In its first month of commercial availability, Windows Vista only managed to outperform Linux and grow its share on the operating system market to 0.93%. However, Windows 98 and 2000, not to talk about Windows XP, are still in front of Windows Vista with shares of 1.5% and 4.75%.

One of the reasons for which this has happened is that Windows Vista has been plagued with problems. The many issues of the operating system have generated a high level of consumer awareness and Vista only delivered an inferior sales performance.

An important part of the issues that have kept consumers at bay is related to installation problems. That is why Microsoft has prepared resources addressing the installation of x86 and x64 editions of Windows Vista.

Installation choices for consumer versions of Windows Vista (32-bit only) and Installation choices for 64-bit consumer versions of Windows Vista are the two resources made available by the Redmond Company. As their title clearly points out, each Knowledge Base article is associated with only the x86 or x64 platforms. The articles put together by the Microsoft Support team deal with installing or upgrading to Windows Vista from Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

For the 32-bit editions of Windows Vista users will be able to access a detailed guide of how to install or upgrade from Windows XP Home, Windows XP Home N Edition, Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Professional N Editions, Windows XP Tablet Edition and Windows XP Media Center Edition. (KB932616)

Microsoft offers guidance on the upgrade and installation possibilities of 64-bit versions of Vista on top of 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows XP, 32-bit Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional x64, 32-bit version of Windows Vista and 64-bit version of Windows Vista. (KB932795)