A few weeks ago I posted about some of the tools Microsoft provides to help establish the costs and saving that deploying Vista can bring. One of the issues that I have is how do we get the numbers to fill in those forms; well MS has you covered there too. This tool is really useful.

With the MS Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator you can scan the computers in your network for information such as which OS and Service pack they are running, and if they are good candidates to upgrade to Vista. There are even some tools geared towards migrating your servers to 2008, and qualifying workloads that are good for virtualization. You can also generate some really nifty reports. These reports save a ton of time, and can help in presenting information to the managers in your life. In short this tool was designed with lazy admins in mind!

Note: When you install MS APSA you also need to install SQL server, and the installer will automatically download and install it for you during the installation. You also need a copy of Word 2007 and Excel 2007 for document generation.

The Microsoft Assessment and

I posted a few weeks ago about some Vista Springboard. Continuing that series of posts, I wanted to talk about the first part of Springboard program which is: Discover. Now I'm sure many of you have already "Discovered" Vista, I thought I had too, but the great thing about the springboard site is it concentrates a great deal of information into nice digestible categories.

So as most readers have probably already discovered the technical aspects of Vista, I wanted to highlight some of the great tools that are provided. If you have ever been asked to deliver a report on how much is something is going to cost, and to figure out its ROI, and TCO, and all those non technical acronyms that our favourite accountant is concerned with, If your like me your eyes gloss over, and your brain starts hurting.

Fortunately Microsoft know's that we're all lazy admins, so they made us a great tool: Microsoft Windows Vista Cost and Benefit Estimator.

First the calculator starts out by asking some simple questions. For instance how many computers do you have in environment. Then what the current OS distributions are.

Once you have entered in your

Windows Vista Springboard is a micro site on the Microsoft Web site dedicated to helping IT Pros get Vista deployed into their environments.

Now before going any further with regards to Vista Springboard, I want to say that I am a strong supporter of Windows Vista. Their are some big benefits, and some big steps forward with Vista. The most important aspect of Vista is that it helps me be a lazy admin.

Now I'll also be honest and realistic, there are a lot of people that don't like Vista. There are many reasons why people won't like Vista, some of the reasons are legitimate, however most reasons tend to be rooted in a haze of bad perception. What I mean by that is Vista has a perception of lacking value, or in other words people will ask "What is my compelling reason for upgrading to Vista?" This goes for Home users, Office users,  IT pros, and especially IT managers and decision makers.

This is where the Vista Springboard program comes into play. IT people are busy people, and even though we would all like to be Lazy Admins, in reality my guess is that