Struggled some with purchasing Vista as a download from Microsoft’s online store.
First, of course, was the struggle with just what version to buy! Decided on Vista Premium Home 32 bit. The features on the higher end versions seemed nice, but really the only one I might have been interested in was the business edition with remote desktop, but there are other free things I can do to gain that funtionality. And the price for the 64 bit versions was just over the top for that feature set as well.
So, I purchased the Vista download at 10 PM PDT, but that didn’t get me a download right away. Had to wait until the next morning for the email with links and code.
Then, of course, it wasn’t an ISO that I could load on my clients computer. He already has XP but I want to do a clean install. A little searching and I found what I needed.
First, how to make an ISO, and then how to do a clean install.
The directions for the ISO was found here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/10/how-to-make-vista-bootable-dvd-with-wim-downloaded-files/
And that required the file from Microsoft called cdimage.exe ( the previous link mentions it but the download sites were available or something) which I found here:
http://code.google.com/p/create-iso-file/downloads/detail?name=CDIMAGE.EXE&can=2&q=
Then I needed directions for doing a clean install with an upgrade Vista which I found here:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_upgrade_clean.asp
Praise Google, praise mydigitallife.info and praise winsupersite!