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You've had your eye on Windows Vista since it debuted and now that you know you can make your desktop look pink, shiny and have bubbles floating around as your screen saver you have every intention of spending your next bonus to ensure you get your very own copy of Vista as soon as you can. Your only concern now is if your three year old computer can handle a Vista installation and if you will be able to install it on your own.

To ensure that your upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista goes as smoothly as possible, you should first download and run Microsoft's Upgrade Advisor. The Upgrade Advisor is an application that scans your computer and hardware and determines which of the Vista versions available would be the best for you to choose. If you choose Ultimate, but your hardware only supports Home Basic, you will have wasted hundreds of dollars on software and you won't be able to use many features. It's important to either upgrade your computer hardware first, or purchase the version of Windows Vista that will run the best on your current computer.

Once you have purchased the appropriate version of Vista for you computer, you should next backup any of your data in case your install or upgrade goes wrong. In Windows XP click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > and then Backup. This will take you to a program that allows you to choose what files and documents you'd like to backup. Once you have made your final decision, decide where to save your files to. You can save them to an external hard drive, a zip drive, a network drive or your computer's drive if you have it partitioned correctly. Unfortunately this tool does not allow you to backup your files to a CD, but as long as your files are saved somewhere you'll be able to upload back onto your soon-to-be Vista computer.

Now that you've backed all of your files up, you are ready to upgrade from Windows XP to Vista. Insert your Vista CD and restart your computer. When it boots to the CD it will ask you a series of questions. Simply follow the prompts and it will begin the install. Once it has completed, your computer will restart and you'll be able to login to your new operating system and personalize it to pink, shiny and bubbles as your screen saver!

Learn more about this author, Marie J Kelley.
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