Fun times.

I vlited Vista a while back when SP1 was released. I cropped almost 3GB worth of Vista DVD into 900MB worth of awesome install. It fit on two CDs. I liked it.

Fast forward to today – SP2 for vista was released a couple days ago to MSDN/partners. I download the rather large install and attempt to update my system. Fail. Epic. Apparently I’m “missing” key components needed by the SP2 installer. So I’m stuck on 1. Yippie.

So I go ahead and download the whole schebang – Vista Enterprise SP2. Then I go ahead and vlite this installation – but I only manage to cut the installer in half – 1.58GB out of the original 2.98GB. Four CD’s later I’m in business; burned and ready to install.

Installed without any issues, and it’s not even complaining. Seems faster already too.

ANYway, I attempt to run the Activation for windows. ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

slui.exe – System Error

The program can’t start because SCARDDLG.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem

Well that sucks. How am I supposed to activate this beast? I check on the original DVD to see if the dll is floating around – no dice. I check on another vista machine (SP1) – no dice. So then I remember that post CAB file days, Microsoft has files known as WIMs. AND since I needed to install that 1.3GB AIK microsoft installer for vlite to run, I already had the tool required to view said WIM files.

Grab the original Vista SP2 Disk and put it in your Optical drive (Or Daemon Tools virtual mount the ISO)
Create a directory called “vistamount” on your C:\ drive
Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Windows AIK -> Windows PE Tools Command Prompt

imagex /mount f:\sources\install.wim 1 c:\vistamount

Now you’ll be able to navigate to c:\vistamount\windows\system32\scarddlg.dll. Throw this file into c:\windows\system32 and then try to reactivate.