Windows 7 System Requirements
Note: If you are planning to run Windows XP Mode along with Windows 7, Microsoft is recommending a PC with a minimum of 2GB of memory and 15 GB of additional disk space. “In addition, Windows Virtual PC requires a PC with Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in the CPU, as it takes advantage of the latest advancements in hardware virtualization,” according to company officials.
I asked whether Microsoft had different requirements for the different SKUs of Windows 7 that it is planning to release and was told (via a spokesperson): “The system requirements are final and not SKU-specific.”
If you’re curious how these final Windows 7 requirements compare to Vista’s requirements, they aren’t all that different. Here are the final Vista system requirements:
* 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
* 512 MB of RAM (for Home Basic); 1 GB of RAM for all other versions
* 15 GB of available disk space
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory (for Home Basic); 128 MB of graphics memory plus WDDM support for all other versions
If you want to run Windows 7 on your PC, here's what it takes:
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1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
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1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
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16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
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DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Note: If you are planning to run Windows XP Mode along with Windows 7, Microsoft is recommending a PC with a minimum of 2GB of memory and 15 GB of additional disk space. “In addition, Windows Virtual PC requires a PC with Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in the CPU, as it takes advantage of the latest advancements in hardware virtualization,” according to company officials.
I asked whether Microsoft had different requirements for the different SKUs of Windows 7 that it is planning to release and was told (via a spokesperson): “The system requirements are final and not SKU-specific.”
If you’re curious how these final Windows 7 requirements compare to Vista’s requirements, they aren’t all that different. Here are the final Vista system requirements:
* 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
* 512 MB of RAM (for Home Basic); 1 GB of RAM for all other versions
* 15 GB of available disk space
* Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory (for Home Basic); 128 MB of graphics memory plus WDDM support for all other versions
Microsoft also announced on April 30 that it is readying a beta of a new Windows Upgrade Advisor (WUA) designed to support Windows 7. A spokesperson provided the following information:
