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This guide illustrates the various steps required to integrate Service Pack 1 files into Windows Vista installer via a process commonly known as slipstreaming.

Once the Vista SP1 slipstream pack is ready, you can burn those files to make a bootable Vista Service Pack 1 DVD.

Before we get started, here are four things you need to slipstream Windows Vista and Service Pack 1 files:

a. Windows Vista Installer DVD and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Installer - x86 or x64
b. vLite Installer - link
c. A blank DVD disc for writing the Vista SP1 files and few gigs of free hard disk space.

Now that you have all the ingredients ready, let’s get slipstreaming Vista SP1:

1. Insert the original Windows Vista DVD disk and start vLite (install the program if you haven’t done that already).

2. Browse for the folder that contains your Windows Vista files (i.e., your DVD Drive letter). vLite will now copy all the files to some local folder that is specified by you.

3. Once all the pre-SP1 Windows Vista files are copied to the local hard disk, specify the Windows Vista Edition that you want to slipstream. This step is necessary because installers for all Vista Editions are shipped in one DVD.

4. On the next screen, select the following tasks “Service Pack Slipstream” and “Bootable ISO” -> next -> select the location of standalone Windows Vista SP1 installer file.

5. vLite can take 60-90 minutes for integrating all the SP1 files into Vista Installer. Once this process is complete, change the mode to “Direct Burn”, pop a blank DVD and Burn.

Your Windows Vista SP1 Bootable DVD will be ready in few minutes.

Many moons ago I got REALLY tired of installing XP, and then downloading updates/applying service packs. Turns out you can slipstream the service packs onto a new Windows XP installation disk. Essentially this allows you to create a Windows XP installation with the Service Pack already part of the install.

So, what IS slipstreaming? Back when Microsoft was developing Windows 2000, the company decided to create up a more elegant way of integrating service packs and other fixes back into the core OS, so that enterprise customers could always maintain an install set of the latest version of Windows, ready to be installed at any time on new machines. It’s also useful for end users who reinstall often. Paul Thurott’s SuperSite detailed this for the release of SP2.

Thurott’s method requires that you hit the command line for the slipstream creation. It’s not difficult process, however there’s an easier method using a free tool called nLite.

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