If you’re interested in finding out if your computer “is ready for an upgrade to Windows Vista”, then download the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. Interestingly, it also checks your “goals” for Vista, and determines which Vista edition is right for you. You don’t have to check very much to have the Ultimate edition recommended for you, I noticed.
I got the following results for my Dell Latitude D800:
Congratulations! Your PC can run the core experiences of Windows Vista.
Yippee.
However, to get the “Premium Phot, Music and Movie Experiences” there are some actions on my part that are required:
| Upgrade your graphics adapter |
To get the Media Center user interface, you will need a graphics adapter that either has 128MB of dedicated Video RAM or uses shared memory.
Your current graphics adapter has 32.00 MB of dedicated memory. |
| Support for Pixel Shader 2.0 is required and your current graphics adapter does not support this. |
| Support for 32bits per pixel. Your current graphics adapter supports this. |
| Support for DirectX 9 is required. Your current graphics adapter supports this technology. |
Either
a) upgrade your graphics adapter to one that has TV output or
b) connect via an Xbox 360 or other Windows Vista-compatible media center extender |
If you would like to connect this PC directly to a TV and you do not have a high definition display that accepts PC video input, you will need to upgrade your graphics adapter to one that supports TV output. Alternatively, you can use this PC as a media center host and connect to a TV through an intermediary device such as an Xbox 360 or other Windows Vista-compatible Media Center extender |
Bummer.