questions on Vista upgrade

[Robert Meek]

As a developer I need to get a copy of Vista up and running as soon as
possible and so I would like to know:

If I purchase the Pro(highest) version of Vista made to upgrade over WinXP
pro, what things do I need to be on the watch for? Such as, I'm sure my
registry is probably full of things left over from errant applications and
development tools that don't always uninstall perfectly, so what is the best
way to clean up my system before doing the upgrade without actually having
to reformat and re-install everything again? And I have a fairly normal
system...a Dell XPS 600 with the dual Intel 3gh processor, 2 gigs of SDRAM,
a DVD player and an CD Rewritable player/burner. Two NVIDIA GEForce 7800
GTX in an SLI setup, and a Raid 0 array of 2 near 300 gig hard drives. A 20
in Ultra sharp Flat Panel and Creative audigy 2Zs sound system. Should I
expect any problems with drivers and such?
I also have the original NET 1.0 installed and then 2.0 and 3.0
installed over the top of them, all the Java updates, and am running both
Borland's BDS 2006, and VS 2005 development IDE's. Microsoft SQL Express,
Firebird and a wide assortment of development tools and utilities.
I really cannot afford to break my system up and have two OS's setup to
select from at boot, so Vista would become my only OS once installed, and I
just want to be prepared for any contingencies. So ANY help and/or
information anyone can offer will be appreaciated.

 

[Mike Brannigan]

As a developer I need to get a copy of Vista up and running as
soon as possible and so I would like to know:

If I purchase the Pro(highest) version of Vista made to upgrade over
WinXP pro,

You mean Windows Vista Ultimate Edition

what things do I need to be on the watch for?

Entirely depends on your hardware and software on the device being
upgraded.

Such as, I'm sure my registry is probably full of things left over
from errant applications and development tools that don't always
uninstall perfectly, so what is the best way to clean up my system
before doing the upgrade without actually having to reformat and
re-install everything again?

You don't need too - a few stray reg entries make no difference.

And I have a fairly normal system...a Dell XPS 600 with the dual
Intel 3gh processor, 2 gigs of SDRAM, a DVD player and an CD
Rewritable player/burner. Two NVIDIA GEForce 7800 GTX in an SLI
setup, and a Raid 0 array of 2 near 300 gig hard drives. A 20 in
Ultra sharp Flat Panel and Creative audigy 2Zs sound system. Should
I expect any problems with drivers and such?

Just check with vendors sites for Vista drivers for all your
hardware - also use the Upgrade Advisor from the Microsoft web site.

I also have the original NET 1.0 installed and then 2.0 and 3.0
installed over the top of them, all the Java updates, and am running
both Borland's BDS 2006, and VS 2005 development IDE's. Microsoft
SQL Express, Firebird and a wide assortment of development tools and
utilities.
I really cannot afford to break my system up and have two OS's
setup to select from at boot, so Vista would become my only OS once
installed, and I just want to be prepared for any contingencies. So
ANY help and/or information anyone can offer will be appreaciated.

Full image backup so you can recover your entire system "as is" in the
event of any possible problems. A highly tuned and tweaked dev system
with lots of the more rarefied apps and tools installed may not be the
nest candidate for an upgrade. The test matrix and participants in
the various pre-release test programs will not have done much coverage
of this kind of environment.

You may be better to just get a couple of new 300/400GB drives and
build a new install from the ground up over a weekend at least if you
have a major issue the fail back is a 10 minute swap back of drives.