Newbie - Q's for installing an Activated Vista

Discussion in 'Windows Vista' started by pugman, May 23, 2008.

  1. pugman

    pugman MDL Novice

    May 23, 2008
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    #1 pugman, May 23, 2008
    Last edited: May 23, 2008
    Hi,

    First to say that I don't buy retail desktops, but build my own. It's been a while since I have built one. I've been happy using XP on my desktops, but now I want to experience Vista on the desktop. Let's say I build another desktop from scratch. I would buy an Abit motherboard (ex Abit AN8 SLI), bla bla bla acessories. So now what are my steps into getting Vista activated? Do I grab the modified bios for this motherboard and put it on a floppy or usb flash to upgrade the BIOS before installing Vista? After installing Vista, then do I apply the activator program?

    I know notebooks and retail desktops are predefined by the activator program. So once Vista is installed, I would just need to run the activator program. But for a person like me building a desktop from scratch, I don't know what steps on putting Vista on the desktop. Please, can someone show me the steps on how to accomplish this? Much appreciated. Thanks
     
  2. reginakampher

    reginakampher MDL Addicted

    Apr 5, 2008
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    You have 2 possible routes to activating Vista. They are softmods and hardmods. In order to activate Vista off-line, it requires 3 components:

    A SLIC table in your BIOS.
    A digital certificate that matches the SLIC table in your BIOS.
    And a OEM-SLP product key that coincides with the edition of Vista you have installed.

    Softmod is a software based BIOS emulation program that fools Vista into thinking that you have a valid SLIC table in your BIOS. With the release of SP1, your only option is a bootloader type softmod such as Vistaloader 3.0.
    This program is practically a one click solution as all you have to do is choose a OEM to emulate and it does the rest. Install Vista without a product key and run the program, then you're done.

    Hardmod involves physically modifying your BIOS to contain the SLIC table. Because of this, this method has a great deal of risk as it could damage your motherboard. You can modify the BIOS yourself or look for a BIOS that already has been modded or request it to have it modded. Although risky, it does have a huge benefit as it is much, much harder to detect than a softmod. These are the steps I would take:

    1. I would look for a motherboard that has a mod-able BIOS.
    2. Download that BIOS and mod it or have it modded if not already.
    3. Have a recovery disk ready just in case of a bad flash.
    4. Buy the motherboard and flash with the modded BIOS.
    5. Install Vista without product key and make sure SLIC table is present.
    6. Install the matching certificate.
    7. Install the product key
    8. And lastly, make sure it is activated.
     
  3. pugman

    pugman MDL Novice

    May 23, 2008
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    Thanks. Now I understand how this is all work. I just see people posting about modded bios, but no steps on how to approach installing the OS. Thanks.