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General Information

Support Life Cycles for XP and Vista. See here for Windows 7 Support Life Cycle.

Installation

Antivirus/Antispyware
Back Up
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Parental Controls
User Account Control

Vista Links

General Information

Support Life Cycles for XP and Vista
Vista has been replaced by Windows 7, Microsoft's current operating system although it will be supported for many years to come.

Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/gp/lifepolicy

XP:
Products Released General Availability
 Date		 Mainstream Support
 Retired		 Extended Support
Retired		 Service Pack
Retired
XP Home Edition 12/31/2001 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 8/30/2005
XP Media Center 2002 10/28/2002 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 8/30/2005
XP Media Center 2004 10/27/2003 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 10/10/2006
XP Media Center 2005 12/30/2004 4/14/2009 4/8/2014
XP Professional 12/31/2001 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 8/30/2005
XP Professional x64 4/25/2005 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 4/14/2009
XP Service Pack 1 7/11/2002 Not Applicable Not Applicable 10/10/2006
XP Service Pack 1a2/3/2002Not ApplicableNot Applicable10/10/2006
XP Service Pack 2 9/17/2004 Not Applicable Not Applicable 7/13/2010
XP Service Pack 34/21/2008See NoteSee Note
XP Tablet PC Edition 2/11/2003 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 10/10/2006
XP Table PC Edition 2005 8/25/2004 4/14/2009 4/8/2014 8/30/2005

Note: Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first. For more information, please see the service pack policy at  http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#ServicePackSupport .

Vista:
Products ReleasedGeneral Availability
Date		Mainstream Support
Retired		Extended Support
Retired		Service Pack
Retired
Vista Business1/25/20074/10/20124/11/20174/13/2010
Vista Business 64-bit1/25/20074/10/20124/11/20174/13/2010
Vista Home Basic1/25/20074/10/2012Not Applicable4/13/2010
Vista Home Basic 64-bit1/25/20074/10/2012Not Applicable4/13/2010
Vista Home Premium1/25/20074/10/2012Not Applicable4/13/2010
Vista Home Premium 64-bit1/25/20074/10/2012Not Applicable4/13/2010
Vista Service Pack 14/4/2008Not ApplicableNot Applicable7/12/2011
Vista Service Pack 24/29/2009See NoteSee Note
Vista Ultimate1/25/20074/10/2012Not Applicable4/13/2010
Vista Ultimate 64-bit1/25/20074/10/2012Not Applicable4/13/2010

Note: Support ends 24 months after the next service pack releases or at the end of the product's support lifecycle, whichever comes first. For more information, please see the service pack policy at  http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/#ServicePackSupport .

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Installation

If your computer didn't come with Vista preinstalled, you can buy a copy and install it yourself. The following sections can help you with this and here are some general links about installing Vista yourself:

Installation choices for consumer versions of Windows Vista (32-bit only) - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932616
Installation choices for 64-bit consumer versions of Windows Vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932795/
Language - You cannot upgrade certain language versions of Windows XP to Windows Vista - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932856

Full or Upgrade Version?

Most people realize that buying an upgrade version of an operating system or high-end program like Microsoft Office means that you must provide proof of ownership of the qualifying product. In the past, we were able to do an install of XP Upgrade by either 1) installing-in-place from within the running older operating system; or 2) doing a clean install and putting in the older operating system's CD when prompted to by the Upgrade installer. Windows Vista has a new way of installing and this is no longer possible. The Vista Upgrade must be started from within the running older operating system. In some cases the original programs and settings will be retained, and this is called an "upgrade-in-place". In other cases, a clean install will be necessary although the term "clean install" doesn't mean what it used to. You will still need to start the Vista Upgrade from within the running older operating system. In practical terms, this means that if you buy a Vista Upgrade edition you will need to keep your older operating system CD safe because if you should ever need to reinstall Vista you will need to reinstall the older operating system first. There is an unsupported-by-Microsoft way of doing a clean install with an upgrade version, however. Just Google for "clean install Vista upgrade".

Another thing to consider is that even though Microsoft's rules were always that the qualifying operating system was then tied to the Upgrade many people simply took their Windows 98 or ME and installed it on another machine. With XP as the qualifying operating system, this will not work since XP's product key will no longer be able to be activated. So you may want to think carefully about buying an upgrade version of Vista.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradepaths.mspx
Upgrade planning - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeinfo.mspx
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/upgrading_to_windows_vista.htm - information by MVP John Barnett

Here is a chart showing the upgrade paths of XP to Vista and also Vista to other versions of Vista:

Vista Home Basic Vista Home Premium Vista Business Vista Ultimate
XP Pro C C Y Y
XP Home Y Y Y Y
XP Media Ctr. C Y C Y
XP Tablet C C Y Y
XP Pro 64 C C C C
Windows 2000 C C C C
Older MS OS's X X X X
Vista Home Basic Y Y Y Y
Vista Home Premium C Y C Y
Vista Business C C Y Y
Vista Ultimate C C C Y

Legend:

X = Can't do an upgrade
C= Can use an upgrade version but must do a clean install
Y = Can upgrade in place (from within working install of the older OS)

System Requirements

Here are Microsoft's minimum supported system requirements to run Windows Vista: I'll be honest with you - if your computer only meets those minimum system requirements don't install Vista. You will not be pleased. You really want to have at least 2GB of RAM (memory) and a fast processor for any version of Vista. I wouldn't put Vista on a hard drive smaller than 40GB and that would be pushing it.

Here are Microsoft's recommended system requirements for Vista:

Home Basic
Home Premium / Business / Ultimate
  WDDM Driver
  128MB of graphics memory minimum
  Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
  32 bits per pixel
Home Premium / Ultimate
Home Premium / Business / Ultimate
Ultimate
As always, be aware that these are minimum system requirements. I had Vista installed on a machine with a ~2.5GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and an Nvidia Geforce 6800GT (256MB RAM) and it was very responsive and quick. I now have it on a machine with a 2.8GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, and an older Nvidia Geforce FX5700 (128MB RAM) and even with the faster processor I can see the difference because of the smaller amount of system RAM. To get around that, I'm using a 1GB USB flash drive for ReadyBoost, which is an interesting technology that extends the disk caching capabilities of Vista' s main memory. See this link for more information about ReadyBoost - http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/sysperf/accelerator.mspx

Update - I added 1GB of RAM to that machine (1.5GB total) and removed the ReadyBoost USB flash drive and the computer ran acceptably, where "acceptably" means OK for someone who really does nothing in Windows. I have since installed Vista in a virtual machine using VMware Workstation on a computer with 4GB of RAM. XP is the host operating system and the Vista virtual machine is fine. I now (11/08) have a pre-beta install of Windows 7 on the original Vista box and Win7 runs appreciably faster than Vista did on the same system. Windows 7, Microsoft's next consumer operating system, is expected around December of 2009, so I won't be writing about it for a while and isn't a consideration for those of you considering upgrading from XP to Vista.

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Which Version to Buy?

As you can see from the Life Cycle Support chart above, Windows XP came in many versions. Windows Vista is no different in that regard. The versions that most people will be concerned about are:
Most home users will want Vista Home Premium. Here are links to sites describing the differences between the editions:

Microsoft sites:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/default.mspx
http://support.teloep.org/vistaver.htm
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/footnotes.mspx

Very useful chart by MVP Tom Porterfield (mercifully free of MarketingSpeak) - http://support.teloep.org/vistaver.htm

If you purchase a lower-end version, you can always upgrade to a more full-featured (and expensive) version with Windows Anytime Upgrade:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/windowsanytimeupgrade/overview.mspx

As of this writing, Microsoft is offering the Windows Vista Family Discount. Purchase the most expensive Ultimate version and you may be eligible to purchase two additional Vista Home Premium licenses for only $49.99 each. Here is the Microsoft link describing the Windows Vista Family Discount:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx

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Upgrading Your Current Computer

There are quite a few things to consider before just plunging in and upgrading to a new operating system. When changing to a new operating system, you must always take these things into account:
A. Hardware - The Computer Itself

Most people will move to Vista when they buy a new computer. When you are shopping for a new computer, be aware of whether your computer will give you the full Vista experience with the Aero graphical user interface or not. See the System Requirements section here. If you have a fairly recent and powerful machine, it might be a good candidate for an upgrade to Vista. You're really not going to want to run Vista on a machine that is running at much less than a 2.5-3GHz processor with a great big hard drive. I wouldn't put less than an 80GB hard drive in a Vista box, and that would be the lower end. As for the RAM, I consider 1GB to be the minimum. If buying a new machine, I'd put in at least 2GB of RAM to start with.

If you have a machine that is currently running XP and doesn't meet my recommended specs, I wouldn't bother upgrading. This is my personal opinion and of course, your mileage may vary. However, I don't see the point in taking a machine that is happily running XP and installing an operating system that is outside the machine's design parameters. It's cruel to our little silicon-based friends and you won't be pleased with the performance. If you have a WinME or - the horror! - a Win98 machine, the only reasonable upgrade is to buy a new machine.

Links to Manufacturer Information about CPU and Graphics Processor Capabilities
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa905088.aspx

B. Drivers for Internal Hardware and Peripherals

As I'm sure you know, all hardware in a computer must have software which tells the operating system how to use that hardware. This software is called a "driver". Without proper drivers, you might have a physical sound card in the machine but no sound within the operating system. Vista ships with 19,500 drivers provided to Microsoft by the hardware manufacturers. This is far more than XP shipped with and you would think it would be enough, but it isn't. One of the difficulties in working with PC's as opposed to Mac's is that there are thousands of different hardware components, in a zillion* different combinations.

Drivers come from the hardware manufacturers, not Microsoft. Vista has far more stringent requirements for drivers than previous MS operating systems did, which is A Good Thing. Many hardware manufacturers have not written drivers yet for current hardware, have only beta drivers so far (means "not fully cooked"), or will not be writing drivers for Vista at all for older hardware. So you must be sure that there will be drivers for all your hardware - motherboard, sound, video, network adapters, joysticks, printers, mice, etc.

Peripherals are printers, scanners, music players, joysticks, cameras, etc. All these peripherals need drivers, too. If UMax didn't write a Vista driver for your older scanner you will be out of luck, so do your research ahead of time.

*Obviously the exact number is estimated by me based on the "it's a very very large number" theory where you just say "a zillion" and leave it at that. But you get the idea.

One thing you should definitely do is run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/buyorupgrade/upgradeadvisor.mspx

C. Program Compatibility

Vista is an entirely different operating system from XP. It was written to be far more secure, and that means there are restrictions on program behavior that did not exist in XP. Software developers have been aware of this for a number of years now, but it is up to them to make sure their programs work in Vista - not Microsoft. While Vista - like XP - will have a "compatibility mode" for older software, not every older program will run in Vista. For those of you using "niche software" (industry-specific programs) in your businesses, it is extremely important that you contact the software manufacturer to see what plans they have to make their programs work in Vista. For instance, Intuit has announced that Quickbooks 2006 (and older versions) will not run in Vista. If you want to run Quickbooks in Vista, it will have to be Quickbooks 2007. Do your homework first!

If you have an essential program that will definitely not work in Vista, there are ways to deal with this. You can 1) not upgrade; 2) keep a machine running the older operating system going just for this program; 3) contact the software manufacturer for an upgrade - if they have written one; 4) look into using virtualization under Vista. Elephant Boy Computers is happy to explain options like virtualization and help you test your program under Vista. Just give us a call if you are in our service area. If you are in someplace really interesting, I will come to you if you send me airline tickets!

Here is a Microsoft webpage that has a list of Vista-supported applications:

http://www.appreadiness.com/default.aspx

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D. Bugs

There is no perfect software. Even though Vista had a huge beta testing program (and I was a beta tester) because of the zillions (see note in the Drivers section above) of hardware and software combinations possible in PC's, many bugs won't surface until the operating system has been in use "in the wild" for a while. Businesses should never upgrade their operating systems without doing extensive research and testing. A good rule-of-thumb for businesses is to wait until the first Service Pack is released and even then, don't just throw a new operating system onto your production machines. Always use a testbed box first.

Antivirus/Antispyware

Windows Vista, like all previous Microsoft operating systems, does not come with an antivirus program included. You must use a third-party program. I recommend NOD32, Kaspersky, or Avast (free). Norton and McAfee are not recommended by this tech, nor is Microsoft's OneCareLive.

Windows Defender is built into Vista. It can't be uninstalled but it can be turned off. I don't recommend turning it off. Check on individual antivirus companies' websites to see if their products are compatible with Vista 64-bit if you use it.

Back Up

Vista has a backup program included. However, it is not nearly as flexible as third-party backup programs. I'd suggest using Acronis True Image for imaging and incremental backups or SecondCopy for backups (no imaging).

http://www.acronis.com - Acronis
http://www.centered.com - SecondCopy

Mail

I'm hardly an expert with Outlook Express. I certainly know how to set it up and troubleshoot it, but I haven't used it as my own email client since Windows 95. Windows Mail is the successor to OE. It looks just like OE, with the Preview Pane on by default. A number of years ago we techs started recommending that the Preview Pane be turned off to protect against viruses that could infect a Windows machine just by looking at an email in the Preview Pane. I doubt there is any danger with WM on Vista, but I like to turn the Preview Pane off anyway because if a message is junk I don't want to look at it while I'm deleting it. Just like in OE, you turn off the Preview Pane in View>Layout.

So onto Tools>Options. The options really do look just like OE's. The difference is that the default selections are more sensible. I didn't change anything, and I'm pleased to see that composition for both mail and news defaults to Plain Text. The defaults are still to block images and disallow attachments. I unchecked "Block Images". It was the only thing I changed in Options.

I see that WM now has a Junk Mail option, which I've read is like Outlook's. There is an option to block mail from specific countries, which I quite like. There is a Phishing filter, too. The default is to have the filter on but not to move suspected phishing mail to the Junk Mail folder. I think it's a good idea to see what your junk filters are doing until you are sure they work well.

It looks like Microsoft is phasing out Windows Mail and preferring the online Windows Live Mail. I'm not particularly fond of "Windows Live" anything, but if you want to know more about it, here's a link:

http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview

Networking

Vista machines network just fine with older Microsoft operating systems. Start here for a good tutorial:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb727037.aspx

Parental Controls

Here's the Vista description of Parental Controls - "You can use Parental Controls to help manage how your children use the computer. For example, you can set limits on your children's access to the web, the hours that they can log on to the computer, and which games they can play and programs they can run."

Parental Controls can only be applied to a standard user account, not an administrator account - which makes sense. If you want to control your children, you wouldn't start by making them administrators anyway. According to Help, you can control these things:

"Web restrictions. You can restrict the websites that children can visit, make sure children only visit age-appropriate websites, indicate whether you want to allow file downloads, and set up which content you want the content filters to block and allow. You can also block or allow specific websites."

"Time limits. You can set time limits to control when children are allowed to log on to the computer. Time limits prevent children from logging on during the specified hours and, if they are already logged on, they will be automatically logged off. You can set different logon hours for every day of the week."

"Games. You can control access to games, choose an age rating level, choose the types of content you want to block, and decide whether you want to allow or block unrated or specific games."

"Allow or block specific programs. You can prevent children from running programs that you don't want them to run."

Sounds good and just like what parents have been asking MS to do for a long time. The default for Web Access is Medium. You can also edit the Allow and block list and can block file downloads.

Clicking on the Time Limits link brings you to a chart with the days of the week and the hours graphed into squares. You can set really fine-grained time permissions with this. Unfortunately, you need to really think about this first because apparently if you block the wrong time and want to unblock it, you have to cancel and start again. Right-clicking on the blocked square does nothing. In the Notification Area, I can see an icon for the Parental Controls. Mouse over it and you'll be told the Controls are On and the time left before the blocking comes into affect. Very cool.

Now let's look at the Games feature. You can allow the child to play games Yes or No. You can then block/allow by rating and content type. You can block games with no ratings and allow games based on The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) definitions. For those of you who aren't gamers and may not have noticed, there will be an ESRB rating on the boxes of games you buy. The last item is to block/allow specific games installed on the computer.

Setting Up Windows Vista Parental Controls - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial139.html

User Account Control

One of the biggest changes from XP to Vista is Vista's User Account Control. Here are some links explaining it:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/06/UAC/
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=11093
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906021.aspx

Vista Links

Homepage - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.aspx
MS TechNet portal - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/default.mspx
Microsoft Help and How-To page about Personalizing your computer - http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/personalize.mspx
MVP Kerry Brown's site - http://www.vistahelp.ca
Vista Tips & Tricks - http://www.windowsvistatnt.com/
Windows Vista Solution Center - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/windowsvista
MVP John Barnett - http://vistasupport.mvps.org/index.htm
MVP Jimmy Brush - http://www.jimmah.com/vista/
MVP Ramesh - http://www.winhelponline.com
"Brink" - http://www.vistax64.com/

This page is a jumping-off point leading to various Vista communities and resources, tips and tricks for using Vista, RSS feeds, events, blogs, and lots more:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/default.mspx


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