Are You Ready for Vista?

Microsoft has launched a program to help customers determine if their PC is capable of handling Windows Vista when it finally ships, and by doing so, the company is tipping its hand on just what kind of system requirements Vista will have.

Microsoft’s Vista ?¢‚Ǩ?ìGet Ready?¢‚Ǩ¬ù site features information and requirements for both “Vista Capable” PCs and “Premium Ready” as well as the downloadable Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor beta, which examines your system to determine its capabilities.

For a computer to be labeled Vista Capable, the computer must run an 800Mhz processor, come with 512MB of memory and have a DirectX 9-capable video processor. To be Vista Premium ready, the system needs to run at 1GHz, have 1GB of memory and have a more powerful video card to meet the Windows Aero specifications.

Being able to run Aero is the key differentiator between Capable and Premium, along with the extra memory for improved performance. Also, Vista Capable PCs will require 20GB of hard disk space, while Vista Premium PCs will need 40GB of space available.

The Upgrade Advisor scans your hardware to determine if it’s capable of running any or all of the different flavors of Vista. One version, Vista Starter, will only be sold in emerging markets overseas, not the U.S.

For home users, there will be three versions: Vista Home Basic, Vista Home Premium and Vista Home Ultimate, according to Greg Amrofell, product manager for Windows client software at Microsoft. There will also be two business user versions: Vista Business and Vista Enterprise.

Microsoft clearly wants people to think of upgrading.

Full article: internetnews.com