The tools, most of which have been available in beta versions for many months, include software to help companies see if their PCs are powerful enough to run Vista, to check whether their applications are Vista-compatible, and to activate and manage their volume-licensed PCs.

Windows Hardware Assessment 1.0 scans a company's network to determine whether the attached PCs meet Microsoft's minimum requirements for basic Vista readiness or Vista premium-readiness. The tool can scan as many as 5,000 PCs and return results in a matter of minutes, according to Shannon Boetcher, general manager of Windows Client Product Management.

A survey last fall by Microsoft system integrators Softchoice Corp. that about half of PCs running in North American businesses fell below Windows Vista's minimum system requirements -- 800 MHz processor, 512MB of RAM and a DirectX 9 graphics card.

Nearly eight of 10 business PCs would need additional memory to run premium features in Vista such as its Aero 3-D "glass" interface.

Microsoft is also releasing its Application Compatibility Toolkit 5.0 for helping companies resolve whether popular packages as well as in-house software will run on Vista, and how to resolve compatibility issues.