As you test Windows Vista™ with a view to developing an able a migration plan from Windows XP, Windows Vista Hardware Assessment is a tool you should, without a doubt, use to take a census of the hardware in your inventory.
This tool, with a public release of Version 1.0, and a public beta of Version 2.0 available, is an agent-less hardware assessor that very quickly scans your systems and delivers an incredibly detailed report of the state of your hardware, its ability to run Windows Vista™, and, surprise, surprise, the ability of the same hardware to run Microsoft Office.
At Logikworx, leading up to the release of Windows Vista™, we developed a forms-based template for the hardware survey of our clients systems, managed or unmanaged.
Since we had established a baseline for hardware capabilities that would enable the full Windows Vista™ experience, we wanted to find out what each client company required in order to deliver it to them.
If only the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment had been available at that time.
I had only given the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment a cursory look in Version 1.0 as all I wanted to see if the results from an official Microsoft assessment tool validated our baselines for delivering the full Windows Vista™ experience to our clients.
However, the release of the beta of Version 2.0 so soon after the release of version 1.0 prompted me to try out the new version, starting with our own systems. The results have left me impressed, especially with the phenomenal range of data returned to the administrator.