Assessing Your Current Computing Environment

Assessing Your Current Computing Environment

Document your computing environment, looking at your organizational structure and how it supports your users. Use this assessment to determine your readiness for desktop deployment of Windows Vista. The three major areas of your computing environment to assess include your hardware, software, and network.

Hardware

Do your desktop and mobile computers meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows Vista? In addition to meeting these requirements, all hardware devices must be compatible with Windows Vista.

Software

Are your applications compatible with Windows Vista? Make sure that all your applications, including custom-designed software, work with computers running Windows Vista.

Network

Document your network architecture, including topology, size, and traffic patterns. Also, determine which users need access to various applications and data, and describe how they obtain access.

Where appropriate, create diagrams to include in your project plan.