What Are The Minimum Requirements For Windows Vista?

[Cartigan]

I am looking around for a new laptop and I know sometime this year Microsoft is putting out their new operating system Vista. I am gonna try to hold off buying something till Vista comes out but if I get a good deal, I’d like to at least know the minimum I will need to upgrade to Vista when it comes out.

Also any other information like how Vista will be different from Windows XP, I will appreciate

I am not a great fan of XP (Truthfully I like Win98 LOL)

[Fear_Itself]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
512 MB of system memory.
A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

[Shagnasty]

There are Microsoft “minimums” and then there are the desirable minimums for real-world use. Microsoft has gotten into the habit of listing the minimum system necessary for its software to physically boot regardless of how usable it is on that system. The minimums listed above are laughable and probably practically unusable. In my computing magazines, they have tested Vista and recommend no less than 1GB of RAM and an overall system in the mid-range that is no more than a year old. A new mid-range laptop bought now should be Ok although I would wait because upgrading would still be a pain.

Vista is a bunch of different things and will originally have lots of different versions to appeal to wide range of business and consumer needs. Highlights include greatly increased security, a slick new graphical interface on the consumer versions, and graphics support that can finely beat the consoles handily. However, it can still look and feel much like XP in the interface if that is what people want.

[DWMarch]

Paul Thurott’s SuperSite for Windows has more Vista info than you could possibly ever want to know about. System requirements are covered in some depth here:

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The relevant part:

Posted by Paul Thurott:
Microsoft’s official minimum requirements for Windows Vista are so ludicrous I won’t even mention them here. Suffice to say, you’re going to need a PC with a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, a modern Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, or Athlon 64 X2 processor, and a mid-level graphics card in order to get the full Vista experience. And if you’re into heavy multitasking, game playing, or graphics/video work, as I am, 2 GB of RAM seems to be the new sweet spot. Don’t freak out over these recommendations, however. The most important consider here is RAM, and that’s typically very inexpensive these days. Don’t get sucked into the horror stories about Vista needing high-end video cards, either: That’s hogwash. Vista’s Windows Aero user interface runs just fine on virtually any video card with dedicated video RAM, and even on some low-end integrated graphics chip sets. Unless you have a low-end laptop, upgrading the video card is inexpensive and easy.

I have personally run Vista on an Athalon 3500+ with 512mb of RAM and a mid-range PCI Express video card (GForce 7600). It ran well but would have enjoyed more RAM.

[Arnold_Winkelried]

I don’t know much about Windows, so I can’t tell if this article has good advice, but in Computerworld some guy wrote an article about what to look for when buying a new computer, if you are thinking ahead for the next couple of years, and planning on running Windows.

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[China_Guy]

make sure what you buy has a ‘designed for vista’ sticker on it. as for minimum requirements my not designed for vista toshiba tablet runs okay with 512 ram but wasn’t designed for all the functions

office2007 is designed to run without a hardware upgrade.

[Martini_Enfield]

Is anyone actually going to get Vista when it comes out?

Most people I know (myself included) are planning to wait until the majority of the bugs are ironed out, much like with WinXP, when sensible people waited for the Service Pack 2 update before upgrading from Win98SE…

[Terminus_Est]

Note that Vista is going to come in six (count 'em!) different editions. The requirements listed by Fear Itself are for the Vista Home Basic edition, which will give you a user experience not unlike what you’re getting with Windows XP right now. If you want the new fancy 3D Aero interface, DirectX 10, and all the doodads, you’ll have to shell out additional money for the more advanced editions, which have correspondingly greater hardware requirements:

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC includes at least:

* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor1.
* 1 GB of system memory.
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)2, Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
* 40 GB of hard drive capacity with 15 GB free space.
* DVD-ROM Drive3.
* Audio output capability.
* Internet access capability.