Before you upgrade your Windows XP workstations to Windows Vista, be sure to check whether the hardware will support the upgrade. To do this, use the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. Be sure however to download the latest version of Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft Download Center, and be sure to plug in any peripherals such as printers, scanners, and so on before you run the utility. To run upgrade advisor, you need to be an administrator on your XP workstation and you need to have Internet connectivity. You also need to have the .NET 2.0 Framework installed and MSXML 6.0, which Upgrade Advisor will prompt you to download and install if you don’t already have these components installed on your workstations.

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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.