Clean Installation Question--Legal

[John]

I have an OEM Vista Business on a Thinkpad from Lenovo. All is legal.
I have an Upgrade Vista CD to Vista Home Basic that I purchased. All is
legal.

My Lenovo Vista Business came with all the usual bloatware that I feel is
causing problems.

I want to install a new Vista Business OS without ANY the bloat... pure
Vista.

The Restore CDs etc programs will only get me back to Factory specs...
bloatware included.

My Question:

Can I use the Vista Home Basic upgrade CD to get my Vista Business
installed ( I have read all versions of Vista are on the CDs)
and then get the telephone authorization approved based on my OEM data?

 

[Chad Harris]

John --

Help me help you. Precisely what Vista bloatware is on Vista buisness that
you are blaming for undefined problems? What bloatware from whom? That's
pretty vague and not a very good reason for trying to go to Home Basic from
Business. Maybe you need to deal with bloatware from someone but I don't
see what bloatware you could be referring to in Vista Biz from MSFT.

If you have Vista Biz on the Thinkpad now, how would you be installing a
Vista Home Basic upgrade CD [in order to] get Vista Business installed? It's
already installed according to you.

CH

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

No. The Windows Vista OEM Product Key affixed
to your ThinkPad will not be accepted by the Vista Home
Basic retail upgrade CD.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

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

:

I have an OEM Vista Business on a Thinkpad from Lenovo. All is legal.
I have an Upgrade Vista CD to Vista Home Basic that I purchased. All is
legal.

My Lenovo Vista Business came with all the usual bloatware that I feel is
causing problems.

I want to install a new Vista Business OS without ANY the bloat... pure
Vista.

The Restore CDs etc programs will only get me back to Factory specs...
bloatware included.

My Question:

Can I use the Vista Home Basic upgrade CD to get my Vista Business
installed ( I have read all versions of Vista are on the CDs)
and then get the telephone authorization approved based on my OEM data?

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

John

Tell what you think is causing problems, and somebody here will try to help
you out..

 

[cvp]

I have an OEM Vista Business on a Thinkpad from Lenovo. All is legal.
I have an Upgrade Vista CD to Vista Home Basic that I purchased. All is
legal.

My Lenovo Vista Business came with all the usual bloatware that I feel is
causing problems.

I want to install a new Vista Business OS without ANY the bloat... pure
Vista.

The Restore CDs etc programs will only get me back to Factory specs...
bloatware included.

My Question:

Can I use the Vista Home Basic upgrade CD to get my Vista Business
installed ( I have read all versions of Vista are on the CDs)
and then get the telephone authorization approved based on my OEM data?

Yes - I've done it

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

My Lenovo Vista Business came with all the usual bloatware that I
feel is causing problems.

I want to install a new Vista Business OS without ANY the bloat...
pure Vista.

There isn't any bloatware that come on Thinkpads, unless Lenovo have changed
things. You should uninstall any anti-virus programs and trial
applications, but there are several things that you should definitely
reinstall after you clean install Vista, otherwise your Thinkpad will not
work properly.

Make sure you have the chipset drivers first of all. You never mentioned
what model, so I cannot show you a link.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/s...wnloadsDriversLandingPage.vm&sitestyle=lenovo

After that, if you install System Update 3, you should get most of the
things you need with that.

Essentials:

chipset, sound, network, wireless, etc drivers

trackpoint/trackpad drivers and web navigation key drivers

ACPI Power Management driver
Power Manager software

ThinkVantage Access Connections

On-screen dispay driver


Optional:

Thinkpad Configuration

Easy Eject

Full Screen Magnifier

Keyboard Customiser

Presentation Director

etc..

Can I use the Vista Home Basic upgrade CD to get my Vista Business
installed ( I have read all versions of Vista are on the CDs)
and then get the telephone authorization approved based on my OEM
data?

If you can clone your hard drive using TrueImage first, there is no harm in
trying.

ss.

 

[John]

Thank you all for your thoughts and comments. The 'bloatware' is all Lenovo
helper apps plus the garbage software companies paid Lenovo to install...
Office 2007, Norton.... need I say more.

Were all this 'bloatware' fully tested, I would not be attempting what I am.
But many issues I have had disappear if I uninstall some of the 'bloatware'.
Coincidence... you may say so, but I'm tired of blaming Vista for what could
be bad software from another source. So if I install a new, Vista only,
version, then I can honestly see if Vista is broken.

 

[Leythos]

There isn't any bloatware that come on Thinkpads, unless Lenovo have changed
things.

I've done about 30 Lenovo TP T61's last month, needed to remove Office
Trial and Google crap and several other things....

I also remove a lot of the Lenovo items to make life easier on the
remote people.

--

Leythos
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
(e-mail address removed) (remove 999 for proper email address)

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Carey is correct in that the retail disk won't accept usage of the OEM
product key. Not so much legal as technical. Install the OEM recovery
product, and then immediately uninstall all the added programs. Your
thinkpad will require proprietary drivers not in the retail disk, and to
support the hardware correctly you need Lenovo's proprietary (OEM) version
of Vista installed.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

John

All of these things can be removed. Go to 'Programs and Features' in Control
Panel to uninstall them. You will then have Vista Business as if it had been
installed from a genuine Vista Business DVD.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

Your
thinkpad will require proprietary drivers not in the retail disk, and
to support the hardware correctly you need Lenovo's proprietary (OEM)
version of Vista installed.

They are all available at the Thinkpad download centre, just like they are
for all other laptop makes.

ss.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

All of these things can be removed. Go to 'Programs and Features' in
Control Panel to uninstall them. You will then have Vista Business as
if it had been installed from a genuine Vista Business DVD.

Not really, as Vista has no package management system. There will be the
usual shrapnel in Program Files, Windows folder, Users Application Data
(useful for reinstallation of programs) and, of course, the registry.

ss.

 

[Chad Harris]

John--

Why not just uninstall anything you don't want? I would consider Office
2007 useful not bloatware, but to each his own. Why not uninstall all the
crap though that they load that you don't want--wouldn't that be faster and
easier?

CH

 

[The poster formerly known as 'The Poster Formerly]

I have an OEM Vista Business on a Thinkpad from Lenovo. All is legal.
I have an Upgrade Vista CD to Vista Home Basic that I purchased. All is
legal.

My Lenovo Vista Business came with all the usual bloatware that I feel is
causing problems.

I want to install a new Vista Business OS without ANY the bloat... pure
Vista.

The Restore CDs etc programs will only get me back to Factory specs...
bloatware included.

My Question:

Can I use the Vista Home Basic upgrade CD to get my Vista Business
installed ( I have read all versions of Vista are on the CDs)
and then get the telephone authorization approved based on my OEM data?

Hi John.

MS just keeps making their complicated licensing more of a collosal
hemorrhoid. My suggestion to you would be to forget the whole licensing
route and use the following free utility to remove the OEM craplets
from your machine:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,67264-page,1/description.html

or go to programs in control panel and follow directions at the below
link (complete with pictures):
http://www.netomatix.com/Development/VistaAddRemove.aspx

or do both. I'm not sure exactly what you are looking to get rid of,
but hopefully this helps.

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

"Fair use is not merely a nice concept--it is a federal law based on
free speech rights under the First Amendment and is a cornerstone of the
creativity and innovation that is a hallmark of this country. Consumer
rights in the digital age are not frivolous."
- Maura Corbett

 

[John]

Thank you all for your help. My goal is a clean install. Doing a reinstall
of the Lenovo supplied package and then having to delete what I don't want
is not only extra work but also not a clean install since no uninstall ever
completely uninstalls everything hidden everywhere, especially the registry.
I will do more research but again, thank you all for your advice.