In January of 2007 Microsoft released its newest operating system, Vista. Forums, podcasts and e-zines were loaded with Vista comments, questions and reviews for months prior to it's release. These range from a brief 3 pages to an in depth 40 pages with screen shots and full coverage of IE 7. This flood of information has spawned a tremendous amount of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt). This means the casual computer user will need to have this information condensed and clarified.
The first thing I would want to know is whether or not it would be possible to update my present computer to Vista. Well, according to Microsoft, you will be able to upgrade to a version of Vista if the computer meets these minimum requirements.
- 800 MHz processor
- 512 Mb. RAM (system memory)
- GPU (graphics processing unit) compatible with DirectX 9
Further investigation into Vista's minimum requirements reveals that these specifications apply only to Vista Home Basic. Vista is being released in 5 flavors Home, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. The Enterprise edition of Windows Vista will not be available "off the shelf" and is reserved for qualifying enterprises. The Microsoft recommended requirements for Home Premium and above are:
- 1 GHz. 32 bit OR 64 bit Processor
- 1 Gb. RAM
- 40 Gb. hard drive with 15 Gb. of free space
- DVD-ROM
- Audio Output capable
- Internet access capable
- GPU that
- Supports DirectX 9
- Has 128 Mb. Graphics RAM
- Supports or has a WDDM Driver (Windows Display Driver Model)
- Pixel Shaper 2.0
- Supports 32 bits/pixel
The review columnists recommend a 20 - 30% increase over the minimum requirements to insure the availability of resources for programs that will be running. Our practice, as far as RAM is concerned, is to install double the required amount. As for video, we have found that it is best to use a graphics card with at least 256 Mb. of on board RAM.
Why the big difference in requirements? The new user interface, referred to as Aero, is only available in the Home Premium and above editions and needs high end graphics to perform properly. Paraphrasing the Microsoft web site, Aero was designed with a PCI Express graphics card with 256 mb of graphics memory in mind. If your computer has graphics on the main board instead of a separate graphics card then Vista Home Basic is probably your only choice if you are thinking of upgrading your OS.
What other changes are there? The logon process has changed to resemble Unix style OS's. With Vista comes the introduction of the Virtual Folder concept. Speech recognition is being used as an input device much like a keyboard or mouse. Internet Explorer catches up with Firefox and Safari. Also notable is that IPv6 is already bound along with IPv4. More detailed descriptions are available at the links provided or just google for Vista.
Now that we have had some hands on experience we now know the most important requirements are the amount of ram and the video card. We have had no trouble running the Vista Business edition on a system with 2 Gb of ram. In this case, more is definitely better. As for the video card, Vista Business will run on a 128 Mb video card with a Windows Experience Index in the neighborhood of 2.8. When going to a video card with 256 Mb of onboard ram, the index shot up to over 4.0. It will take quite a card to collect a score of 5.9, the maximum Windows Experience Index rating at this time.
At first, we thought that the Windows Experience Index would help differentiate discount store computers from higher quality machines. Having had the chance to look at some of these mass merchant offerings, we found that the Windows Experience Index wasn't available to the end user. Since these units came equipped with Home Basic, it is a matter of speculation whether this mechanism has not been included in Vista Home Basic or the manufacturer removed it. Once a few of these machines have been brought in for repairs, we will have a much better idea.
Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows XP and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other names have been included in the above text that are trademarks of the respective companies.
