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04.12.07
From XP to Vista
 By Neville Hobson
Installing a new operating system on your PC isn’t a task you undertake lightly, especially when the operating system you want to install is substantially advanced and, well, different to the one you’ve been used to for some years.
This is unquestionably the case with Windows Vista which I installed on my primary desktop PC over the weekend. The edition I installed is Windows Vista Ultimate.
Don’t get me wrong. Installing Vista from scratch as I did - what the concise manual calls ‘installing’ as opposed to ‘upgrading’ - was as easy as you can imagine. No hardware or software issues affected the procedure, which took all of 35 minutes from start to finish.
That’s considerably less than half the time it took for every Windows XP clean installation I can recall doing over the past few years (and let’s not mention 2000, Me, NT, 98, 95, 3.1, etc). What’s more, once Vista was installed, I got from turning on the PC to a workable Windows desktop in less than 30 seconds. That’s with a spanking new installation, before any other applications were installed.
In sum, it’s all very easy to get up and running.
In fact, probably the trickiest aspect of installing Windows Vista is figuring out how to open the smart and stylish packaging so you can get started!
I thought it was just me with a brain cell or two unwired from understanding something that ought to be child’s play. But, no, it’s not just me - Microsoft has even published a special help page on how to open the Windows Vista box.
Once you do have it open, just insert the DVD into your PC and away you go.
Well, almost - there is some crucial work you must do before you insert that DVD.
The first thing is to check out your PC to find out if it’s capable of running Window Vista. Microsoft published a useful tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor which scans your current pre-Vista system and produces a detailed report with a recommendation of which Vista edition might be right for you.
The system requirements for Vista mean you will need a PC with a bit more muscle than you might expect, especially if you want to take advantage of the coolest usability feature of all - Windows Aero, specifically Aero Glass which offers stunning glass-like translucency effects to everything you see on your desktop. It exceeds the expectations I had from just reading about it or seeing screenshots.
About the Author:
Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.
Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson's blog: NevilleHobson.com.
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