Jumping Into Microsoft Windows Vista
Like a lot of other reviews of Microsoft Windows Vista, mine suggested that most people are better off waiting until they buy a new PC rather than upgrading their existing machine. I suspect that most people will do just that, but there are always some hearty souls out there who are willing to live on the bleeding edge of technology. I admit I'm one of them. I started using pre-release versions of Vista months ago and have been working with the final version for several weeks. I've installed it on several machines and, for the most part, my experience has been positive.
The consumer versions of Vista go on sale Tuesday, January 30th. If you're thinking of upgrading a Windows XP machine to Vista, you first need to find out what if any Vista editions will work on your machine. Then you need to select the version and decide how to install it. That last issue is more complicated than it might seem because there are three different ways to install Vista on an XP machine.
The easiest way to see if your machine is compatible is to go to www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready and download a free program that will scan your system and tell you what, if anything, you need to do to make your machine Vista ready. Make sure all of your peripheral devices are plugged in because it checks to see if Vista is compatible with those devices. If your graphics card isn't up to speed or you don't have quite enough system memory it may tell you that you can run the $99 Home Basic edition but not the $159 Home Premium version that gives you some of the cooler features like translucent windows, DVD movie burning and Windows Media Center.
If your machine can't run Premium, you might be able to make it compatible by getting a new graphics adapter and upgrading to at least a gigabyte of system memory. I replaced my old video card with an nVidia GeForce 7600 (about $170) and am getting great performance.
Also, check with the developer or manufacturer of any hardware or software that you can't live without. You want to make sure your mission critical products are Vista compatible before upgrading the machine. If not, find out when and if an upgrade software or driver will become available and wait until then. Finally, gather all of your program CDs so you can re-install your software if necessary. Don't make the mistake of installing Vista and later discovering that I you have an install CD for a program you'll need.
Once you've decided to take the plunge, the most important decision that make is how you will install it. There are three options: Upgrade Install, Full Install and Clean Install. Whichever one you choose, you should first back up all of your data. Except when I decided to reformat my hard drive, I never lost data during a Vista upgrade, but it definitely can happen.
Upgrade Option
The Upgrade Install option lets you keep your old Windows installation and all of your programs and settings as long as they're Vista compatible. The advantage is that you don't have to reinstall most of your programs. The disadvantage is that Vista could inherit some of the problems of your old XP installation including any spyware or malicious software that's clogging your system or just settings that tend to get stuck in the Windows system registry which can slow down performance in decrease stability.
Microsoft says that it's gone to great lengths to minimize these problems, but in my experience a system will run better if you blow away all the old settings and software and start from scratch. Another issue with an upgrade is that some of your drivers, programs and settings might not be compatible. I upgraded a brand new Lenovo ThinkPad X60 laptop that had only been used for a few days and didn't have any spyware or other problems.
The upgrade took over two hours, and most of the time I didn't have to do anything—just wait for the install program to do its work. The machine ran fine when it was done but some of the utilities, including Lenovo's WiFi software and Sprint's wireless modem software didn't work. Also, before I could upgrade I had to uninstall my anti-virus software (system utility programs like anti-virus almost always need to be replaced as part of a Vista upgrade). These problems were all solvable but it took a little work and research on my part before the machine and all most software worked properly.
Full Install
The next level of install is called Full Install. This process doesn't erase any of your data (but my backup advice still stands) and it copies all of your old programs into a directory called Windows.OLD. In the vast majority of cases, your old programs won't work so you will need to reinstall all of your software and reset all your settings. And, even though your data is on your machine it might not be in a place that Vista expects it to be so you might have to make some adjustments later.
I used this method on several installs and liked it the most because it gave me a fresh installation of Windows yet preserved the data on my machine. Of course, you'll need to be sure that your program CDs are handy as you'll have to re-install all of your programs.
Clean Install
Finally there is Clean Install which reformats your hard drive, erasing all of your programs and data and installs Vista on an otherwise completely blank drive. This method is fine if you have a complete backup up all your data and, of course, all of your installation CDs for your programs, but I don't see any advantage to this over a full install unless you're in the mood to clean house and start with what is—as far as the drive is concerned—a "new" PC.
Drivers
Regardless of what method you use, you may have to update some of the drivers for your printer, scanner, network card and other devices. Microsoft does a pretty good job of automating this process. It has a large database of products it knows about and if it finds an updated driver for your equipment, it will install it automatically during the upgrade process. If not, you may be prompted to provide a driver in which case you should visit the website of the company that made the product.
Of course, you can avoid all of this by buying a new machine with Vista already on it. Depending on whether you need to upgrade your hardware that option might be cheaper by the time you add in your hardware upgrade costs and the cost of Vista. But then you'd miss out on all the excitement of wondering if your old machine will still be working when you're done installing Vista. Living on the bleeding edge can be exciting.
By Larry Magid
