Free Vista test

Concerned that all the effort you are putting in to develop upgraded applications to run on Microsoft Vista may bring client systems around the company network to a grinding halt? Well, there is a simple way to check those client systems out in advance.

Touchstone Software has come up with a free online test system called Vista Agent that may be able to help.

Users simply log on here and follow the instructions. The agent then loads an ActiveX control to scan the computer and identify the weak points in its current specification and recommend solutions – which unsurprisingly include spending money on bigger disks, memory and the like. According to Touchstone the scan is carried out to Microsoft’s recently published hardware requirements.

The ActiveX control may cause some business networks to baulk at the firewall, but for all that the idea is a sound one.

There is no point in putting in the development effort if the client desktop systems are all too skimpy to cope; and standard Murphy’s Law predictions suggest this will most likely be the case. ®