The newly launched operating system known as Windows Vista has become one of the most desired operating systems to date. All of the new computers that are bought will come preloaded with it on but many people will want to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista. There are certain things you should check before you make that upgrade, first you need to see if your computer is capable of running Windows Vista. You can do this by running the Microsoft program which will give you a report of everything that will and won’t work if you were to upgrade, this can save you lots of time and money in the long run. If you wish to run this software you can download it for free off of the internet so you don’t need to spend any money up front.

Be sure to review this report with great detail, if it says that your computer is capable of running Windows Vista there are certain features that may not be able to work. One of the main factors that will not be support is your video card. Vista uses the new ‘Aero’ interface which may not be compatible with many older video cards. If it was to come back and say you cannot support the ‘Aero’ interface you can still use Vista at its basic level but you will be missing out on the new features that make Vista stand out.

If you were to do this you could always upgrade your video card and upgrade your Vista package to take advantage of the full features so you don’t have to spend a lot of money in order to be able to support the ‘Aero’ interface. You will agree that it was money well spent!

You cannot install the upgrade version of Vista after you have formatted your hard drive, this features has been took off. If you want to do this you will have to have the full version of Windows Vista which will enable you to start from scratch.