BassBlonde said:
I ran the upgrade scan & results stated that I'd be able to run Vista
Premium. I'm presently running XP Home Media....On the flipside of the
coin:
It seems that the OS I'm in line to upgrade has a bunch of compatibility
issues. 2 of these are: McAfee & Sonic Back Up.
And then there is 8 others. One of them is the Audio Manager...Hearing my
speakers is an important thing, since my PC also acts as my home stereo.
Will it be really as bad as what it appears to be ?
For a person with basic pc skills & no extra resources to hire tech's:
What
was Microsoft thinking when they bragged about the release of Vista ?????
Thanks in advance for all advice given !
Vista issues are best asked in a Vista newsgroup such as
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general
Upgrading an OS is not simple operation. You need to do some research, and
be prepared. Check that there are Vista compatible drivers for all your
hardware. If the computer is from a major OEM like Dell or HP, check on
their web site to see if there are Vista drivers for the hardware in your
system. If you've added retail hardware check with that manufacture's web
site for drivers. Some hardware may not work in Vista. Check for a Vista
printer driver for your printer.
You should carefully heed all the warnings, and know that the Advisor is
just that, it's advice; it's not perfect or complete, sometimes it's
inaccurate, and it doesn't guarantee the upgrade will work on your system.
See if you can find anyone who has upgraded to Vista on your type of
computer.
Uninstall any of the programs it points out as being incompatible. Always
uninstall any AV programs, 3rd party firewalls, system level utilities such
as partitioning tools, and any CD/DVD burning software like Roxio or Nero,
and any other software that uses drivers. I know Sonic backup is not
compatible, uninstall that. I don't know what Audio Manager is.
Check with the program vendors to see if they have an update that will work
in Vista. For one think you're better off without McAfee or any of the
other security suits such as from Symantec. Vista has it's own firewall,
and there are several good free AV programs that work in Vista, Avast and
AVG. NOD32 is excellent but it's not free. I use Avast.
Make a backup of the system. Best is to use drive imaging software such as
Acronis True Image to save an image of the XP installation to an external
USB hard drive or DVD. If there is a problem with the upgrade then restore
the XP image.
I have been running Vista Ultimate since November. I like it, and it runs
great on my computer which is almost 5 years old. That said, you should not
just upgrade to upgrade. It should be driven by a need. And it's not a
just stick in the DVD and go type of thing.
Do your research and be prepared.
