any advice for vista install

[pctechxp]

Hi guys

I work within software tech support.

So that both myself and my colleagues can take a look at Vista and get ready insofar as is possible for supporting users running applications on it (we support a large home user base) I have ordered a copy of the latest beta on DVD and wrestled some oldish hardware from our PC build team (my arms still bear the scars) ;-)

What I'd like to know is:

Any tips for the install (does it tend to crash at certain points, seem to take a long time, etc), it'll be installed on a clean NTFS partition

Will the following config be ok (I know the graphics hardware wont support Aero but its 'under the bonnet' we are more concerned with)

Intel 'northwood' P4 with 533 Mhz FSB running @ 1.5 GHz
1.5 DDR 400 RAM
Cant rem the exact model but its an Intel graphics chip and motherboard,


Is there any updates I should get before to assist the smooth running of the install?

Cheers

Mitch

[Paul Adams]

One trick I use for test systems is to apportion about 30GB for (each) Vista, and have a partition which can hold things like drivers and AV setup files which won't get flattened between test installs.

e.g.
if testing Vista on its own on a 60GB disk, I'd split is 30/30 for Vista & data
if testing XP & Vista dual-booting on a 80GB disk, I'd split it 20/30/30 for XP, Vista & data

Research the hardware you have and check for Vista-specific drivers (in particular any flagged as Beta 2 friendly) and have them ready on the local disk.
It's most annoying to install the OS and then find you don't have any network drivers to be able to reach Microsoft Update where it could download the updated drivers for you...

The setup is "staged" so an image of the OS is both dumped onto the disk and extracted to become %systemroot%\Windows - this means a lot of disk space used but also you never need the DVD again (for that installation), and adding Windows components can be done easily.

The deployment from DVD on my laptop takes 35 minutes from start to first logon, and that's with a relatively low-speed DVD and HD.

Deifnitely a good idea to test it on test machines and not production or main rigs!