Upgrading to Vista… I think grass grows faster…

Ok, so I’ve commandeered the kids’ games computer to test upgrading to Vista RC1 – my primary interest being how it handles an upgrade of a system that has been joined to an SBS managed network.

The upgrade started at 6.00pm local time, and here it is 9.07 pm and we’re still going.

The install failed with the recommended minimum free disk space of under 8 Gig, and when I increased the free space to 9 GIG, the error message being “Windows Setup cannot locate a valid hard drive to store temporary installation files. To install Windows, create more free space on the hard drive or add a new hard drive.”  I had to free up over 11 Gig of space before the install would proceed.

The installer warned me that TrendMicro PC-Cillin 2006 is not compatible with Vista.. that’s fine, except for the fact that I’m not running PC-Cillin – I’m running the TrendMicro OfficeScan Client/Server agent that comes with the SMB product.   There must be some leftover registry entries that are causing that false alarm – something to refer to Trend.

We have to do things slightly differently when adding a Vista PC to an SBS managed domain – advice can be found here – its all very easy stuff – not a problem at all [:)]

http://seanda.blogspot.com/2006/08/looking-to-run-vista-rc1-on-sbs-2003.html

Now, *if* the kids’ machine doesn’t blow up, I may upgrade my laptop (although I will regret giving up IE7 RC1).

BTW, the kids’ machine has been sitting at “Completing upgrade..” with the display black every so often, and the occasional reboot, for about 20 minutes now… I can hear the hard drive crunching away, so all is not lost.

Ah, here we go…. it looks like I’m about to see the Vista desktop for the first time…..  I see the version brand in bottom right hand corner of screen… maybe…. its thinking about it… its trying *really* hard… poor old hard drive is crunching away… c’mon PC, you can do it [:D]  Aww, bummer, it just rebooted again and I’m back at the “Upgrading Windows” screen.  Its like watching “The little engine that could“

Edit: 

Well, its picked up my domain username and password which is completely different to any locally created account … so far so good…. sitting at “preparing your desktop”…. oooh, that’s finished… pretty desktop…..

hmm, suppose I’m going to have to get to know Windows Mail now…. sound is working.. mouse is working…unfortunately I don’t seem to have Glass…

DLINK wireless monitor doesn’t work…. but wireless network does… my antivirus is running… internet is working…. very cool…. activation worked 🙂

Ok, now for the laptop….