The Vista Upgrade Advisor is useful for checking individual Windows XP computers to see whether their hardware configuration will support upgrading to Windows Vista, but what if you have hundreds of thousands of computers to check? For that, you need the Big Brother to Upgrade Advisor, the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator. You can use the Hardware Assessment SA to an inventory, assess, and report which computers on your network are ready for upgrading Vista, and also whether they can support running the 2007 Microsoft Office System. You can get the Hardware Assessment SA from the Microsoft Download Center, and see here for a good explanation of how it works.
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Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com.
