Here we are less than a week away from the release of Windows Vista (well, for consumers, that is—business users were blessed two months ago) and PCMag.com has an article on what you need to know to do an in-place upgrade from Windows XP to Vista.

Of course, this assumes that your system can handle Windows Vista: if it’s more than two years old it likely will not be up to the task. Be sure to check out the system requirements before you stay up late to buy the upgrade.

OfficeMedic (and PC Magazine) recommends you backup your existing installation before an upgrade of this magnitude. If you like, we’ll come out and perform that backup for you so that your data is completely safe in the event that something goes wrong during the upgrade. Call us to find out your options.

The day has finally arrived, and Microsoft’s first operating system in five years has been released, although only to business customers. (The consumer version of Windows Vista will be released on January 30, 2007.) In addition, the latest version of Microsoft’s productivity suite, Office 2007, was released, replacing Office 2003.

With five different versions of Vista, you may be wondering, as I did, which one is right for you. While Microsoft has a breakdown of your choices, you may want to read this Extremetech.com review that makes a lot more sense. While many business owners will be able to get along with Vista Home Premium, Vista Business offers additional features like Volume Shadow Copy (keeping multiple versions of a file) and built-in faxing and scanning support, as well as the ability to use up to 128BG of RAM (for the 64-bit version), that may induce you to spend an additional $100.

However, you need to make sure your PC is ready for the upgrade. The OS will favor newer and relatively powerful machines, and a recent study   shows that 50% of existing business PCs are unable to meet the minimum requirements for Vista. “Generally speaking, any computer older than 24 months will be unlikely to support the Vista OS,” due to insufficient processing power, memory, or hard drive space.

Microsoft’s Vista Upgrade Advisor will help you determine not only if your current equipment will need an upgrade (or replacement), but also if your connected devices and installed programs will work with Vista. If you’re considering making the jump to Vista, be sure to run this tool to assess your computer’s state, then add up the costs for upgrading versus a new machine.

OfficeMedic can add memory to your existing system and we can also transfer your existing data to a new hard drive in preparation for upgrading to Vista. If your CPU is fast enough to support Vista, this could be a less-expensive alternative to buying a new computer.

After reading 20 Things You Won’t Like About Windows Vista today , I ran Microsoft’s Windows Vista Advisor to see if my nearly-three-year-old PC would be ready for the forthcoming upgrade to Microsoft’s much ballyhooed—and belated—successor to its current operating system.

While the results are preliminary, since Vista’s features aren’t set in stone yet (PC-to-PC sychronization was removed today), it appears that if I want to take advantage of anything more than Vista Home Basic’s increased security (sorely needed to protect against viruses and spyware) and better searching, I will need to add a graphics adapter and pay additional for Vista Home Premium.

Most users will want the features in Vista Home Premium that such hardware supports—Windows Aero user interface, Media Center user interface, TV output, etc., not to mention the additional benefits of DVD Maker and scheduled user data backups— and will find that their existing systems and most basic new systems don’t have the appropriate hardware. Expect to pay more for your next computer or to upgrade your existing hardware (a new graphics adapter can be had for under $100) if you want to take advantage of Vista.

Then again, you have plenty of time to save up: Windows Vista is expected to be in stores by Christmas 2006, first quarter 2007 if you need it for business.