It’s quite possible that the device/software he is using is not supported by Vista, and so therefore is not selectable.
I would not recommend anyone to upgrade to Vista for at least 6 months, as support for anything other then mainstream software/peripherals is very very very limited.
If he has to use Vista then he should go to the manufactures web site to see if there is an update for the device/software he is using, or try operating it in XP compatibility mode.

Bill