Section 1.3. Hardware Requirements

1.3. Hardware Requirements

Windows Vista requires considerable hardwaresignificantly more than previous versions of Windows. It needs a lot of graphics horsepower to support the full Aero interface, but it is possible to run Windows Vista without running Aero.

Because there are so many different versions of Windows Vista, and because it is possible to run Windows Vista without the Windows Aero interface, the exact hardware requirements are somewhat confusing. To help make things a little less confusing, Microsoft has set two levels of hardware: Windows Vista Capable and Windows Vista Premium Ready. A Windows Vista Capable PC will not be able to run all of the Windows Vista features, notably Windows Aero.

A Windows Vista Capable PC has these minimum hardware requirements:

• An 800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

• 512 MB of RAM

• DirectX 9-capable graphics processor (Windows Display Driver Model [WDDM] driver support recommended) with a minimum of 64 MB of memory, preferably 128 MB

• 20 GB hard disk, with at least 15 GB free

A Windows Vista Premium Ready PC has these minimum hardware requirements:

• A 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

• 1 GB of RAM

• DirectX 9-capable graphics processor that supports WDDM driver support, Pixel Shader 2.0, 32 bits per pixel, and a minimum of 128 MB of memory

• 40 GB hard disk, with at least 15 GB free

• DVD-ROM drive

Obviously, more is better, so it's a good idea to exceed these requirements when possible.