I know you’re excited about Vista, but you need to do some housekeeping before you upgrade.

First, don’t upgrade before March of 2007 unless you’re willing to waste some time fooling with bugs and faulty drivers. If you really hate unreliable computers, wait until June. At the current time, Windows Vista still has some significant bugs, and drivers have even more bugs. That doesn’t mean Windows Vista is unreliable–it’s just young. Over time, developers will catch these little problems and fix them. They couldn’t get to every bug during the beta period, so some aren’t fixed until after release. This is especially true for laptops, tablets, and Media Center computers. (advice and instructions after the jump)

If you’ve decided you’re ready to take the plunge, first review the Windows Vista system requirements:

• Processor: 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• System Memory: 512 MB
• Graphics: SVGA (800×600)
• Hard disk free space: 15 GB
• A DVD-ROM drive

Yes, Vista really will run with those specs, and it won’t be any slower than Windows XP is. You won’t get to see all the cool stuff, though, like the translucent Aero user interface. If you want Aero, you need a computer that meets the “Windows Vista Premium Experience” requirements:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum), Pixel Shader 2.0, and 32-bits per pixel
• 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space
• DVD-ROM drive
• Audio output capability
• Internet access capability

If you bought a computer in 2006, you’re probably ready to run Aero.

Here’s the one requirement that always gets me: 15GB of free space. I could have terabytes of space and I’d still only have 2GB left, because I always fill up the space, and I only clean it up when I’m really running out. The best place to start is the Disk Cleanup Wizard. To run the Disk Cleanup Wizard, follow these steps:

1. Open My Computer, right-click your C: drive, and then click Properties.
2. On the General tab, click the Disk Cleanup button. Disk Cleanup will spend a few minutes examining your disk.
3. The Disk Cleanup dialog box opens (below).
   
4. Select the desired check boxes in the Files to Delete list, and then click OK. Disk Cleanup will spend several minutes clearing space.

If you don’t have 15GB free yet, it’s ime to get rid of some of that clutter. Look for a C:\i386 folder, and delete it if you have it. It’s got Windows XP files stored in it, which you won’t need anymore. If you have an external hard disk, an iPod, or a flash drive, temporarily move some files to them to clear up some space. After you’re done with the upgrade to Windows Vista, re-run the Disk Cleanup wizard, and you’ll be able to remove the old Windows XP files. For me, that saved 35GB of space. I have no idea how i ended up with 20GB of extra free space after my upgrade to Vista, but that’s how it worked.

Now that you’ve got the free space, go ahead and insert the Vista DVD and start the upgrade (it’ll prompt you automatically). The upgrade process will tell you if you have any drivers or software that don’t work with Windows Vista. I had quite a few. Check on the Web for updates to those programs and drivers to allow them to work with Vista. If you can’t find an update and you’re not prepared to give up those programs and devices, don’t upgrade yet.
Good luck!