Windows Versions System Requirements

The table below summarizes the minimum requirements Microsoft deems a system must meet for the installation of various versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system (OS) for central processing unit (CPU) speed, Random Access Memory (RAM), available hard disk drive (HDD) capacity, and graphics support.
VersionProcessor SpeedMemoryAvailable Disk SpaceGraphics
Windows XP Home Edition1 Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended) At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended) At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution
Windows XP Professional1 Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended) At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended) At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600)or higher resolution
Windows Vista Home Basic2 800-megahertz (MHz) 32-bit (x86) processor or 800-MHz 64-bit (x64) processor 512 megabytes (MB) of system memory. Note: On system configurations that use system memory as graphics memory, at least 448 MB of system memory must be available to the operating system after some memory is allocated for graphics. 20-gigabyte (GB) hard disk that has 15 GB of free hard disk space DirectX 9-class graphics card
32 MB of graphics memory
Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate2 1-gigahertz (GHz) 32-bit (x86) processor or 1-GHz 64-bit (x64) processor 1 GB of system memory 40-GB hard disk that has 15 GB of free hard disk space (the 15GB of free space provides room for temporary file storage during an install or upgrade.) 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
Windows Aero-capable graphics card

Note: This includes a DirectX 9-class graphics card that supports the following:

  • A WDDM driver
  • Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
  • 32 bits per pixel
Windows 73 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit) 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
Windows 8.04, 5 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2 (more info) 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
Windows 8.16 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2 (more info) 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit) 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

For Windows Vista, a Windows Aero-capable graphics card is a graphics card that meets the following requirements:

For more information about the different editions of Windows Vista, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

For more information about the different editions of Windows Vista, see the Editions section of the Windows Vista Wikipedia article.

References:

  1. System requirements for Windows XP operating systems
    Microsoft Support
  2. System requirements for Windows Vista
    Microsoft Support
  3. Windows 7 system requirements
    Microsoft
  4. Windows 8 system requirements
    By: Matt Egan
    Date: October 25, 2012
    PC Advisor
  5. PAE/NX/SSE2 Support Requirement Guide for Windows 8
    Microsoft TechNet
  6. System requirements Windows 8.1
    Microsoft
  7. Windows Vista
    Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

 

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Created: Friday July 10, 2015