Vista OEM Disc

[Pandamonium]

I bought an Acer laptop from Staples about two weeks ago and just today received my order for a ram upgrade. Anyway, now that I've got the machine in specced the way I want it (well, I'd like to add internal bluetooth and an integrated webcam, but that's wishful thinking...), I'm getting around to cleaning things up. I burned my recovery discs, which would revert my system to the factory state with all the bloatware installed. I'm not sure how useful they'd be, but I'd rather have a factory pressed DVD with Vista. Since my laptop ships with an OEM license to Home Premium, all I need is the media.

I did a search for "Vista Home Premium media only" on google products, and I'm not getting anything. Is there a way for me to request a disc from MS/Acer directly? I just want to be able to do a clean install...

 

[EagleKeeper]

Acer will send you the bloatware package.

MS may sell you the media when yo provide them with the license info. Call them.

 

[Pandamonium]

Blar. MS is referring me to Acer, and Acer apparently doesn't operate any call centers in the US. (Or at least their website gives me that impression). I sent a support email to Acer, but I'm wondering if they'll be able to do anything for me. Has anyone done something like this before?

 

[Drexl]

If you're considering just buying a new OEM version, be careful about buying something that's too cheap. A couple of years ago, I unknowingly bought a pirated edition of Windows XP Pro (do a search for Microcity4less for more info). Stick to reputable dealers.

BTW, I've never worked with recovery discs before, but it's possible that they are very similar to real discs but use customized additions to the installation. If you download the Windows Automated Installation Kit (heads up-it's about a gigabyte in size), you may be able to look at the disc and see if you can identify and remove the installation routines for the bloatware and create a new disc. This might be very difficult though.

 

[bruceb]

A lot of the so called recovery cds are actually in the form of a Bootable Ghost or
Acronis TruImage .. that is why you can usually not customize them. But just pop
it in a cd drive with AutoRun disabled and browse the cd .. If you can if the actual
programs you want, then you can move them to another cd ... You would need to
disable or remove the Autorun file so all the programs you do not want, do not
get called for during use.

 

[Rottie]

While playing around with my new notebook recently and I noticed Media Center already include with Vista Home Premium....am I wrong?

 

[Pandamonium]

Does anyone know where I can buy media only? If I can't find a place to legitimately buy media, I'll probably end up downloading a torrent. It's silly- I finished buying my software or finding freeware replacements, and the easiest way for me to do a clean install of Vista is to download a torrent for it.

 

[bruceb]

Personally, I would not trust a torrent download of an OS ... you never know if something
was added to it like a virus, etc. Better to see if a friend has the correct version of the
program you want and make a copy of it ... Or see if MS will sell either you or him a
copy of replacement media. Note that replacement media does not come with the License
Key, so you will need your copy of the key to install it. Because of that, if you own a copy of
the OS or other MS App, you can usually get a replacement cd from MS at minimal cost.

 

[Skeeedunt]

It would be nice if MS was willing to ship DVD's for OEM licenses for $10 like they will with Retail, but oh well.

I can tell you that Retail media will work with an OEM key, and that the DVD's contain all versions (i.e. a "Business" DVD will include Home Premium, Ult, etc., just install the one that corresponds to your key). If you can find any Retail or OEM media you're set.

 

[chusteczka]

My preference is to use the OEM recovery CD and manually uninstall the unneeded bloatware. This way, I know the proper drivers are installed for the OEM hardware.

 

[obeseotron]

Not sure about factory pressed, but I think you would be within your rights to just burn a friend's Vista disc. You own a legit license, as long as you use the key you paid for I don't see any legal issues. As stated above all Vista discs contain all versions for the same architecture (x86 discs don't have the x64 versions and vice versa).

 

[lxskllr]

I'm note sure if this'll work, but maybe you could use vlite to remove the 3rd party crapware from your backup DVD you made. It may be worth a shot to try it.