Installing Vista x64 on Windows 2000

[Colin Barnhorst]

I decided to try a straight forward upgrade scenario, switching from Windows
2000 Professional SP4 to Vista HP x64.

Single drive system, 64bit capable, 768MB ram. Windows 2000 Pro SP4 on
drive 0 (IDE). I was unable to figure out an internet connectivity problem
in W2k, but Vista handled the hardware without an issue and immediately
established connectivity.

I booted with the Vista x64 dvd and entered a Vista Home Premium upgrade
product key. All proceeded normally. Uprade option was disabled. Custom
worked fine. The Disk Options were available as expected. If a second
drive were attached it would be easy to edit it and install a dual boot
W2k/Vista system.

Vista created a windows.old folder as expected. The Program Files folder in
windows.old only contained 27MB of files. None of the executables for the
bundled apps (IE, WMP, etc) were anywhere to be found. Apparently
incompatible software is not retained. I am not following what Vista does
with this stuff yet. The contents were setup files, configuration files,
etc.

Vista x64 handled this hardware better than W2k did. Interesting.

 

[Lang Murphy]

Colin,

Well, gee, that's kinda weird, no? Glad to hear that Vista handled hw better
than XP but the 27MB's of files is kinda distressing...

Lang

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

My findings are not the final word, just a preliminary look. Someone will
come along some day and clarify why this is to be expected. Remember, there
would be reasons not to retain programs from W2k when migrating to Vista
x64. Perhaps Vista x64 is handling this.