1: Is your hardware up to snuff?
Vista is famous--or perhaps, more accurately, infamous--for its hefty hardware requirements. Certainly, minimum system requirements are more demanding than for any previous Windows operating system.
In reality, there are two separate sets of hardware requirements, one for machines that are merely "Vista Capable" and one for those that are "Vista Premium Ready." Whereas the latter requires a 1GHz processor, a GB of RAM and a high end video card, requirements for the former are a bit more easily (and inexpensively) attainable. It's important to remember that, although the eye candy afforded by Aero Glass is very cool, it's probably not really necessary for most business applications.
Before you start making plans to upgrade all of your organization's workstations to Vista, you should check out the exact system requirements on Microsoft's Windows Vista Enterprise Hardware Planning Guidance Web site.
2: Which edition(s) of Vista do you need?
Selecting the right edition of Windows XP was pretty simple. There were four basic varieties: Home Edition, Professional Edition, Tablet PC Edition, and Media Center Edition. If the computer needed to join a Windows domain, the first and last editions were out (MCE 2004 could join a domain, but 2005 could not). Unless you were installing on a Tablet PC, there was no need for TPCE. The logical choice for the vast majority of systems on a business network was XP Pro.
Things get slightly more complicated with Vista. Now there are five editions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. Although you probably won't want to use the Home editions on a company network, you may be less certain whether to choose Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate. Business Edition is roughly comparable to XP Pro, whereas Enterprise Edition includes extra features, such as BitLocker Drive Encryption (an added layer of security for corporate laptops), application compatibility tools, SUA (Subsystem for UNIX-based applications), and advanced multi-language support. Ultimate is a superset with all the features of all editions (including Media Center), which may be more than you need for your business PCs. You'll find more information on the editions here.
3: Understand Vista licensing
The licensing details for Windows Vista can be a little complex. Microsoft announced last spring that Enterprise Edition will be available only to customers with a Software Assurance or Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. For smaller businesses, the Windows Anytime Upgrade license, which allows you to upgrade some editions of Vista to a higher edition, may be of interest (for example, you can upgrade Home Basic to Home Premium, or Business to Ultimate). For more info, see "Vista Anytime Upgrade Goes Beta."
4: What about application compatibility?
When it comes down to it, the applications, not the operating system, matter most in terms of getting the job done. One important consideration in rolling out a new OS is to ensure that your essential programs will run on it without problems.
Vista's built-in compatibility modes will help you install and run apps that were written for previous versions of Windows. Microsoft has created the Application Compatibility Toolkit to help you identify applications that may need enhancements to work with Vista's User Account Control (UAC) feature and to fix those programs. You can also use technologies such as Virtual PC/Virtual Server or Terminal Services as a workaround for incompatible applications.
Nonetheless, it's important to test your mission-critical applications beforehand and ensure that they will work with Vista--or develop a plan to replace them or implement a workaround if they don't. For application compatibility resources, see this overview.
5: Assess the network infrastructure
Although there's no requirement that you do so, upgrading to Vista may provide you with motivation to move to IPv6. Vista includes much better support for the new Internet Protocol. With XP/Server 2003, IPv6 support requires installing a separate protocol, whereas the TCP/IP stack in Vista/Longhorn Server supports dual IP architecture and both IPv4 and IPv6 are enabled by default.
The United States. has been much slower than Asian countries to move to IPv6, but there are many reasons to do so now. A transition to IPv6 not only enhances IP security, it also allows doing away with NAT and makes it easier to incorporate video and audio into applications. For a list of advantages of IPv6, see IPv6 -- The evolution of the Internet.
6: Who needs Vista (and who doesn't)?
You may not want or need to upgrade all desktop systems in the your organization to Vista at once. In fact, there's a lot to be said for implementing an OS upgrade in a large company one step at a time. Upgrades shouldn't be done randomly, though. Part of your rollout plan should include assessing which users can benefit most from Vista's new features, are most in need of Vista's security enhancements, or otherwise should take priority in the rollout process.
Clerical personnel who spend most of their computer time in a word processing or spreadsheet program may be perfectly content--and just as productive--continuing to use their current OS for awhile.
7: Are your users prepared?
Such considerations as cost, hardware, and infrastructure are important when you're making the decision to roll out a new OS, but don't forget the people factor. A minority of computer users embrace new technology eagerly and can't wait to be the first on the block to try and master the latest and greatest. But most users, like human beings in general, are resistant to change, even if the change is for the better.
Upgrading to a new operating system always requires a learning period, regardless of how intuitive the software is, and Vista introduces some major interface changes and new ways of doing things that may frustrate your less tech-savvy users. For example, those new to Vista are likely to be confused or annoyed by the dialog boxes that AUC pops up whenever they try to perform a task that requires administrative rights, even if they're logged on as administrators. It's important to prepare users for the transition through education, training, and policies that don't make it harder on them than necessary. For instance, you can allow those who prefer it to switch back to the classic Windows theme to make the desktop look more familiar
8: Is your data safe?
Sure, if all goes well, the OS upgrade will leave all your precious data intact. But what if all doesn't go well? The most elementary, but surprisingly oft-overlooked, consideration is whether all of your data is properly backed up "just in case." That doesn't just mean having a backup program and a bunch of tapes that you shuffle every week or so. It means actually doing test restorations to ensure that those backups will work if and when you need them.
9: What will it really cost?
When all the other considerations are in, you can start to calculate how much it will cost to do the upgrade. Don't forget that the bottom line cost includes a lot more than the licensing fees. It also includes the cost of any necessary hardware upgrades, application modifications (or moving to new applications or new versions of the old ones), changes to the network infrastructure (if applicable), consultants you hire to help with the rollout, user training (including cost productivity while those users are away from their usual tasks), training of support personnel and IT administrators, and administrative overhead of handling all these preparations, including application compatibility testing, backup testing, and so forth.
Once you have a realistic cost estimate, you can intelligently decide whether the benefits of upgrading are worth it or whether your company is better off using XP (or even Windows 2000) for awhile longer and waiting for the first service pack or beyond before you take the Vista plunge.
10) Would it be better to purchase new PCs instead?
The real answer is Yes. It will be much easier to purchase new units with Vista installed then upgrade your existing ones (unless of course you purchased a unit in the last 90 or so days and have a free upgrade). Vista takes a long time to upgrade on each station and you will likely have to reinstall updated versions of drivers and programs like the AntiVirus. We aren’t saying don’t do it and we’re happy to assist with the upgrade. We’re just saying be prepared to spend a little time and make sure the unit has the right hardware.
And now 10 reasons why you should upgrade:
1) Ready Boost (USB drive as memory) |
Microsoft has a new way to help you boost performance on your OS without requiring you to buy a lot of new expensive hardware. You can now plug in removable memory (USB key, compact flash, SD card, etc.) and assign all or part of it to use Ready Boost. This means that the memory will be used as a prefetch section between your RAM and hard drive. In testing, this has shown that it can offer a great speed boost to many systems, especially those with limited RAM.
|
2) Aero Glass user interface |
The Aero Glass interface in Windows Vista is a major step forward for Windows in GUI design. Your Windows desktop has never looked better than it will under a Vista version supporting Aero Glass. Not only do things look better, but the whole layout of the GUI has been changed to make everything easier to find and more intuitive to use.
|
3) Integrated Sidebar and Search |
Most of us have already installed a third-party search application, RSS reader, and sidebar or gadget dock in Windows XP. These features have been integrated into the OS itself and look fabulous under Aero Glass. You'll no longer need to open a browser to see your stocks or check on the weather. They will be constantly displayed (and updated) from the Windows Sidebar. Searching for your documents has never been easier, either, now that the integrated search function in Windows supports the indexing features of many newer search applications.
|
4) Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor |
IT professionals are already familiar with Performance Monitor, but now the power of this utility has been brought to the masses. The new Windows Reliability and Performance Monitor can easily be set by a user to automatically take a baseline performance reading of their new PC. And when performance begins to suffer, this tool will help then diagnose what is causing the problem.
|
5) Security |
One of primary design focuses for Vista was to create the most secure environment possible. Many basic aspects of Windows (such as running as an Administrator) have been changed to help produce this environment. Not only that, Internet Explorer 7 has many new features designed to help protect you while you are online.
|
6) 500 new GPO objects |
Many companies rely on Active Directory and its Group Policy capabilities to enforce standards on their desktops. Windows Vista makes this even better by including more than 500 new Group Policy Objects. |
7) BitLocker |
As we've seen over the past few years, laptops are one of the biggest security holes for IT departments. The new BitLocker technology in Windows Vista can help mitigate this risk by encrypting data and making the computer unusable to anyone not in possession of the startup key (which can be typed in or stored on a USB key). |
8) Enhanced networking |
Microsoft has rewritten its TCP/IP network stack for Vista to provide better performance. In addition, Vista has dramatically changed how users interact with the network devices in their PC and on their network. Now users can take advantage of the new built-in tools to help diagnose network problems. This will cut down on help desk calls and in some cases, speed up support. The help desk can use the information provided by the diagnostic tools to help in their troubleshooting. |
9) Continual support |
Being the newest OS from Microsoft, Vista will be eligible for support longer than any other Windows OS available. Along with support from Microsoft, there will be support from the Internet at large, as people will be using Windows Vista for quite awhile into the foreseeable future. This offers some peace of mind, knowing that you can get help should you run into any issues. |
10) DirectX 10 |
DirectX 10 will be available only on Windows Vista. If you must have the latest and greatest in games, the upgrade to Windows Vista is a no-brainer, as this is the only way you can get it. DirectX 10 also claims to fix the "small batch problem" from previous versions. It has claimed that this could lead to DirectX 10 games that can perform six times better than the same game running in DirectX 9 on Windows XP.
And, of course, 10 reasons why you should not upgrade:
1) No loss of WinXP support |
Vista will be supported longer than XP, but XP still has two years of mainstream support from Microsoft. And a wealth of information on Windows XP (and many other operating systems) is already available on the internet. If you and your staff are comfortable with XP, there's little reason to upgrade to Vista for continued support at the moment.
|
2) Learning curve |
Vista is a different animal from previous Windows operating systems. Many of the tools are the same or similar, but there is still a lot to learn. If your IT department is already stretched thin, taking the time to learn and implement Windows Vista may not be worth it right now.
|
3) Application incompatibility |
Many popular applications do not work on Vista. Applications like ITunes and Nero have issues running on Vista. In fact, nearly every program involved in ripping or recoding media have issues with Vista. If these major applications are having compatibility issues, how many more small applications--those you may use everyday--will have problems, too?
|
4) DRM issues |
Peter Gutmann from the UK's The Register has called Window Vista's new DRM the "longest suicide note in history." Even though great strides have been made for PCs in the living room as an entertainment device, Vista has put crippling DRM into place when playing next generation (HD-DVD and BluRay) content. When playing this content, the component output and S/PDIF output is disabled, effectively crippling Windows Vista as an entertainment system.
|
5) Notebook battery drain |
Windows Vista requires more hardware power to run--and notebook battery life goes down the more you require of your PC's hardware. Even just running the Aero Glass interface will drain your battery faster, due to the additional GPU processing. Any dedicated road warrior should consider this before upgrading.
|
6) Not so innovative |
You can download many advanced search applications for free. Even Microsoft has released one. Google has a nice sidebar with a built-in RSS reader available for free. Yahoo widgets (formally Konfabulator) allow you to change your desktop into a virtual workspace with all manner of data and tools available at your fingertips. Apple's OS X is by far the leader in modern desktops. Even Aero Glass cannot compare to the smoothness of OS X (which is more than five years old). Sun's Project Looking Glass can provide a minimal 3d desktop for XP for free.
|
7) Cost |
Vista is expensive. There's no way around this. Microsoft has tried to mitigate this by releasing different versions of Vista with different price points. Unfortunately, many of these are feature crippled and cause more confusion than necessary. If you want Vista, expect to pay up to $400 for one of the top versions.
|
8) A new video card for DirectX 10 |
DirectX 10 being Vista-only means that many gamers are waiting patiently on the newest OS. Unfortunately, not only will they have to pay for the OS, but they will also have to buy a new video card that supports DirectX 10. Currently, only NVIDIA's 8800 chipset is DirectX 10 compatible, with the lowest model (the GTS) having a retail price of $399.
|
9) Stiff hardware requirements |
Vista has the harshest hardware requirements of any Microsoft operating system to date. To use all of the features of Windows Vista, you need a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, and a DirectX 9-capable video card. Although this will allow you to run everything, you'll get better performance with a faster processor and more RAM. Since the Aero Glass interface requires a DirectX 9-capable GPU, a lot of older desktops and laptops won't be able to use Aero Glass, even if they meet the other requirements.
|
10) Slower game performance |
Aero Glass is one of the cornerstones of Windows Vista, but it puts a load on your video card that will affect game performance. There are several reports of Microsoft telling developers that current games will run 10 percent to 15 percent slower on Vista than on Windows XP as a result. It remains to be seen whether this performance hit will continue to be an issue on games designed specifically for Vista. |
|
