's how you do it with the "clean install" you just performed or performed sometime in the previous 30 days if you used that many.
Step 2a - Administrator: Command Prompt here we come
You need Administrator level access to system commands to be able to perform the following 3 commands in sequence, so here's how you get that level of access. Click the Windows "orb" on the Taskbar. Previously it was the "Start Button" but now it's just some damned orb thingie. Click that, and when the menu appears, click Programs, and then click Accessories.
When the Accessories are listed, you need to find the entry for Command Prompt and do the following:
Move the cursor to that entry and highlight it, and then right-click on that entry (not left-click, right-click on it). On the menu that appears, choose the "Run as Administrator" option.
Another UAC prompt will appear, so click Continue once more. After you do this, you'll see a Command Prompt appear onscreen, aka a "DOS box" but this is no ordinary Command Prompt. You can tell that because it'll say Administrator: Command Prompt right there in the title bar, so if it does not say Administrator: Command Prompt in the title bar of that "DOS box" window that appears, do the above again until you do get it. I'll bet you get it the first time 'cause, you're like smart and stuff.
This Administrator: Command Prompt is vastly more powerful, so obviously a warning is useful here: Be fuckin' careful with what you do whenever you use an Administrator: Command Prompt 'cause you can do some damage, quick.
Step 2b - Stuff that Product Key where the sun don't shine
At the Admin Command Prompt, type the following:
slmgr.vbs -ipk <your Product Key, with hypens> (press Enter)
What that would look like is this (and no it's not a real key):
slmgr.vbs -ipk JMJTK-MFCGD-429TY-2CK8W-TYPHK (press Enter)
When you punch in that command and press Enter, it sets a few wheels in motion. -ipk means "Install Product Key," so Vista starts churning out all sorts of good information internally, checks a lot of variables, does some monster computations (you can tell stuff is going on with Task Manager as the CPU usage will spike considerably), etc. This process can take anywhere from 30 seconds to a full 2 minutes depending on the speed and power of your computer, so at this point all you can really do is sit it out.
When the process is done, a popup window will appear (and your browser can't stop these kinds of popups... sorry, bad joke) and Vista will inform you that the Product Key installation was successful.
If it says anything other than the Product Key was successfully installed then there's some kind of problem, and again I can't say what it is or might be. All I can say is that I've done this method of installing a Product Key about 2700 times since October of 2006 and it's never failed for me, or for anyone else that I've taught this method to. I have no reason to think it won't work for you the first time and every other time afterwards if necessary.
If it worked, great, click OK on the popup and we move on. If not, you'll have to find assistance elsewhere because I just can't help with that.
Step 2c - "Activation? We don't need no stinkin' activation!!!"
Go back to the Admin Command Prompt and enter the following:
slmgr.vbs -ato (press Enter)
Again, when you do this command, Vista does a lot more computations with this one, and about the same or even more CPU activity will be noted. -ato means "AcTivate Online" basically, and what Vista is doing when that command is issued is to check each and every hardware component in the machine, generate code hashes to crossreference into a formula that generates your activation ID that is 100% unique to your specific machine at that specific moment in time - and the time and date are also part of the formula, so the chance that any other computer in the universe having the exact same activation ID is like, one in infinity multiplied by infinity squared. In other words, you're safe, no worries.
And again, when that process is finally completed after another 30 second to 2 minute period of time, perhaps longer since it's more heavily computational that the -ipk command, you'll get another popup that states Vista has been properly activated.
If you get any other messages, they are either related to someone else having or using the same key to activate already (hey, it's a possibility) or something could be wrong with your Internet connection that's preventing the activation from being successful, or Microsoft's servers are choking, etc. I can't say specifically what or why it might not give you a successful activation, all I can do is tell you that, again, in well over 2,000 uses of this method, none of the steps have ever failed for me and others that have used this method and reported on it.
If the activation is successful as I expect it to be, technically you're done. Once you click OK to close that popup, you just installed an upgrade version of Vista completely clean, with no old OS on the drive to mess things up, no leftovers of old software of any kind, and without any hassles about Vista not allowing the clean install of an upgrade. Pat yourself on the back and enjoy your success.
But, there's one more step just to be sure. It's optional, but since you're already in a comfortable position to use it, why not get it over with.
Step 2d - "Authorize this, punk..."
Go back to the Admin Command Prompt and enter the following:
slmgr.vbs -dlv (press Enter)
Again, a 30 second to 2 minute wait, and this time Vista is doing the same similar computations on the hardware of your PC. It's basically running a checking routine to see if anything has changed since it was activated (which just happened, actually) so you shouldn't have any problems here. -dlv basically means "Do License Verification" and that's precisely what it's doing: checking to make sure the machine that was activated is still the same machine from top to bottom. When it's done, you'll get a final popup but this one will have a lot of obscure technical information on it that's not really useful to most if not all people.
But one line of information is very important to any and all Vista users, and that's the last one that shows the Status. If - and I have no reason to think it won't - it shows the word "Licensed" you are officially done with all of this, so click OK to close that popup, remove the Vista DVD from the drive and get started on using your new "clean install" upgrade Vista installation.
I hope this helps someone, or maybe a few someones and finally puts to rest the "clean install" vs upgrade questions we continue to get at various times. My hope is that it'll be useful to at least one person, hopefully many and then some. Comments are welcome, but please, please, FOR THE LOVE OF PETE PLEASE don't turn this into a Vista bashing/activation sucks/I hate Microsoft complaint thread.
I'll reserve the first post after this one for updates or changes, and if people catch booboos or I really screwed up on my own proofing of the post, I'll make note of changes at the beginning of it, not at the end, so people can see it and the date of the latest update immediately when they load the first post in the thread.
Believe it or not, I wanted to include some pictures of the steps in action and the popup windows, but I'm not even running Vista at the moment, and it could be weeks before I run it again, so all this was written right off the top of my noggin.
Also, I had to split this into two posts, damned forum limitations... BLAH.
Thanks, and have fun, always...
