Windows vista is one of the biggest upgrades to Microsoft Corp.’s computer operating system since it launched Windows 95 12 years ago.

Aside from the snazzy new graphical user interface system known as “Aero,” there are other reasons why Microsoft thinks users should upgrade from XP.

The main driver is security. The firm has designed the new system to be much stricter about what it allows users to run. Features include user account control. This allows users to run in a non-administrator mode with restricted privileges. When there are attempts to make important changes to the system, such as installing software or changing the system’s security rules, Vista asks the user for an administrator password. This makes it more difficult for malicious software to do things behind the scenes.

Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, launched its newest operating system on Jan. 30. The product had shipped to enterprise customers in November, but only large companies had access to the product at the time.

So, should you migrate to Vista? Few people are champing at the bit to do so, according to experts.

Last November, U.S. reseller CDW commissioned a survey of 761 IT managers, assessing their attitudes toward the Vista operating system. Only 20% said they would upgrade within 12 months, and only 24% of companies said they had any plans for what to do with Vista.

Some people consider it dangerous to migrate to a new system that includes substantial changes. “I would want to wait until Service Pack 1 before I put it on my critical information systems,” warns Felicia Wetter, a senior principal consultant from network consulting services firm BT INS. (Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is scheduled to be released in later this year.)

SECURITY PATCHES

Service packs are collections of bug fixes and security patches, released some months after the launch of a new system to bring it up to date and iron out the wrinkles. The second service pack for XP substantially revamped that operating system.

“Windows XP Service Pack 2 is stable, with minimal risk. And for the majority of users, it will satisfy the requirements that clients have today,” says Nauman Haque, a research analyst at London-based Info-Tech Research Group. “There’s also a big cost to upgrading to Vista. There’s the hardware requirement, the testing for application compatibility and the training of users.”

Part of Vista’s proposed attraction is its enhanced graphical interface, but such features need more computing power. “If your machine is older than a year from the date when they released this thing, your hardware probably won’t be optimized for Vista,” warns Mike Cherry, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft, a firm that specializes in tracking the activities of Microsoft.

For companies with large numbers of machines, Microsoft has released the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment tool. It finds PCs on a network and determines whether they meet Vista’s requirements. The Solution Accelerator for Business Desktop Deployment is another downloadable asset containing best practice guidelines for rolling out Vista across a network.

If you buy a new machine with Vista installed, you’ll need to get your data and applications from the old computer. For that, you might use Windows Easy Transfer, a utility that ships with Vista. This utility copies documents, photographs, program data files, Windows settings and Internet settings. You can copy the data directly using a transfer cable, or you can export the files to a networked drive for later downloading.

The Easy Transfer software does not move your software applications from one machine to another, however. For that, Microsoft had to buy technology: it purchased Apptimum, which produced a tool called Aloha Bob, and has rebranded the technology as Windows Easy Transfer Companion, which it currently is providing in beta format.

Not everyone has been happy with the non-beta, Microsoft–originated version of Easy Transfer. Reviewers at specialist technology site ZDNet lamented its poor performance (http://content.zdnet.com/2346-11515_22-53741.html). The alternative is to use PCmover from Laplink, a company that has been around for 23 years. Its PCmover product transfers both software programs and data between XP and Vista PCs. Laplink will be particularly appealing to users of very old systems (pre-Windows 2000) who have decided to make the switch. Unlike Easy Transfer, PCmover supports Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME.

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But even when transferring from newer XP operating systems, some software is unlikely to work on Vista, says Laplink CEO Thomas Koll — particularly software that has a direct relationship with the core of the operating system, called the kernel. “That includes any kind of security product, optimization product, anything that is basically designed to enhance or protect the operating system itself,” Koll says.

Microsoft provides Application Compatibility Toolkit, designed to determine if your software will work properly with Vista. But anyone who is migrating to the new system should upgrade their anti-spyware and anti-virus products.

Perhaps the most interesting tool for potential Vista users is Microsoft’s Virtual PC 2007. This software lets you run a virtual PC — a PC within a PC, running as a software application. Migrators who are worried about application glitches and incompatibilities can use this virtual PC to run a copy of their old operating system inside a Vista PC, and flit back and forth between the two — although you’ll need lots of memory and processing power to do it.

But then, you can also do the same with an Apple Macintosh, thanks to virtualization software such as Parallels, which raises the question of whether advisors considering the move might not want to switch platforms altogether. Windows traditionally has been more targeted by viruses and other malware than the Mac (which, incidentally, is also supported by PCmover).

Whether you choose to migrate to Vista or to a Mac, backing up your software is a good idea. In fact, even if you don’t migrate at all, you should be making regular backups. For that, you can use either a drive on a network server or a simple external hard drive.

Operating systems are replaceable, but data is hard to get back. IE