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Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor RC
By Michael Pietroforte | 4 Comments | Permalink | Trackback | Previous | NextI just had quick look at the new release candidate of Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. I tested the beta a while ago and found it more or less useless in this early state. The Vista Upgrade Advisor RC does not only have a new user interface, it can also help you get an idea if your software and hardware are ready for Vista. However, it is still an unreliable tool.
I installed it the on a VMware Workstation virtual machine running Windows XP. The Upgrade Advisor correctly recognized that the virtual graphics card doesn’t support Aero. It wasn’t able to foresee that the installation of Windows Vista RC1 would be quite problematic on VMware Workstation. Upgrade Advisor also complained about the network card. However, VMware’s virtual network cards works perfectly with Vista RC1.
I also tried a relatively new Fujitsu-Siemens Esprimo. With the beta version of the Upgrade Advisor I got frightening results on this PC. This time everything looked much better although it gave me again a questionable message. The tool recommended getting the latest driver for a Realtek AC’97 sound card. I guess, this is one of the most often used sound cards. It would be very strange if a release candidate of Windows Vista wouldn’t support it. Actually, I have Vista running on the same PC type and have no problem with the sound card there.
The Upgrade Advisor also complained about the two prominent programs installed on that PC. Due to “compatibility issues” the Citrix Presentation Server client and Sophos Antivirus won’t work with Vista. I guess, these two companies will have new versions available when Vista is finally released. I just find it interesting that the XP versions of these tools are not supposed to run on Vista.
All in all you can use the Vista Upgrade Advisor now, especially to check which of your software might have problems with Windows Vista. I wouldn’t take its hardware related output too seriously, though.
Vista RC1 won’t upgrade Beta2 even though Upgrade Advisor gives system green checkmark. Beta2 has been running perfectly for over three months. During RC1 install over B2, I get error msg: IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers: Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controllers need updated drivers.
If they’re good enough for Beta2 and Upgrade Advisor, then the drivers should be fine for RC1.
Any advice? Thanks. I appear stuck until January unless someone has advice. Microsoft said they are not supporting RC1 technical issues.
“We apologize for any difficulties that you have encountered. However, we are not currently offering technical support for the Windows Vista Beta.”
I didn’t upgrade Beta2 to RC1. However, it seems that they are not compatible. For example, I got problems with Beta2 ADMX templates (Group Policy) when I tried to use them on RC1. Group Policy Object Editor more or less crashed. I wouldn’t count on the final release. If RC1 doesn’t upgrade Beta2, you probably won’t be able to upgrade to the final release, too.
That’s discouraging to hear. Can anyone from Microsoft comment? Thanks, Michael, for the feedback.
I would try to get help in the Vista forum: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.mspx