| With all of the new features of Windows Vista, | | | | incompatibility problems that you might not be able to |
| there'll be a mighty temptation for you to buy a | | | | easily fix. When you buy a PC with Vista preinstalled, |
| copy of the operating system in a store and | | | | it's almost certain that the components in the PC will |
| immediately install it over your existing instance of | | | | have been selected for their compatibility and will |
| Windows XP, 2000, Me, or 98. Before you do, you | | | | have the latest driver software. If you install Vista to |
| should consider some of the following cautions: Your | | | | an older machine yourself, however, you may find |
| old PC may not be up to the challenge of running | | | | that your printer, networking adapter, or some other |
| Vista. You may need substantial investments in | | | | vital component no longer works because the version |
| additional RAM, a more capable video card, a larger | | | | you have of its driver is incompatible. In general, you |
| hard drive, or all of the above to get adequate | | | | shouldn't consider installing Vista over an older version |
| performance from Vista. Some of your hardware, | | | | of Windows unless the following conditions are true: |
| such as printers and networking adapters, may not | | | | • You need a feature of Vista that you |
| work at all after you install Vista-unless you update | | | | can't add to XP; or • You need an |
| the drivers they need to versions that are | | | | application that requires Vista; and • You |
| Vista-compatible. Even if you find that one or more | | | | can't afford even the least expensive new PC that |
| of your drivers needs to be updated, the vendor of | | | | comes with Vista preinstalled Even if one of the |
| your hardware may not make a Vista-compatible | | | | above cases is true, you may be better off burning |
| version available for months, years, or ever. (It's | | | | your old data to a CD, formatting the old PC's hard |
| happened before with previous versions of | | | | drive, and doing a clean install of Vista. This avoids |
| Windows.) We do recommend that you get | | | | the possibility that some components of the old OS |
| Windows Vista preinstalled when you're buying a new | | | | will hang around to cause conflicts. If you've never |
| PC. But you may be surprised to learn that we don't | | | | before backed up and formatted a hard drive, |
| recommend that you install Vista over XP or an older | | | | however, don't try to learn how on any PC that's |
| version of Windows. The reason is that installing Vista | | | | important to you. |
| on top of another version of Windows may cause | | | | |