For PCs to be Vista-capable, a machine needs at least an 800MHz processor, 512MB of memory and a graphics card that can run DirectX 9 graphics. Those requirements are similar to the minimum guidelines the company has been recommending for Vista for some time. To carry the Premium Ready designation, a PC must have a 1GHz processor, 1GB of main memory, 128MB of memory and a graphics card that supports Vista's new graphics-driver model.
The amount of graphics memory needed to run Vista's Aero graphics also varies based on the size and number of monitors. Multiple displays and larger screen sizes require more dedicated memory. Vista, Microsoft's first major overhaul of Windows since 2001, promises numerous updates for performance, security and productivity. Given that it's long been expected to require more powerful PC hardware than Windows XP, consumers and business IT managers have been awaiting Microsoft's recommendations as they plan for upgrading to the OS, due in early 2007, or as they evaluate the purchase of new systems.
But even though the minimum hardware specs for the OS show that Vista will run on just about any PC sold over the last few years, its most advanced features—including the three-dimensional Aero user interface—will require additional performance, causing at least some consumers and corporate IT departments to take a look under the hood before upgrading.
To that end, Microsoft released two sets of minimum hardware recommendations. In addition to delivering the Get Ready Web site and upgrade advisor application, now in beta, it issued a second set of recommendations it calls Windows Vista Premium Ready.
The software maker's Windows Vista Premium Ready PC specifications call for a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 128MB of dedicated graphics memory, along with a fairly recent graphics processor that meets several additional specifications, so as to ensure a PC can run Aero. The machines must also have at least a 40GB hard drive or 15GB of free space and an internal or external DVD-ROM drive.
The guidelines, analysts said, give PC owners an idea of what will be needed to upgrade a PC to Vista, in addition to telling them if a PC they might be considering will run the OS out of the box. Microsoft "doesn't want to take the steam out of hardware sales right now. So it wants to make sure that people going into stores are comfortable that hardware on sale [now] will run Vista when it comes out," said Roger Kay, president of EndPoint Technologies Associates. Meanwhile, PC owners and prospective buyers want to know "they can be comfortable that [the hardware] is spec'd to run Vista in a fashion that will satisfy them."
