Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Put: 26.01.2007 | Rev 26.01.2007 | Contributed by Andrew Mallett

Microsoft is offering an application for download which is supposed to advised potential Vista customers on how compatible their current hardware would be and what hardware, if any, would require upgrading before moving to Windows Vista.

Here's the blurb from the Microsoft Website..

GET READY

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

Want to see if your Windows XP-based PC can run Windows Vista? Just download, install, and run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

This small software tool will scan your computer and create an easy-to-understand report of all known system, device, and program compatibility issues, and recommend ways to resolve them. Upgrade Advisor can also help you choose the edition of Windows Vista that best fits the way you want to use your computer.

Before you begin

Before you run the Upgrade Advisor, be sure to plug in any USB or other attachable peripheral devices (such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners) that are regularly used with the PC that you're evaluating.

Additional information

The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor works with 32-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. It will not work with Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows XP Professional x64 Edition.

The Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor does not collect or send any personal, identifiable data to Microsoft Corporation or third parties. See the Upgrade Advisor privacy statement for details.

I find it a bit disappointing that the Upgrade Advisor won't work with Windows 2000, in fact there is no upgrade path from Windows 2000 to Windows Vista. However users may wish to purchase a full install version of Vista for installation onto their previous Windows 2000 box. It's always better to do a fresh install anyway, rather than upgrading a potentially bug-ridden and past-its-prime Windows install. But the Upgrade Advisor won't be helping them with any decisions here.

It's interesting that the Upgrade Advisor works on Vista itself. One would think that most users would be interested in what hardware needed to be upgraded before they installed the new OS.

I downloaded the tool to check on my own system's hardware compatibility and found another caveat which Microsoft didn't mention..

No reference to requiring SP2 installed before running the Upgrade Advisor, on Microsoft's website. So it would seem that the compatibility advisor suffers from big compatibility issues itself. What's the point..?

Links & References

Microsoft's Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor page
Windows Vista RTM Software Compatibility List at Wikii

- A.