To install Windows Vista first insert your installation disk into your computer while it is starting up. The computer must see the install disk when it starts so you might consider turning the machine on, wait for the first black screen to appear and press the pause key on your keyboard. This will stop the computer from progressing through its start up sequence and it will pause on whatever BIOS screen you paused it on. Open your optical drive and insert the Windows install disk and give the machine about 10 seconds to find out that its there. From this point you might prefer to press the space bar and allow the machine to continue however I usually press CTRL, ALT and DELETE to restart the computer entirely. If you are unfamiliar with this particular key combination hold down CTRL and ALT then press DELETE on your keyboard and the computer should restart and boot off the install disk.

If the computer boots successfully off the Windows installation disk it will start loading files in preparation for running the installer program contained on the installation disk. You should see a progress bar and the words Windows is loading files.

The computer will take some time to load the files and start the installation program. Once it has done so you will be presented with a screen that allows you to select some basic parameters. The next image examines these choices more closely.

The first choice you can select is the language you would like windows to be installed with and subsequently use. Here we have selected in English. The next option is the format you would like time, dates and currency to be displayed in. Select the laguage and locality the best matches your location. The final choice on this screen is to select your keyboard or input method. Most English speaking countries us a US keyboard so that is what we shall select here. Once you have selected the options suitable for you click the next button.

On the next screen click the install now button to get the process of installing windows started. This screen has a number of other options such as the ability to attempt to repair windows, we will touch on this in another section of this site. When you click install now the coputer will most likely present you with a please wait screen for a few seconds.

You will now be prompted to type in your product key. This is a 25 character key that should either be on the case of your Windows Vista installation disk or on a sticker affixed to the case of your computer. It will look something like GT48F-POPO9-QSAA1-BGTRF-8PK32.

Type in your product key exactly as it appears on the sticker on your machine or on the case of your installation disk then click next. If you type it in incorrectly you will be prompted to type it in again. Putting a tick into Automatically activate windows when Im online is not a bad choice.