Editions

• There are four editions of Windows Vista; Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. Each of these Windows operating systems comes in 32-bit and 64-bit editions.
  
  

Minimum Requirements

• To run Windows Vista, you must have at minimum an 800-megahertz (MHz) processor, 512 megabytes (MB) of random access memory, a 20-gigabyte (GB) hard drive with 15 gigabytes of space free, a graphics display adapter that supports Super VGA and a CD-ROM drive.
  
  

Recommended Requirements

• The recommended system requirements for Windows Vista Home Basic are a 1-GHz processor, 512 MB of memory, a 20-GB hard drive with 15-GB free, 32 MB of graphics memory, support for DirectX 9, a DVD-ROM drive, a sound device and speakers and Internet access. The recommended system requirements for Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate are a 1-GHz processor, 1 GB of memory, a 40-GB hard drive with 15 GB of free space, DirectX 9 support with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, 128 MB of graphics memory, hardware support for Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel. Microsoft recommends a 32-bit processor for 32-bit Vista editions, and a 64-bit processor for 64-bit Vista editions. Other hardware, such as a TV tuner card and antenna and Windows Tablet and Touch Technology may be required to take full advantage of the features included in Windows Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate.
  
  

Features

• Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate come with Windows Media Center, a program that allows you to play streaming video and music, play games and browse files in one interface. You can use this program to record programs to your computer's hard drive. To get the most use from this program, you will need much more free hard drive space than Microsoft recommends. Windows Aero, a graphics theme in Windows Vista Home Premium, Business and Ultimate Editions, may require a graphics card with 256 MB of memory for large LCD monitors set to a resolution of over 2,304,000 pixels.
  
  

Considerations

• You may still experience problems when upgrading your computer to Windows Vista, even if your computer meets the recommended system requirements. Your computer needs resources to run the other software you frequently use, as well as the operating system. You will experience better performance in Windows Vista if your computer exceeds the recommended system requirements. If you have any other concerns about whether your computer is ready to run Windows Vista, use the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor on the Microsoft website.