After taking Windows Vista Hardware Assessment version 2.0 out of beta testing phase in July, concomitantly with the company's Worldwide Partner Conference 2007, Microsoft has made an updated version of the tool available for download. Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 went live on August 15, 2007 and weighs in at 43 KB in comparison to just the 20 KB of the old version. The tool is an integer part of Microsoft's efforts to provide a basic software infrastructure designed to streamline the migration to Windows Vista and the Office 2007 System. In this context, Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 will provide corporate environments with an accelerator solution set in place to produce the inventory and report Vista and Office 2007 readiness of the hardware resources available following the extensive assessment of all machines across the network.

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 will make use of a series of technologies that ship by default with the Windows platform in order to analyze the computers on a network, including the Microsoft Active Directory Domain Services, the Computer Browser service, the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), and Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). "The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment is localized to Spanish, German, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, and Japanese. If your display language is configured to any other language then all user interfaces will display and reports will be generated in English," and supports "32-bit Windows XP Professional Edition SP 2, 32-bit Windows Vista and 32-bit Windows Server 2003 R2."

Installing the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment on a single computer is all that it takes in order to conduct an inventory and assessment of the machines connected on the corporate network. Additionally, Microsoft informed that the tool is designed to automatically detect and update from any previous version. "The Windows Vista Hardware Assessment is a tool that will find computers on a network and perform a detailed inventory of the computers using Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). Through use of the detailed inventory data, the tool will assess and report whether the computers can run Windows Vista or the 2007 Microsoft Office system, where to find drivers for devices on the computers, and provide recommendations for hardware upgrades, where appropriate," Microsoft added in the tool's description.

Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 was tested by Softpedia as being 100% Free and is available for download here.