After zipping through the required sign-up process for Microsoft's Customer Preview Program, users with a 1.5Mbit/sec. Digital Subscriber Line or cable broadband connection will likely spend 10 hours downloading the 4GB Vista installation file, Microsoft warned Thursday on its Vista download site here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/default.mspx

Users with a faster 3Mbit/sec. broadband connection might be able to slash that download time by half. But for most users, downloading the file will prove to be at least an overnight exercise.

The installation software, called an ISO file, must then be burned onto a blank DVD. Most DVD-burning software should recognize the ISO file and burn it correctly.

Once that is done, you can insert the DVD into a PC during the start-up, or boot, process.

Users who lack a DVD writer or who can delay gratification a bit can also order the file already on DVD, which will be mailed to them by Microsoft. In the U.S., that method costs $6 per copy, with a maximum order of five DVDs. Microsoft will mail out DVDs to more than 100 countries, and the cost will vary from nation to nation.