To find out exactly where your PC stands, download Microsoft's Upgrade Advisor, which will scan your computer and tell you what hardware you lack. Using it showed that an IBM ThinkPad T42, despite being a top-of-the-line-model last year with a 1.7-GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, fell short on all counts in the graphics chip department.

The Vista Beta 2 release is available in English, German and Japanese and in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. Microsoft expects Beta 2 to largely have the same features as the final version of Vista, which is due out early in 2007.

Testers will also be able to download or have mailed to them a copy of Windows Vista Release Candidate 1, which is now expected to be available in late August.

For this beta, Microsoft is making available the Windows Vista Ultimate version, which is expected to be the most comprehensive and expensive of the five versions of the operating system that will eventually be released.