This article details my personal experience upgrading my personal computer to Windows Vista Business.  It also gives plenty of helpful tips if you decide to upgrade your own computer.

Considerations

• If your computer is more than 2 years old you may want to think twice about upgrading to Vista.  In addition to the cost of Vista itself, you may need so many system upgrades that it would be cheaper to purchase a new PC.

• Do NOT upgrade Vista with anything less than 1 Gig of RAM.  You may want to consider upgrading to 2 gigs.

• All users should download, install and run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.  This program will take several minutes to examine your hardware, divers and software for compatibility with Vista.  It will tell you if your system, video card and memory will handle Vista.  It will tell you the drivers that may not work.  In many cases it will provide a link to an updated driver.  Likewise the Upgrade Advisor will do the same with your software.

• Do NOT install Vista if your system is currently having any problems.  Vista will only make it worse.  Any Spyware and Viruses should be removed before Vista.  This is actually a good recommendation before ANY upgrade of an operating system or service pack.

Steps

Run a system cleanup.  In addition, it’s a good idea to empty the various TEMP folders on your PC.

Go to the Microsoft Windows Update website and apply ALL updates possible.

Below is a list of some of the software that should be upgraded BEFORE installing Vista.  Most software companies have free downloads available from the website for Vista. 

• Apple iPod
• All in Wonder Video Card drivers
  • New driver is available from ATI.COM
  • Multimedia center will not work with Vista and no new version is available
• Almost all Norton / Symantec Products must be removed and reinstalled after Vista update.  Some must be updated with new versions from the website.
• MSN Messenger
• Adobe Acrobat 6 Std or Pro is incompatible
• Citrix Client (I updated to the newest version and still received the warning)
• BOINC / Seti@Home – Need to upgrade to 5.88 OR BETTER
• EBay Turbo Lister must be updated

After you have done the above items: MAKE A BACKUP.  At a minimum, backup your data.  Do a full backup if possible.

Select the correct version of Vista.  If you’re upgrading a Business PC or connect to a Business network, you will need Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. The Home versions of Vista take away many of the networking features you will need.  Choose correctly or you could make an expensive mistake.

Make sure you end all running programs before you start the upgrade.  (Don’t forget the items running in the system tray).

You will be given the option of downloading the Vista updates during the install.  This is highly recommended if you have a broadband Internet connection.  Don’t try it if you have dial-up.

The upgrade will take a while – a long while.  The bottom of the screen actually says “Your upgrade may take several hours to complete”.  I found that the process was about like watching paint dry.  You almost need a time lapse camera to note any movement on the progress indicator.  Fortunately I have a backup PC in my office so I can keep up with my email during the upgrade.

The PC I upgraded for this article is a Hewlett Packard dc7100 with a Pentium 4HT 3.6 MHz, 2 Gig of RAM and ATI X800 Video.  I started the actual Vista install at 11:30am and finished at: 2:30 for a total of 3 hours.  Note that this time doesn’t include the time spent preparing the system for the upgrade which was roughly 2 hours.  Likewise several hours must also be spent post upgrade to fix or update your applications.

One very notable problem I encountered was my CDRW drive would no longer work after the upgrade.  A quick check with Microsoft TechNet and I found an article that allowed me to make a registry change that re-enabled the drive.  This is a problem that the average user would not know how to fix.

After installing Vista - Go to the Microsoft Windows Update website and apply ALL updates possible.

It may also be a good idea to defragment the hard drive after the install.  You can use the built in defragmenter but a better choice would be Executive Software’s Diskeeper.  It’s much faster and does a better job.

If you don not understand everything I just discussed, you may need to seek professional help.  J

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