Now that I am looking at having to upgrade all our companies machines to Windows Vista from Windows XP, I have really been looking for a way to make the transition as painless as possible. My biggest concern, of course, is maintaining data and preventing loss of any kind. Of course I am doing backups, but if the data can be kept intact, all the better.

While researching I came across some very good Microsoft articles which I thought could be helpful to others. These articles are very thorough and link to other applicable KB’s.

• How to perform a custom installation of Windows Vista on a computer that is running Windows XP
• How to retrieve files from an earlier version of Windows in Windows Vista

While the first is pretty self explanatory, the second one is very helpful as it explains what the upgrade process does with your My Documents, Favorites, etc.

These are very helpful indeed.