ScriptLogic supports Vista migrations

ScriptLogic this week joined the slew of desktop management vendors looking to help enterprise IT shops more easily upgrade their client machines to Microsoft's Vista operating system.

The company updated its flagship Desktop Authority product to support Vista migrations and enable IT managers to streamline the process of updating multiple machines to the new operating system from a single management console. ScriptLogic also enhanced its Desktop Authority MSI Studio, which is used to create, edit and customize Microsoft Installer (MSI) packages, to work with Vista and Microsoft Installer Versions 3 and 4. The upgrades will ease migration and ongoing management of Vista environments, the company says.

"We surveyed many customers and found that over 40 percent plan on deploying Microsoft Windows Vista within a year of release," said Andy Langsam, ScriptLogic COO, in a company press release. "It is essential that ScriptLogic updates our products to ensure that our customers can take advantage of Microsoft's latest solutions."

For instance, Desktop Authority 7.6 now offers IT managers centralized control of Vista migrations. The software, which includes a central server and client software distributed to managed machines, lets IT managers configure Vista features such as user access control, Windows firewall configuration and IPv6 for desktop administration. Desktop Authority can also check legacy applications for compatibility with Vista as well as ensure desktop hardware and software requirements are capable of supporting the new operating system.

ScriptLogic also added Vista support to its Desktop Authority MSI Studio 3.6, which can now use Vista installer features such as restart manager, user account control and enhanced logging.

ScriptLogic competes with Altiris, Everdream and LANDesk for managing Microsoft desktop environments.

Desktop Authority starts at about US$40 per seat with one year of support included. Desktop Authority MSI Studio starts at about US$400 on a per-administrator basis with one year of support included.