Make integrated Vista SP2 iso's available

I am glad that MS finaly released SP2 for Vista, but since it's still not possible to slipstream Vista service packs, AND, SP2 is not cumulative.. installations of Vista are a huge PITA now.

You need to install Vista, then you need to install SP1, then you need to install SP2... that takes 120-180 minutes, maybe more. Since slipstreaming ist not possible, why not making integrated Vista SP2 iso's available from download center?

They are available from MSDN+Technet, but not everyone has a subscription.  Of course, you should only be able to download the iso after you entered a product key  and so on.

Where are the risks? You cannot install Vista without the product key, WGA and WPA anyway.

By the way, will it be possible to slipstream again in Windows 7?

Agreed, ISO images for all products should be available for download. Then a product key should be needed for activation. That would make many lifes much easier (at least mine).

The Pirate Bay offers ISOs for all Microsoft products free of charge. In fact, there are multiple Vista SP2 ISOs available.

Detroit Muscle said:

The Pirate Bay offers ISOs for all Microsoft products free of charge. In fact, there are multiple Vista SP2 ISOs available.

Yeah, and facts like these lead me to suspect sometimes, that MS has some kind of contract with piratebay.

I mean, making SP2 dependend on SP1 AND not providing the ability to slipstream (with the exception of WAIK - an ugly process) AND not providing integrated SP2 iso's for download is just asking for it (it = downloading from shoddy sources).

It just can't be in the interest of MS to force people to piratebay, but it is just what they are doing.

wastingtimewithforums said:

Detroit Muscle said:

*snip*

Yeah, and facts like these lead me to suspect sometimes, that MS has some kind of contract with piratebay.

I mean, making SP2 dependend on SP1 AND not providing the ability to slipstream (with the exception of WAIK - an ugly process) AND not providing integrated SP2 iso's for download is just asking for it (it = downloading from shoddy sources).

It just can't be in the interest of MS to force people to piratebay, but it is just what they are doing.

If you decide to download the iso from somewhere else, the only thing I can do is to provide you with the information from MSDN:

Slipstream?

Skriker V1.0 said:

Slipstream?

Not possible with Vista.

ZippyV said:

Skriker V1.0 said:

*snip*

Not possible with Vista.

The problem is that Vista can be installed without the product key, as it should be - going back to XP pre-SP3 days requiring you to enter a product key just to get past the install screen was a royal PITA.

There are activation cracks out there, small .exe's that take less than 2 minutes to completely crack Vista's activation.  So what you're proposing is that MS will give you their considerable bandwidth to the entire world for a near-3GB ISO that can then be fully activated with another download less than a Gb.  Doesn't seem to make much sense from MS's perspective.

Instead, what I think MS should so is have a readily visible link on the Vista home page to have people pay the cost of the media+shipping (under $10) once a service pack is out so they can just ship the integrated DVD.  They already do this in a sense with the Vista Anytime Upgrade CD but it's not that apparent.

Enter your key, get an integrated ISO. Though it does not matter, I'm onto Windows 7 now

intelman said:

Enter your key, get an integrated ISO. Though it does not matter, I'm onto Windows 7 now

There still is no offical slipstream options that stinks. Wasn't Vista supposed to make slipstreams like Office 07 where you just made an updates folder and dropped in the update files?

At least SP2 also includes a Service Pack Clean-up tool (Compcln.exe) which helps recover the hard disk space by permanently deleting previous versions of files (RTM and SP1).

Typhoon87 said:

intelman said:

*snip*

There still is no offical slipstream options that stinks. Wasn't Vista supposed to make slipstreams like Office 07 where you just made an updates folder and dropped in the update files?

At least SP2 also includes a Service Pack Clean-up tool (Compcln.exe) which helps recover the hard disk space by permanently deleting previous versions of files (RTM and SP1).

Office 2007 actually doesn't slipstream - it just runs the updates in the folder after the install.  That's not slipstreaming.

NitzWalsh said:

ZippyV said:

*snip*

The problem is that Vista can be installed without the product key, as it should be - going back to XP pre-SP3 days requiring you to enter a product key just to get past the install screen was a royal PITA.

There are activation cracks out there, small .exe's that take less than 2 minutes to completely crack Vista's activation.  So what you're proposing is that MS will give you their considerable bandwidth to the entire world for a near-3GB ISO that can then be fully activated with another download less than a Gb.  Doesn't seem to make much sense from MS's perspective.

Instead, what I think MS should so is have a readily visible link on the Vista home page to have people pay the cost of the media+shipping (under $10) once a service pack is out so they can just ship the integrated DVD.  They already do this in a sense with the Vista Anytime Upgrade CD but it's not that apparent.

"

The problem is that Vista can be installed without the product key, as it should be - going back to XP pre-SP3 days requiring you to enter a product key just to get past the install screen was a royal PITA.

There are activation cracks out there, small .exe's that take less than 2 minutes to completely crack Vista's activation.  So what you're proposing is that MS will give you their considerable bandwidth to the entire world for a near-3GB ISO that can then be fully activated with another download less than a Gb.  Doesn't seem to make much sense from MS's perspective."

---------------------------------------------

Do the cracks even circument WGA? If yes, why bother with it? But anyway, I am not proposing that the downloads should be available to all, only to those, who register with a valid adress and  who have a valid product key. Where is the problem?

Granted, theoreticaly somone one could post his product key on the internet, but it's easy to implement a mechanism that limits the amount  of vista iso's you can download Vista with your product key - say, 3 Vista iso downloads per key.

But best of all would be finaly a tool that allows painless slipstreaming again, without all this WAIK crap - install Vista, install all the service packs, compress your installation to an image, burn it on a DVD ... yawn!

Vlite seems to be able to do it:

http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/slipstream-vista-sp1-bootable-windows-vista-dvd-integrated/2750/

Why can't MS release such a tool? I don't trust Vlite that much and never tried the produre, but it seems to be working.

Honestly. who apart from developers/sysadmins rebuilding test machines actually needs to reinstall their OS that often anymore? If you do, WTF are you doing?

AndyC said:

Honestly. who apart from developers/sysadmins rebuilding test machines actually needs to reinstall their OS that often anymore? If you do, WTF are you doing?

Testing MS beta software.

Sven Groot said:

AndyC said:

*snip*

Testing MS beta software.

Why not build it once as a vm and use snapshots?

SeanT said:

Sven Groot said:

*snip*

Why not build it once as a vm and use snapshots?

Real hardware is sometimes better or required for testing

giovanni said:

SeanT said:

*snip*

Real hardware is sometimes better or required for testing

1. Install OS
2. Install Service Packs
3. Image drive with ImageX
4. Job done

AndyC said:

giovanni said:

*snip*

1. Install OS
2. Install Service Packs
3. Image drive with ImageX
4. Job done

"Honestly. who apart from developers/sysadmins rebuilding test machines actually needs to reinstall their OS that often anymore? If you do, WTF are you doing?"

Say, if someone installed Vista in 2007 and need to re-install now, then he will get a installaton-marathon-mess. With XP, it would be much easier(sliptreamining)

Not to mention administrators in small shops who don't have MSDN/Technet subscriptions to get integreated iso's.

What is the problem acknowledging, that this is a regress? Slipstreaming was possible in 2000, XP and now it's not (with the exception of the ugly WAIK thing). And even the newest service pack is not cumulative (why not making one SP2 for Vista,  that includes SP1+SP2, and one for win2008 that only includes SP2?)

Making things ten times more complicated is not a good thing.

Anyway, I acknowledge that the current installation image model of Vista+7 has it's merits(with the exception of slipstreaming) that's why I think that offering iso's is a worthwile solution.

And again, it seems that it is possible to slipstream with vlite (I wouldn't trust on that program, but still) why can't MS then release a slipstream tool?