Tips for wiping Lenovo setup for fresh Vista install

[Jonathan7007]

All:
My X61t arrives tomorrow, and I have bought an OEM DVD (legit) with Vista Business, the same version with which I ordered the X61t. I plan to start with a clean install of the OS, but there might be elements of the original software setup that I should re-install.

First, are there tips from all of you about how best to do this? I would have explored the X61t as-is for a day or so while I backup and extract data from the Toshiba M400. Then I would place the DVD in the drive and GO. By-by, junkware.

Oops I just realized I haven't ordered a USB optical drive yet. The computer is coming faster than estimated by Lenovo...

Second, which parts of the Lenovo materials should I re-install?

Third, anyone have a proven USB optical DVD to suggest?

Jonathan

[WNewquay]

Hi Jonathan,

Try living with it for several days or more with all the ThinkPad utilities. I've had my X61t for a couple of weeks now and don't feel that those utilities are causing me any grief. I did an in-place upgrade to Vista Ultimate because I wanted both the business features (especially the full image backup) as well as the entertainment features. In the process I lost several of the ThinkPad utilities and I had to do some fiddling around to get them back. And I did it because they were reasonably well implemented and non-intrusive.

I didn't have to contend with anything I would seriously consider junkware.

How much ram will you have?

[DRtigerlilly]

I've had no problems getting my x61 to recognize usb optical drives, which is more than i can say for my m200.

I've outlined a guide here on tablet pc review
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showpost.php?p=110591&postcount=4
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showpost.php?p=111016&postcount=5
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showpost.php?p=111020&postcount=6

in My current setup the only Lenovo utilities i installed were the tablet buttons, active protection, power manager, fingerprint reader software & on screen display for the volume keys and system update b/c its easier to get the drivers that way.

Make sure to burn you recovery disks before you attempt this procedure, or at the very least make an image of your machine & the recovery partition.

And to get system update to recognize the machine as valid, and connect to the servers, you have to edit the following registry keys:

HKEYLOCALMACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\DSDT\LENOVO\TP-7S__
HKEYLOCALMACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\FADT\LENOVO\TP-7S__
HKEYLOCALMACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\RSDT\LENOVO\TP-7S__

Change TP-7S__ to the model number of your machine for eg it will have:

HKEYLOCALMACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\DSDT\LENOVO\TP-7S__

Change it to HKEYLOCALMACHINE\HARDWARE\ACPI\DSDT\LENOVO\7764CTO where 7764CTO is your model number. Repeat for all 3 keys.