Drive space: I only had 8gb free, it needs 15gb to perform the upgrade
Video Card: It recommended I upgrade my video card after installing Vista and that my current video card will not support Aero (a notebook, the video card is a Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller).
RAM: It recommended that I upgrade, the notebook has 512 and while it said I could run core functions okay, I should upgrade to at least 1gb of RAM (not a bad recommendation).
CPU: Reported as okay: 1.10GHz Intel Pentium M processor
DVD Drive: Reported as okay (capable of reading DVDs)

As far as devices went, there were six it had no information on (nothing serious here: it found things like my VMware virtual NICs and the notebook’s touchpad pointing device). It recommended visiting the network card’s manufacturer and downloading the latest driver—to be installed after the Vista upgrade was complete (no, I didn’t do that).

Programs? It warned me that “these programs might have minor compatibility issues after upgrading to Windows Vista and to go to the vendor’s website for more information” for the following tools: Alps Pointing-device Driver, J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6, Windows Messenger, Sony Corporation Utilities, Microsoft ActiveSync 4.0 and Rhapsody.

Finally it offered a task list of things I should do including freeing space on my system drive, getting the latest NIC driver downloaded and then it listed the hardware upgrade recommendations and programs to look into.

Based on this, I cleared the space necessary and began the installation. Clearing the space of course proved to be a real pain because I had things on there I just did not want to remove. I actually ended up compressing old files to restore about 4gb of space and this took me right to 15.7gb free. When the installation was complete, I had 9.7gb free so it looks like Vista took up an additional 6gb of space (good math eh?).

My computer was not any slower than it was before. While it was never my quickest machine, I got it because it was just so cool—it is very small and light and it has been great for carrying around when traveling. I am disappointed that I can’t have my Aero display, but this could be an excuse to buy a new notebook so I’m not too upset. In fact, I know a couple of people looking to get new systems that are concerned that they won’t be good enough for Vista Ultimate’s steep requirements. Before you buy a PC, take a close look at how it phrases it’s “Vista Capable” claim: ensure it rated for the “Windows Aero Experience” and not just the “Basic Windows Vista Experience” -- unless of course that’s what your into ;)

If you are looking for a new computer, here are a couple of "Vista" related vendor links: Dell / HP

To check your current computer, download the upgrade compatibility tool from Microsoft.