I never had to actually connect a UPS to a Windows Vista system, but it appears as of Windows Vista there is no longer UPS support built in to Windows.

Thank god for that – because the tool provided by Microsoft didn’t support many UPS’s anyway, which meant you had to use 3rd party software. In other words, the inclusion was pointless.

I found a really good utility that works in 2000, XP, 2003, Vista & 7 called UPS Assistant. Best part is UPS Assistant is free.

It auto detected my cheap no-brand UPS and only required slight tuning to the min & max voltage parameters so it matched the meter on the UPS. This particular UPS was not supported by Windows XP, but does work on Linux.

UPS Assistant can send out e-mail notifications on power failures or run a command.