Lesson 1: Identifying Hardware Requirements

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Lesson 1: Identifying Hardware Requirements

The objective of identifying hardware requirements can be boiled down to a single question:

“Will this computer run Windows Vista well?” Although it is possible to install Windows Vista

on a computer that does not measure up to the minimum requirements, the person’s experience

in using that computer is not going to be as agreeable as it might be. In some situations, hard-

ware that does not meet the minimum requirements will mean that it is simply impossible to

install Windows Vista at all. This lesson will help you determine whether a particular hard-

ware configuration is sufficient to run Windows Vista. This lesson will also provide you with

an overview of each Windows Vista edition.

After this lesson, you will be able to:

■ Determine Windows Vista client hardware requirements.

■ Differentiate each edition of Windows Vista based on its feature set.

■ Understand the difference between Windows Vista Capable and Windows Vista

Premium Ready specifications.

■ Run the Upgrade Advisor.

Estimated lesson time: 40 minutes

Assessing Hardware Requirements

At its simplest, assessing hardware requirements means comparing two lists of specifications.

The first list of specifications is what you need to run Windows Vista. The second list of spec-

ifications shows the current state of the computer on which you want to run Windows Vista.

The four primary hardware components that you need to assess in determining whether you

can install Windows Vista are:

■

Processor

■

RAM

■

Hard disk drive

■

Graphics adapter

Processor

Although there are multiple processor architectures, Windows Vista requires that a processor

have a minimum speed of 800 MHz. The recommended processor speed is greater than 1

GHz. Windows Vista will function on both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. If you want to run

Windows Vista on a 64-bit architecture, you should ensure that you obtain the 64-bit edition

of Windows Vista rather than the standard 32-bit edition. The 64-bit edition of Windows Vista

will provide improved performance on 64-bit hardware over the 32-bit edition.