Upgrading OS

Hello everyone, I'm going to upgrading to vista 64bit in a few days and I have a question..when switching from XP 32bit is there anyway to save my data when upgrading? Example my Linksys wireless USB adaptor? I really don't feel like setting it up again,also what about my Game progress in all my games?. If I remember correctly someone said that when you switch you can extract everything from a file once vista is installed anyone know if this is accurate? And if so how is it done? Thank you for all inputs.