Vista installation files for download

[JorgeA]

I came across this page, which provides instructions and official Microsoft (Digital River) download links to the files needed to create a bootable Vista installation DVD.

A couple of additions/notes to the instructions:

1. The name of the subdirectory where you place the installation files cannot have any blank spaces in it. (For example, I had created a "Vista64 ISO files" subdirectory, and the PE CLI objected, thinking it was supposed to look for "Vista64.")
2. Microsoft's instructions for installing the WAIK say that it's distributed as an IMG file, but it's actually an ISO.
3. The file to click on, on the WAIK disc once it's burned, is startcd.exe.
4. The PE CLI needs to be opened with administrator rights, otherwise when you enter the commands it will return an "access denied" error.
5. And yes, there is no space between "-b" and "C:" right after "oscdimg", and both lines displayed are typed as one single, continuous line.
6. When burning the ISO, you of course know not to use the native Vista DVD burner -- it doesn't do anything useful (at least for me). I used Power2Go instead.

Finally, if you want to install a fresh copy of Vista you will of course need a valid license key. In my case, I downloaded the files and created the disc for myself because my PC vendor didn't supply any OS discs and I wanted something more than a "recovery" disc.

Enjoy!

--JorgeA

EDIT: additional info

Edited July 16, 2013 by JorgeA

[legacyfan]

this sounds really cool but the links are down now-legacyfan

Edited May 12, 2021 by legacyfan