Windows XP slipstream on Windows Vista?

Question

I want to create a XP SP3 slipstreamed disk and I need to know if I can do it on my Vista computer (plus the Windows XP install disk as well, of course).

To clarify, I am currently running a Windows Vista box, and I want to create 3 or 4 vm guests with XP on them - at this point I don't have any XP guests setup. So basically I want to know if I need to setup a XP guest first and then create the slipstreamed cd from that, or if I can just do it with Vista.

Answer 1

Yes, you can create a Windows XP slipstream installation disk on a different version of Windows. (It has to be Windows though because the slipstream program is Windows software.) nLite for XP, vLite for Vista. You can create the disk straight away without needing to setup a VM first.

Maximum PC provides a nice how-to article on slipstreaming for both XP and Vista. They cover the basic process as well as steps to customize your Windows installation. Besides the obvious of integrating the latest service pack and hotfixes, you can pre-install drivers; remove standard components; setup an unattended installation process; and configure default settings.

Answer 2

Yes, you can create a slipstreamed XP install with nLite on a non-XP machine. It will ask you to copy the source install files from the CD/DVD to a tempoary folder. I've done it on Windows 7 and I would fully hope it would work on Vista. The tool for Vista/7 Slipstreaming, if needed, is vLite.