So you’re thinking of upgrading to Vista?  Well, from a visual aspect, no one could blame you.  The new interface – Windows Aero they’re calling it – looks gorgeous.  But, as everyone knows, upgrading a desktop system can be dangerous stuff.  For those of us that have experienced desktop upgrades from one Microsoft system to another know that this doesn’t always go as planned.  The best way to “upgrade” from one operating system to another has always been to do a new install.  Even Microsoft says so.  But this pretty much negates the idea of an upgrade, doesn’t it?  Anyhow, this time around Microsoft did things a bit different.  No, there are still no guarantees that upgrading to Vista will be easier than before, but now you can tell if your system will upgrade properly or not by using Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor tool.  Although I haven’t upgraded my system yet, I did run the advisor.  The information it gave me about my system was detailed even to the point of providing links to new drivers Vista would need to run properly.  Pretty cool.  So if you’re thinking of upgrading to Vista I would strongly recommend you run Upgrade Advisor first.  I think the jury is still out on how effective the tool is, but once I upgrade I’ll let you know how well it worked – first hand.