Jpok

Thanks for the reply. You mean that I can just put the "good" Vista DVD into my drive (I say "good" because it'll still be vLited, but it will now contain the needed componts), and then there'll be an option for repairing the OS? And if I choose repair, I'll keep all of my old programs and settings, just the missing files will be installed? Please verify this, because it sounds like a great help if it works! (I'll save many hours). Thanks

When I installed my vLited Vista in February I removed all the wireless stuff because there was a 99% chance that I'd never need a WAN connection at this computer. Recently I've learned that I might need to setup a wifi server from this computer in the near future, so unfortunately I'll probably have to reinstall Vista in order to restore the missing components. I removed big things like "WAN support", "File and Printer Sharing", "Computer Browser", etc. Can anybody give me some advice on what's the best and easiest way to reinstall Vista while keep the same settings a programs? It took me a long time to set up this computer the way it is, and others use it as well, so I'd like to find some kind of shortcut besides starting completely from scratch. Thanks a ton, Jpok

Thanks for the reply, Nuhi. Sorry for my ignorance, but say I remake the ISO with the feature installed . . . then would I have to do a full reinstall of the OS? Meaning, then will I have to start over from the beginning again?

After using my vLited Vista for about 2 weeks now, I discovered that I need Volume Shadow Copy service for a backup program. After searching the forums, I discovered that there's no quick way to reinstall the service alone, so I have to reinstall Windows. Is there a quick way to just "repair" the Windows installation (with the updated vLite DVD that contains Volume Shadow Copy)? What's the fastest way to reinstall it without losing my settings (I've customized tons of settings by now). Thanks for the help! Have a good day. -Edit: Oops, forgot to mention that I'm using Vista 32-bit Ultimate

I'm using an XP box now, and I have Vista installed on a separate partition. I did a search on these forums on how to integrate drivers, because I couldn't figure it out myself, and I found these instructions: Go to the windows\inf folder, look for the oem1.inf, oem2.inf, etc. files, open them up, find the name of the original .inf file, locate that file, and choose that file under vLite integration. I tried to do this, but I must have made a mistake, because no drivers were integrated. For example, under oem4.inf in my "windows\inf" folder, I found my monitor driver information. It says: "CatalogFile=VX2235wm.cat", so I found that file under: F:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\vx2235wm.inf_a0de664d, and in that folder I found vx2235wm.inf, which is the exact .inf file for my driver. So under vLite I chose that file for integration (among my other drivers), but when I installed Vista it gave me only generic drivers. Can anybody help me please? Thanks!

Brinbane - use vLite to copy the DVD contents to your hard drive, then run the setup from there using Setup.exe. That's how I did it. I would try messing around with the hardware. I'm pretty sure it's not because I have the academic edition that I was having problems - I believe I would have had the same problems with any other version had I not disabled my DVD drives. Although I can't prove this because I haven't tried another version. But considering that it contains exactly the same software as the "regular" versions of Vista, I believe it's just a licensing difference. Can anybody confirm this? What kind of hardware are you using? How old is your computer? Are you installing it on a second partition? Another note - if you do try to install from the hard drive using Setup.exe, make sure you use vLite only to copy the DVD contents to your hard drive. I don't know why, but when I tried to copy the DVD to the hard drive using Explorer, it didn't copy the files correctly. Good luck.

Finally got the vLite install to work! All it took was to disable the DVD drives in the bios. For anyone who has the same NEC 3500a drives: After installing Vista you can re-enable them and they work just fine. A while ago I posted how Vista was about the same speed as my XP installation . . . well, after more careful evaluation I started noticing the delays, and they got pretty annoying. After logging on I would have to wait 10-15 seconds before I could do anything. BUT, the vLited Vista is very snappy! To me it seems almost twice as fast, because most of the delays are gone. Truly, vLite makes Vista useable. Thanks!

I tested it in Virtual PC, and it works fine. I'll try what you said by deleting autounattend.xml. That, along with disabling my 2 DVD drives, should be a nice experiment. I don't know if I'll have time to try it tomorrow, but I'll keep you posted. By the way, you mentioned about remaking the ISO . . . does it matter that I'm not using an ISO? Of course I made one to do the test with Virtual PC, but for installing Vista on my PC I just run Setup.exe from my XP installation. Thanks again.

Thanks for the reply. It's not Dell Vista, although it's a Dell XPS Gen4 Desktop that I'm trying to install it onto. The computer has an ATI Radeon X850 256mb graphics card, 2 monitors, 2 disabled DVD burners, 2 HP printers (one is very old with an old serial connection), a UPS battery backup, 2 external USB drives, an external USB memory card reader, and a 2gb SanDisk USB flash drive for use with ReadyBoost. The processor is a Pentium 4 Prescott 3.4 ghz with HyperThreading enabled. I have XP SP2 installed on the first physical hard drive, and I'm trying to install Vista vLite on the second physical hard drive. I already have the full Vista installed on the second hard drive, as the installation was successful, but it's full of junk that I'll never use. I want vLite! The Vista DVD is a 32-bit Ultimate version, given to me from the U of M. On the outside edges of the DVD it says "Licensed for use only by students and faculty". On the top it says "English MS Windows Vista Ultimate, For Upgrade Use Only (Product Key Required)". At first I was confused on the "For Upgrade Use Only", thinking that it was an upgrade version, but it definately works as a clean install. On the right side of the disk it says "May 2007, Systems Student Media". I've attached the Last_Session.ini presets. Can you please tell me if you see anything questionable with my setup? If you don't, then I'm just gonna try doing some experiments by disabling / removing different pieces of hardware. It's probably going to take me a long time if I try to figure it out on my own, so that's why I wanted to get your advice before I proceed. In my search for the solution, I've run into similar situations on other forums (concerning Vista locking up on the "Completing Installation" message, but they weren't using vLite). Others have gotten their installations to work by pulling out half of their RAM, or by using a different DVD drive, or by downgrading their BIOS (can you believe it!), or even by unplugging the monitor from the graphics card and plugging it directly into the motherboard (I don't even know if my motherboard would have such a slot!). It is for these reasons that I'm hoping for a solution before I start opening my computer case! Thanks again for the help. If I ever find a solution I'll post it here. Last_Session.ini

Nuhi, I read the news post "Setup locks at Completing Installation" before I posted anything to this forum. If I was using an illegal, preactivated copy, then I already would have had my answer, and I would never have posted any questions here. You seem pretty sure on your post that "this can happen ONLY if you use illegal pre-activated Vista installation", especially since you put the "ONLY" in all caps. . . Well, I thought you'd be insterested to know that this is not the case, since I'm using a legal DVD with a legal product key from MS. This may be a rare case . . . maybe even VERY rare, since it seems that you haven't heard of it before, but I'm sure sooner or later somebody else with the same problem will show up. I'll post a reply here if I ever figure out the problem. My only guess is to try again with the DVD drives disabled in bios this time, since that was what made it work in the full setup. I'm a little skeptical about this, though, because the full setup didn't freeze at the same spot on "completing installation", but a little later. It also seems to me that it's probably not freezing because of some missing components . . . if that was the case, then I'm sure you would have heard many other cases of this same issue that I'm having. Thanks for the help, and thank you again Nuhi for such a great program!

Well I finally got Vista installed, only without vLite. Can't wait to try vLite if I ever get past the freezing problem. The freezing on the regular installation was fixed when I disabled my DVD drives from the BIOS. The NEC 3550a drives I have are giving Vista some trouble. It's a shame because they're very reliable drives. I might try doing a vLite install again with the DVD drives disabled in the BIOS. . . Could this be what was causing the vLite installation to freeze earlier in the game? But if it is the DVD drives that are causing vLite to freeze at the "Completing Installation" screen, then shouldn't the regular installation have frozen at the same place? Does anybody know the answer to this? By the way, I don't see why there's so many compaints about Vista on the net. My computer's over 2 years old, and I was expecting to experience the slow, crawling delays that everyone complains about, but I didn't notice any. Vista seemed to be the same speed as my XP (nLited, of course) installation. Plus I was using the full install, and without SP1, and I haven't even disabled any services yet. My vLited install cut the disk down from 2.5 GB to 1.0 GB.

My vLited installation freezes just at the end of the "Completing Installation" message. I wanted to know if this was a problem caused by missing components, so I tried to do a regular, full install with the bloated MS setup. To my surprise, the MS setup worked . . . well, I can't say that it worked, it just gets a little farther and then freezes later on. I would've guessed that such a freeze on the vLited install could be caused by missing drivers, but the only drivers that I removed were: Diva Server, Ethernet adapters, Printers (the brands I don't have), and QLogic Adapter. I don't have any of these hardware items attatched to the computer. Also, under the Compatibility option, I have these features protected: "Aero Glass, Internet Explorer, Recommended, and Scanners and Cameras". Does anybody know which removed component could be causing such a freeze on the vLited install? Could it be maybe a needed service? I wish I could post my entire vLite preset here, but I don't know how to do that, nor do I know if it would be helpful. When I tested the bloated MS installation, it was freezing after the installation was complete, on the screen that says "Microsoft Corporation" at the bottom. I tried starting it in Safe Mode, and then I saw that the freeze was happening while loading "crcdisk.sys". Not only this, but at this point the floppy drive and DVD drive (which was empty, I installed from a hard disk) were being polled about every 10 seconds, like the OS was looking for something. I'm sorry for posting this last paragraph, because it's not really related to vLite. You don't have to respond to this last problem, I was just wondering if anyone had a quick-and-easy solution. Thank you everyone for your help! Happy New Year!

Sorry, finally I figured it out. It has nothing to do with the DVD. It has to do with the DVD reader firmware. I use NEC 3550A DVD burners. 2 of them have 1.Y6 modified firmwares (Liggy and Dee's, if I remember correctly), and I have an external burner that has an older 1.Y5 firmware. I hooked up the external burner, threw in the Vista disc, and then Windows was able to read it - and I was able to make a vLited version. Well, it was either the firmware, or the fact that the drive was connected externally through firewire. It sounds strange, but while searching for a solution to my problem I found that other people have been unable to install Vista because of their DVD reader, and just by switching their DVD reader from a Master position to a Slave position with the jumpers, they were able to successfully install the OS. Hope this posting can help somebody else in the future. Thanks, nuhi, for such a great program!

I have an original Vista Ultimate DVD, academic edition. I'm trying to vLite it, but I can't copy the files off of the disc! The DVD is completely invisible to all Windows programs, even vLite, when I'm inside Windows (using XP SP2). If I try to access the installation DVD from inside Explorer, it says that there's no disc in the drive. I've tried using Nero to just make a copy of the DVD, and even Nero thinks there's no disc in the drive. I've even tried to copy the disc from inside Knoppix, but Knoppix thinks that there's no disc in the drive, too. BUT, if I restart the computer, then the regular Vista setup begins. The problem is that I don't want to use the regular Vista setup, I want to vLite it first. Can someone please tell me how I can vLite such a disk? I'm sorry if this is a dumb question. I thought for sure that it'd be a common problem, so I spent an hour searching the forums for the solution, and unfortunately I've found nothing. Thank you very much!