cmc5788

Thanks for the link, I think I'd actually come across that one and dismissed it. I'm sure it works if done right, I just don't have any problem with calling Microsoft to reactivate if necessary.

Apparently the upgrade anytime DVD actually contains all the files needed to perform full installs of several versions of Windows as well as upgrade from, say, something like Windows XP. I was surprised to find that this was the case based on the deceptive title of the DVD, but it's not really surprising that they'd include all of that considering all the levels of validation and activation that Microsoft makes you jump through to get things working. When you create your install CD with vLite using the upgrade DVD, it will act as if it was just like any other copy of Windows. It will prompt you to enter your product key (which is on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop). It accepts this key and keeps going just fine; I recommend unchecking the "activate as soon as you have an active connection" though. It installs just fine, I haven't tried activating it online yet. I don't anticipate that it will be an issue, usually what the activation process does is check with Microsoft's database to make sure that the product key you entered is still being used with a computer that has the same hardware components that it did last time the key was activated. I should mention, though, there's a high chance that the OEM license HP purchased to install on your laptop only allowed for one online activation. If that's the case, after 30 days or so of using your operating system you'll need to call Microsoft support and explain the situation so they can validate it for you. As long as you installed the same version of Windows (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, etc) that your laptop came with, they'll have no problem activating over the phone for you. It's slightly more work, but IMO worth the trouble to get an un-bloated copy of Vista running on your laptop. Trust me, I have it running right now and the difference is... huge The only "hardware drivers" you should be worried about are the chipset, audio, video, ethernet, and wireless drivers. The rest of any computer's hardware, 9 times out 10, Windows' built-in drivers will work just fine for. (there are exceptions, such as Windows XP needing SATA drivers, but that doesn't apply in this case -- works fine with Vista) For that, go to HP's support website and find your drivers manually. If you aren't sure you need it, don't download it until you ARE sure. The worst that can happen is that Windows prompts you to find a driver for something. You can go ahead and download these drivers and integrate them into your vLite install disk, or if you don't feel comfortable doing that, just install them manually afterwards. To answer your question more directly, let me just say that I integrated the drivers I mentioned above into my vLite install DVD, and the rest was taken care of for me. The touchpad works fine, all the little extra buttons and features work fine on basic Windows drivers even without the bloated HP software. I could direct you more specifically to a location for the drivers if I knew your laptop's model number, etc, but otherwise you'll need to find them yourself. Here's a hint: sometimes google searches for your model number + "drivers" are easier to navigate than HP's ridiculously convoluted website.

I was using RC, not beta. However, the problem can be solved by acquiring a copy of gameux.dll and installing it with regsvr32. After that, no more issues. If you can't find someone to send you a copy of the .dll, you can always do it the hard way and install WAIK, mount an unmodified install.wim from your Windows CD, and extract gameux.dll from it. In response to nuhi specifically, though -- yes, this problem still occurs in RC if you choose to remove the Game Explorer component and run things like Steam, World of Warcraft, possibly others.

Thanks, problem solved. If a moderator wants to delete this topic to prevent clutter

I got Vista working with vLite, but unfortunately I removed Game Explorer from the ISO before I realized that I needed to add gameux.dll to the protected file list. Is there any way to restore this without completely reinstalling the OS? Any way to extract it from the original install CD manually? If not, is there ANY other way to acquire a copy of gameux.dll or at the very least disable the annoying popup every time I run games like World of Warcraft and Steam? Thanks.

No, it's the MSN folder in Program Files. Wouldn't let me get rid of it because it was installed during installation, everything else works fine. It's hardly even worth mentioning, it just bothered me for a minute or two.

I discovered that my HP laptop did come with an "upgrade now" CD and vLite recognizes the install file structure on this disc. I'm not sure how well this will work in terms of Vista registration/activation; it might not recognize my laptop as belonging to the correct license if I install the OS with a boot CD made using this method. I'll probably test it out, though. Edit: I've solved this problem, if you have an HP Recovery CD, do not use the recovery CD with vLite -- use the "Windows Upgrade Anytime" CD! It works just fine, and comes with none of the HP bloatware. On an entirely unrelated note, I wouldn't recommend using the Tweak option to disable UAC during install. Just disable it as soon as Windows boots if that's what you'd like to do; if you disable it in vLite this causes you to be unable to delete many files installed due to "permission errors" even on the admin account, and there's really no fix that I can find for it.

Directory of E:\ 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> BOOT 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> HP 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 884 Master.log 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 20 SERVICE 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> SOURCES 10/03/2006 11:02 AM 438,328 boo.mgr 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> preload 3 File(s) 439,232 bytes Directory of E:\BOOT 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 09/24/2006 09:56 PM 262,144 BCD 09/24/2006 10:10 PM 3,170,304 BOOT.SDI 2 File(s) 3,432,448 bytes Directory of E:\HP 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> Apps 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> Drv 0 File(s) 0 bytes Directory of E:\HP\Apps 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> DTA 0 File(s) 0 bytes Directory of E:\HP\Apps\DTA 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 8 DTA.LST 1 File(s) 8 bytes Directory of E:\HP\Drv 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> DTA 0 File(s) 0 bytes Directory of E:\HP\Drv\DTA 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 7 DTA.LST 1 File(s) 7 bytes Directory of E:\SOURCES 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 208,416,514 boot.wim 1 File(s) 208,416,514 bytes Directory of E:\preload 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> . 03/26/2007 06:40 AM <DIR> .. 03/26/2007 06:30 AM 2,100,816 ALL.CRC 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 92 ALL.I32 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 92 ALL.ITR 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 144 BASE.DAT 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 2,142,559,969 BASE.WIM 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 847,494,298 BASE2.WIM 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 2,013,806,251 BASE3.WIM 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 36 CD0 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 558 CSP.DAT 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 4 DESC.TXT 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 952 RP.CRC 03/26/2007 06:40 AM 38 SPLIT.LOG 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 2 WINDOWS.CRC 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 92 WINDOWS.DAT 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 92 WINDOWS.I32 03/26/2007 06:04 AM 92 WINDOWS.ITR 16 File(s) 5,005,963,528 bytes Total Files Listed: 24 File(s) 5,218,251,737 bytes 24 Dir(s) 0 bytes free

Hi, I've been trying to figure out how to use vLite with my HP recovery CD. It isn't recognizing the CD as containing Vista installation files, for some reason -- probably because it's an HP recovery CD that includes a lot of unnecessary stuff and isn't in the "format" of a generic Business install CD. Is there any way to remedy this short of acquiring a copy of a regular Vista install CD? Thanks.