Don Hite at myITforum.com

Microsoft Windows Vista System Requirements

With the January 30, 2007 world wide public release of Microsoft Windows new operating system Visa (Code name Longhorn) to the general public I decided to investigate the versions that are available and their corresponding prices.

It has been a long time (More than five years) in coming and happens to be the longest time between operating system releases by Microsoft to date. I am not in a hurry to make the change from Windows XP and I am not too fond of upgrades so I am going for the Ultimate full version.

Here you will find the system requirements for the available Windows Vista versions as well as Microsoft’s suggested retail prices.

Windows Vista Minimum Supported System Requirements:

• 800 MHz processor
• 512 MB of RAM
• 20 GB hard drive (With 15 GB of free space)

Home Basic Version:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 512 MB of RAM
• 20 GB hard drive (With 15 GB of free space)
• Suggested retail: $199.00 USD. Suggested upgrade: $99.95 USD.

Home Premium Version:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 40 GB hard drive with (With 15 GB of free space)
• Suggested retail: $239.00 USD. Suggested upgrade: $159.00 USD.

Business Version:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 40 GB hard drive (With 15 GB of free space)
• Suggested retail: $299.00 USD. Suggested upgrade: $199.00 USD.

Ultimate Version:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of RAM
• 40 GB hard drive (With 15 GB of free space)
• Suggested retail: $399.00 USD. Suggested upgrade: $259.00 USD.

Microsoft has also released an upgrade advisor that can be run on your current Windows XP machine to determine if your system is capable of running Windows Vista. It scans your system and then generates a report of any known issues it discovers along with recommendations for each.

Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor Download

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=65926&clcid=0x409