Screen shots: Experts give Vista advice

By Mary Jo Foley January 25, 2007, 9:54 PM PST

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Caveat, dual-booter!

Ask nine Windows experts for advice they’d give a user ready to make the jump to Windows Vista, and you get nine different pieces of advice. Here is a collection of Vista “gotchas” and tips from some of the most savvy Microsoft watchers out there.rnrn

ZDNet Blogger and Windows Book Author Ed Bott: If you decide to go the dual-boot route, realize that XP and Vista use different formats for System Restore checkpoints.rnrn

Credit: Ed Bott

Signed-driver error messages create confusion

.Net Developer and 64-bit Expert Ryan Hoffman: “Instead of simply stopping the user from installing the driver in the first place, Vista’s otherwise improved error messages and diagnostics fail to help the user.”

rnrnCredit: Ryan Hoffman

Backing up can be tricky

.Net Developer and Windows-Now Founder Robert McLaws: If you are an NTBackup user, you need to take care in how you do your Vista backups.

rnrnCredit: Robert McLaws

Vista Search interface is far from intuitive

Tech Pundit Chris Pirillo: “The (Vista) search tool is a mess,” from a user-interface perspective.

rnrnCredit: Chris Pirillo

First things first: Run Upgrade Advisor

Houston Chronicle Tech Blogger Dwight Silverman: Don’t skip the important first step of running Microsoft’s Upgrade Advisor tool before moving your current system to Vista.

rnrnCredit: Dwight Silverman

Fix Hibernate after running disk cleanup

MVP and Windows Book Author Steve Sinchak: Running disk cleanup can play havoc with your “Hibernate” settings in Vista.

rnrnCredit: Steve Sinchak

Go the dual-boot route to check for compatibility issues

SuperSite for Windows Editor and Book Author Paul Thurrott: “Make sure everything will work (by setting up a) dual-boot between XP and Vista before committing your entire PC to the new OS.”

rnrnCredit: Paul Thurrott

Vista drains batteries like a madman

MVP and Windows Book Author Sandro Villinger: If you’re running Vista on a laptop, beware of battery-life issues.

rnrnCredit: Sandro Villinger

Make sure you are running the very latest video drivers

MVP and CEO of Stardock Brad Wardell: Watch for updates from video-driver makers, who’ve been having trouble with Vista compatibility.

rnrnCredit: Brad Wardell

By Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She

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