It should come as no surprise that Windows Vista will require more resources than previous versions of Windows. Can your computer handle it? Unless it’s still got that “just out of the box” smell, probably not, at least not fully.

To know if your computer is ‘man enough’, a number of factors need to be considered. When it comes to hardware, not only do you need to have a decent processor just to get things done, but RAM and hard drive are important as well. Even your graphics card plays a part if you want the full Vista experience. So how do you know if you’re ready? Thankfully Microsoft has a tool to help: Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor.

The Upgrade Advisor is available free from www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/upgradeadvisor/default.mspx. Just download, install, and run. Upgrade Advisor scans your computer (took about 5 minutes to scan mine) and then gives you a report letting you know where your weaknesses are.

As an example, the computer I’m working on right now has a 3GHZ processor and 2GB of RAM, which are considered fine for Vista. When it comes to hard drive though, my drive is large enough, but I don’t have enough free space (need 15GB). I have a DVD drive, so I can read the installation DVD, but my graphics card isn’t ‘up to snuff’, so I won’t be able to run the Aero graphics portion of Vista. The rest of my hardware was examined as well and either listed as ‘no action required’, or a note that no compatability data is available (ie. you are on your own).

Just because your hardware is approved doesn’t mean Vista will talk to it. The Advisor also checks drivers to see if Vista will be able to talk to your hardware ‘out of the box’. I was advised that for my integrated audio, I should download the latest driver from Windows Update after the install. The advisor doesn’t make it clear if Vista doesn’t include a compatible driver, or if there is just a more recent one on the web, only that it’s something that needs attention.

The Upgrade Advisor also scans your software. Now I don’t advise running an actual in place upgrade, something always doesn’t work quite right and you’ll end up starting from scratch anyway, but this report can let you know which software that you own can be installed, and which shouldn’t. In my case, it let me know that Nero 6 is not compatible. A few others, including Microsoft’s own ActiveSync are also not compatible, but dozens of others passed the test.

So, am I ready? Nope. Because of my overstuffed hard drive and old-school video card, I got the following notice:

Like everyone else, I’m going to need to spend some more money if I want to have the full ‘Vista Experience’ on this computer!