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At the beginning of this week, I finally received my Windows Vista DVD, thanks to GLS’ delay though, I wasn’t able to install it, yet.

Long story short, I’ll be installing Vista today and like a true prosumer, I’m not going to use the out-of-the-box version, but rather cook my own one, using vLite.

vLite is the successor to the much loved nLite. Both of the tools allow you to create custom install CDs (or DVDs, in Windows Vista’s case) that only include the stuff you really want (or need) as well as custom drivers. Basically, with these tools you can create your very own, very perfect install medium.

Step 1 is to get a copy of the vLite tools, so just head on over to their site and grab any of the packages. At the time of writing, 0.9 was the latest version. Extract it, start up vLite and you’ll be presented with something like:

Note that you can click on the inline images if you want to see a bigger version of the image.

Pop in your Windows Vista DVD, select the location where you want to store your modified files and hit “Next”.

Step 2 is where the real magic starts. The components tab allows you to (de-)select any items you do not need. It is important that you note that anything you select will be removed.

As you can see, I strip out everything that I have no need for but leave in those tools that require other things such as “Windows Mail” which is needed for Outlook. Your selection might vary and since I don’t have the time to provide support on this tutorial, it’s important to read the hints that vLite offers when you hover over an item. Only then should you decide if you want to keep or remove an item. Once again, if you remove it, it’s gone, for good. If you have any doubts, leave it in there or research your options.

For Step 3, we’re going to add some tweaks to our install medium.

Segoe UI is a lot more readable than other fonts, if your display supports Cleartype. Since mine does, Segoe UI is my font of choice:

Next step is to disable UAC. While the concept of it is very nice, I personally don’t care for the added layer of security. I know which sites not to surf to and which things I shouldn’t do, so I have little to no use for UAC:

The last tweaks tab allows you to change the hibernation behaviour. Since I’m a mobile user, I have a need for hibernation and as such, I leave the setting unchanged:

Step 4 is about adding drivers to your install disk. Since Vista miraculously includes all the drivers I need, there’s no need to add anything for me:

Step 5 is where the real fun begins. The last tab is where you create the actual ISO image of your install medium. First, you’ll want to change the options so that vLite creates an image for you:

The next thing you’ll have to do is to name the image. For maintenance reasons, I give it the same name as the Windows Vista DVD has:

Make note of the name and copy it into the vLite application:

Finally, it’s time to start building your image. The whole process takes a couple of minute to complete:

Once vLite is finished, you’ll see a message in the lower part of the screen:

Technically speaking, you’re done now. Grab an empty DVD and write your image on it, or head on over to Douglas Stockwell’s blog and read his thoughts about installing Windows Vista from a HDD.

If you’re looking for the easy, highly uneducative way out, grab my vLite preset file from here, put it into a folder called “Preset” in your vLite directory and load the preset from within vLite.

Happy customizing!