Upgrading to Windows Vista

Use Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Upgrading to Windows Vista? 'Use Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor' the first thing to do when thinking about upgrading one of your Windows XP PCs to Windows Vista is to evaluate your PC and its system components to ensure it can be upgraded. Although you can manually review and evaluate your PC against the requirements and recommendations for Vista, as discussed in the next sections, you can make the whole process easier by simply using the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor is a blessing for beginners.

 In addition to quickly showing any compatibility issues with your PC's hardware or software, the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor also tries to come up with solutions to any found issues, and gives recommendations on which Vista version would work best with your system and for your computing needs. The Upgrade Advisor also lets you know if your system will support new, resource-hogging features, such as Vista's Aero interface.

Let's get started by downloading and installing the advisor:

1. Open your web browser and go to the following web: www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

2. Click the Download Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor link to download the program to your computer. The Download Details page will appear.

3. To begin the download, click the Download button.

4. On the File Download–Security Warning prompt, click Save

5. Browse to and select a location to place the file and click Save.

6. After the download is completed, click Run to begin the installation of the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. Microsoft Internet Explorer should display a warning dialog box, asking you to confirm that you want to run this software. Click Run.

7. The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor Setup Wizard will appear. Click Next

Note: To get the most out of the Upgrade Advisor, you should make sure all your devices, such as external drives, printers, and scanners, are plugged in and powered on before running the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. This allows the Upgrade Advisor to provide feedback on the compatibility of these devices as well

8. Complete the installation by following the directions given by the setup wizard.

After the installation is complete, you can run the advisor:

1. Open the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor by clicking on the icon on the Start menu or double-click on the desktop icon (if you chose to install it).

1. Click Start. 2. Choose All Programs 3. Select Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

2. Click Start Scan. While waiting for the scan to complete, you can compare each flavor

3. After the scan is completed, click the See Details button.

4. Now you can review your report. The following pages provide details on using the Upgrade Advisor. Note: If you would like a second opinion about your PC's ability to support Windows Vista, you can check out PC Pitstop's Vista Readiness Center at www.pcpitstop.com/vistaready

The first thing to look for when viewing your report from the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor is the message at the top, which will give you a quick, in-a-nutshell idea of your system's compatibility with Windows Vista.

The picture below shows an example of a recommendation explaining that the system in question might not be well suited to Vista without some upgrades first.

Overall advice from Update Advisor

Choose a version of Vista here and...

...read a description of who is best suited for this version.

The middle part of the report is simply an introduction to the different Vista editions, similar to what was shown while the Upgrade Advisor scanned the system. Use the buttons to the left to choose a version of Vista about which you want to know more.

The bottom of the report is where you can access more details on any issues that were found during the scan.

 Advisor categories

 Number of issues found in each category

Click to read more about the identified issues.

Clicking on the See Details buttons takes you to the corresponding section of the Report Details page.

 Click tabs to scan through the report categories.

On the Report Details page, you can click on the tabs (System, Devices, and Programs) to view the details of the other sections of the report, or you can click on the Task List tab to review the summary of what it recommends you should do before and after the upgrade to Vista.   .