FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Vaio SZ: Make your own clean Vista installation disk
Old Mar 18, 2008 | 11:18 am
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PTravel
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Join Date: Mar 2004
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Originally Posted by bdjohns1
I recently did something similar when I wanted to de-crap my Dell desktop (Dimension E521) and simultaneously move to x64 Vista.

* Download clean Vista retail install DVD from your bittorrent site of choice
* Install using existing valid OEM key (the keys are valid for both x86 and x64 versions of whichever version of Vista you have)

With desktops it's easier, since they usually don't have unusual hardware like laptops do.
I strongly advise against installing from a bittorrent image -- there is simply too much danger of picking up viruses and malware, not to mention that there's no assurance that what you get is a release package, as opposed to one of the betas and RCs. Microsoft has leaked the download links for Vista retail -- of course, you still need a valid key, but you can get the software straight from the horse's mouth. If you look at the first step in the link I posted above, you'll see the links to the Vista download from Microsoft.
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