Vista countdown tips: 1 day out

analysis
Jan 29, 20072 mins

Tip 5: Lock down the downloading Vista' launch: Imminent; It's tomorrow. So here's the skinny on how to buy without making your boss cry. First off: Yes, it'll be available for download along with Office 2007. But don't expect that to work too well--at least for the first 4-8 weeks after the launch. I think they'll have a wee bit of a traffic problem during that time. 'Course that shouldn't be too tough on most

Tip 5: Lock down the downloading

Vista’ launch: Imminent; It’s tomorrow. So here’s the skinny on how to buy without making your boss cry.

First off: Yes, it’ll be available for download along with Office 2007. But don’t expect that to work too well–at least for the first 4-8 weeks after the launch. I think they’ll have a wee bit of a traffic problem during that time.

‘Course that shouldn’t be too tough on most of you, since all indicators show that quite a large segment of the Windows population won’t be upgrading right out of the gate.

But there’s one lil’ problem that the download option presents as well: users can upgrade too. Microsoft is going to put a few-touch upgrade service into every Vista SDK, allowing those who spent a little money on the smaller SDKs–including Vista Business–to upgrade to a full version of Ultimate with just a few mouse clicks and some credit card info.

They’ll have to pay for it on their own, but if you don’t lock that down, you could have a lot of Ultimate copies running around your network once power users figure out how cool it is. Another attraction Microsoft has tossed into that pot is two $50 copies of Vista Home for anyone who upgrades to Ultimate this way.