The Vista Upgrade Advisor is a valuable tool to both network administrators and home users. It lets you perform the following tasks prior to upgrading to Vista:

1. Determine if you can install and run Vista.
2. Determine the version of Vista that is best for you.
3. Determine if your hardware and software is compatible.

In part three of this series, you installed the Vista Upgrade Advisor on your computer and now you are ready to scan your computer. With the Upgrade Advisor window open, start the scan by click the Start System Scan option.

While the tool scans your computer, it prompts you to select the features you plan to use. The Upgrade Advisor uses this information to guide you in choosing the version of Vista best suited for your needs. From the Feature Selection screen, place a check beside the features you are interested in using. The Upgrade Advisor will proceed to tell you which version it recommends you install.

Click Next to proceed with the next step - assessing your hardware. The Upgrade Advisor presents a message indicating that your hardware can or cannot run the core experiences of Vista. The rest of the screen contains the hardware report based on the features you selected and the version of Vista recommended.

After you review the hardware report, click Next to move onto the Software Assessment. Now the Upgrade Advisor looks at the programs, applications and drivers installed and whether you need to update any software to support Vista. As with the hardware assessment, the Upgrade Advisor presents a report indicating which software is not Vista ready and what actions are required.

Review the Software Assessment report and click Next. The Vista Upgrade Advisor is now complete. The final screen presents the options to print or save the final report. Click Close to exit.

You should now have a good indication as the whether any additional actions are required before upgrading to Vista.

[tags]Vista, Windows upgrade, Microsoft[/tags]