Microsoft Announces Vista Hardware Requirements

Microsoft Announces Vista Hardware Requirements

Thursday, Microsoft announced its official recommended hardware requirements for Windows Vista operating system.

Vista will be the most demanding operating system Microsoft has sold to date, and the company suggests that machines running Vista’s Premium version, which includes the Windows Aero experience, have at least a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a Direct X9-capable 3D graphics system.

Aero compatibility lets you view some of Vista’s extra eye candy, such as fancy transparent menus and slick-looking 3D graphical elements. Minimum requirements for basic Vista include an 800 MHz or faster CPU and 512 Mbytes of RAM. Your graphics subsystem only needs to support Direct X9.

In the opinion of PC Magazine’s lead analyst, Joel Santo Domingo, the requirements are a bit steep, especially for owners of aging computer systems, but many users’ PCs will still meet Microsoft’s standard.

“If you bought a high-end gaming or multimedia centric desktop or notebook between 2003 and today, chances are you should be ready for Windows Vista Premium,” he said.

"The release of a new operating system always comes with a 'minimum' set of system requirements, but I would suggest setting your sights higher than the minimum configuration by about 20 percent, so you're ready for all the new versions of applications like Office and Adobe PhotoShop Elements," Santo Domingo added. "Tack on 30 percent if you are going to run the Media Center component of Vista Ultimate.”

Find out if your rig measures up by checking out Microsoft's new "Get Ready" Web page: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx.