I‘ve been using Vista from a Technet subscription until now, but I finally received my enterprise copy. It came in the form of a 2.4GB IMG file. I used ImgBurn to dump that to a DVD, and installed it on a laptop. The install procedure is almost identical to that of the retail versions, with the main exception being that you don’t get prompted to enter a product code. To get these pictures, I installed it in Virtual PC 2007, taking screen captures along the way.

Boot from the DVD and you get the initial screen asking what language you wish to install.

Then you get the screen to Install Now.

The License Terms screen is much more brief than the equivalent retail screen, deferring you to your volume license agreement, which most enterprise users will never see, as that is handled by business types, and is never passed along.

You’re then asked if you want to Upgrade or Custom Install, with upgrade always being greyed out. Why didn’t they make the install sense if you booted from the DVD and not even show the upgrade option?

Pick where you want to install. In my case I’m installing in a Virtual Machine so I can get these screenshots, which explains why the disk size is smaller than you’d typically want for Vista.

The install goes off and does it’s thing, copying, expanding, and installing files.

It then restarts itself.

After the restart, it ‘prepares’ itself.

It then brings the installation screen back up and ‘completes’ the installation.

You’re finally prompted to enter your desired username and password.

You can also choose which picture you want. Instead of a flower, I’m going to be a cool robot!

You can then pick your computers name, and which desktop image you prefer.

You’re asked to choose your Windows Update setting.

Set your time and date.

Select your current network ‘location’.

A final Thank You, so very kind!

You finally get your logon screen, Vista is installed!

I’ll be adding articles soon about activation, customizing the installation image, etc so subscribe and be notified when they arrive!