Windows Vista Ultimate x64 Installation Notes for the HP 6910p
Here are the notes I took during my Windows Vista Ultimate x64 installation on my HP 6910p notebook. The notes below were written primarily for my team but I like to share.
In case you were wondering, the HP 6910p has performed remarkably well with Windows Vista Ultimate x64 and Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 with Hyper-V. I don't dual boot. Instead I have several hard drives for the various operating systems I use and test.
I plan to upgrade this machine to Windows Vista SP1 when the update becomes available on the update.microsoft.com servers. I don't expect this to take place until mid-March per the information provided by Mike Nash.
Initial OS and Driver Install
- Installed Windows Vista Ultimate x64 fresh to a new hard drive or format an existing drive. This is a clean install not an upgrade. The 6910p built-in Ethernet adaptor is properly detected and operational after install.
- Download drivers from the HP 6910p Windows Vista x64 driver area. I generally rename the download and like to precede the cryptic spNNNN.exe name with something that makes sense like “ati video sp36486b.exe”. I usually download the majority of the stuff I’ll need but skip things like BIOS updates. As I install drivers, if prompted for a reboot, I do it then. I know this means twice as many reboots but it’s just the way I roll so you won’t see reboot instructions below.
- Install intel chipset drivers sp36881.
- Install ati video sp36486b. Turn on Aero after reboot.
- Install intel wireless sp37754.
- Install intel matrix storage mgmt sp38088.
- Install fingerprint sp36525.
- Install tpm sp34876
- Install rich media slot sp36255.
- Go to Control Panel then Windows Update and update the machine. This is about 55 updates and picks up the remaining drivers.
Microsoft Security, VPN and Anti-Virus App Installs
Section removed for the blog post. Employees can email me for my notes.
Windows Vista Tweaks
- Do not install the drivers and software that came with the PCMCIA eSATA card included in your hardware bundle. This was an untested card that came with the bundle for my group. Thumbs down.
- Turn off System Restore Points for your disks. I am pretty religious about doing Ghost 12 backups weekly so this is unnecessary for my needs.
- Disable the Widows Search service. I like to squeeze as much processing and disk I/O out of my machine as possible so this is a controversial step. I’m just telling you what I do.
- Set the Superfetch service to manual. See the above step for why I do this.
- Set the Offline files service to manual. Again, I squeeze performance out of my machine in order to give it up to the VM's I run on a regular basis.
- If you install IIS7 and Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, set their respective services to manual.
- I remove all but the Default and StartCCC keys from HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run node.
- I remove all but the Default, Synaptics, Defender, Intel Matrix Store Mgr keys from the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run node.
Applications I Install
I install a number of applications I use on frequent basis. Most if not all of them are 32bit applications right now. They include Office 2007 Enterprise, Nero, Streets 2008, Ghost 12, Live Writer, Communicator 2007, LiveMeeting 2007, Acrobat Reader, Flash, Quicktime, Zune, Camtasia 5, Expression Suite, Virtual PS 2007, Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1, RichCopy 3.5, ATT Comm Mgr, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premiere Elements 4, Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, Visual Studio 2008, ISA Proxy client and others. Some of the applications are personal purchases. All of them work but Visual Studio is getting the least use at the moment.
