Windows Vista Compatibility

The Vista Upgrade Advisor | Vista Compatible Drivers | Can PC Run Core Experiences? | Vista Incompatible Drivers

When one goes for installing a windows Vista edition over other OS already present like windows XP, older version may have some problems that usually we don't want to go for.

Upgrading to Vista

New features added to the Windows Vista, may tempt you to buy the Vista OS for your PC or one can easily want to switch to Vista from existing instance of Windows Me, 98, XP, or Windows 2000. One has to understand some points related to that before you actually change the OS:

Check out whether your PC is able to install Windows Vista. One may have to go for additional RAM, advanced video card, hard drive of more capacity or may have to upgrade all of these to get better performance from Vista OS.
Many times hardware like printers, networking adapters do not work well after installing Windows Vista, you require to update the drivers which are Vista-compatible.
One has to upgrade drivers for sure as the hardware vendor do not make Vista-compatible version available.

Do not install Vista over other Window Versions

When you buy a new PC you ask for Windows Vista preinstalled on it. And don't go for the replacement of windows Vista by older version of Windows. The reason behind it is Vista may cause incompatibility problems which can not easily fix by you.

While going for the preinstalled Vista OS PC, so no doubt that all the software in it as well as the components are also compatible with Windows Vista as well as comes with the latest driver software. In case if you are installing Vista to older PC, some other vital components like printer, networking adapter, no longer works well, as driver is incompatibility cause a problem.

So generally don't go installing Vista over an older version of Windows unless the following conditions are true:

When you want to install a feature of Vista which you cant add to XP
When you want any application that requires Vista
It's not affordable for you to go for expensive new PC with Vista already installed on it

When you want to take backup of your old data and going for a clean install of Vista. It may cause some problems due to old OS will hang around to cause conflicts. If at all you don't have any experience of formatting and taking backups, don't try to learn how on data that is important.

May be old system may not have enough memory, video performance, disk space or CPU performance required to run Windows Vista OS satisfactorily over it. Then also if you are going for installing new Vista over old OS, run Microsoft's Vista Upgrade Advisor, will help you to check which drivers needed to update first.

Try the Vista Upgrade Advisor - For XP Users

Microsoft provides the Vista Upgrade Advisor, it helps you to determine whether a particular PC has the performance characteristics as well as the hardware drivers present needs well with Vista. You just run the Upgrade Advisor on the system you want to upgrade, which is not having Vista OS. It is also useful to find out upgraded drivers available and useful to make your current PC performance better.

The Upgrade Advisor is actually simple and short test that one get on the Microsoft web site. It is useful for the computers having Windows XP as the operating system installed. As mentioned on the Microsoft site, 'In general, PCs purchased within the last two years have a better chance of being able to run Windows Vista as-is or with affordable improvements to the system hardware.' It is not useful for many PCs that are having Windows 2000, Me, or 98 as OS.