Do you have a Windows Vista machine that isn't running how it use too or you got a virus that is beyond normal repair? But you didn't know how to fix it yourself? Then this article will show you how to do just that! I will break this up into 5 sections as :

If you want to do an upgrade from Windows XP check this out.

Make sure you have some place to save files AND your Windows Vista Install DVD before starting.

1. Back Up old files you want to keep!
2. Download your drivers AHEAD of time.
3. Install Windows
4. Install Drivers

This will DELETE EVERYTHING on your main partition So make sure to get good back ups of the files you want to save.

Back Up old files you want to keep!

I highly recommend Acronis Home 2010 for backing up your files. (Later I will link to how to use Acronis 2010.). If you have a spare partition / hard drive in your computer, ie your D: drive you can store your files here. If not you can burn them to a CD or DVD. Or if you have a usb thumb drive or external hard drive you can save your files there. Copy anything you want to keep that can't be replaced. Make sure to check the following locations:

• C:UsersLogged On Account NameMy Documents
• C:UsersLogged On Account NameDesktop
• if you use Microsoft Outlook you will want to get your email names cache

You will also want to save your bookmark links in your browser. I will show how to do this with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome.

Internet Explorer

Microsoft has perfect information here.

Firefox

Open Firefox
Go To Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks from the drop downs.
after Bookmarks Manager opens
Click File > Export
Save the file where you are saving your other files to backup

Google Chrome

Open Google Chrome
Click the wrench icon in the top right corner of your screen
Click Bookmark Manager
After Bookmark Manager opens
Click Tools > Export to import do the same except select Import

Download your drivers AHEAD of time.

If you have a name brand computer ie Dell, HP go to their website find the drivers and download section of their site, and use their tools to find your drivers. Otherwise you bought or built your PC yourself you need to find out who makes your motherboard and what make or model it is. A great tool for that is CPUID. You can get it here. The main drivers you want to get are chipset, audio, network (lan / wireless card), and video. Save the installers for all those files in the same place your saving your other files.

Install Windows

First thing you want to do is to put the Windows DVD in the cd / dvd drive and reboot. If you see a screen that says:

Press any key now to boot from DVD ..

Then you are already set press a button on your keyboard. However if your system booted back into Windows XP then you have to look to see if you need to press a key to select a boot device. Sometimes it will tell you on screen a the start of the boot cycle. Try F2 , F10, or F12. Select your CD or DVD drive on that list. If you still cannot get it to boot from CD then we need to change our boot order in our bios. Try one of the previous F keys or your Delete key. Once in your bios you can change the boot order. Usually this is listed under Boot or Boot Order. Find where it says your boot order and make cd drive to boot before your harddrive. Exit and Save changes.

Once you get to this screen

Click Next
Click Install Now
Select I accept the license terms
Click Next
Click Custom (advanced)

Now we need to select where we want to install vista too. So we create a partition if we don't have one yet.

Click Advanced
Select your drive you want to install too
Click New
Put in the amount of space
Click Apply
Click Next

The system will reboot and continue with the install. If you changed your boot order in your bios earlier we can change it back to how it was before when it reboots from this stage.

Now we need to create our base admin username and password.

Put in admin user name
Put in admin password
Click Next
Put in computer name
Select background
Click Next
Select Use recommended settings
Select Timezone
Set time and date
Click Next
Select your location (currently connected internet)
Click Start

The system will reboot and you can now login and start using Windows Vista!

Install Drivers

The final step is to install the drivers we downloaded earlier. Go ahead and run any of the setups or installs that exe based. ie setup.exe Any drivers that are only ini files we will manually install if they are missing from the drivers.

Right-click My Computer
Click Manage
Once Computer Management opens
Select Device Manager in the left pane

We want to find any device that has a yellow mark next to the name of the device. For example if Windows didn't find a driver for out network card it would have a yellow question mark next to a word like Network Adapter.

Right-Click on that device
Click Update Driver
Select No, not this time
Click Next
Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Click Next
Check the box that says Include this location in the search
Then Browse to the folder that contains the install ini for that device
It should find the device and install the driver

You can now copy all your files that you backed up back to your system. I would run Windows Update until it has no more updates and then Activate Windows. You can also referrer back to the top of this article on how to import your bookmarks back into you Browser.

Turn UAC off

One extra step I like to do is turn UAC off. You can find out how to do that here

Slow Download Speeds?

Then you should check this out.