Your Computer and Windows Vista

Will your computer run the new Windows Vista when it is released early next year? That is a question many of us are pondering. Although Microsoft has yet to release all the specs that will help us answer this question, the Gartner Group has released a study that shows the vast majority of our computers will run Vista (if they run XP), although only about half of them will run it to its full potential.

The Gartner study says today's mainstream processors and hard drives offer plenty of performance and capacity to keep up with the new operating system...and Microsoft offers some basic guidelines for Vista on its Web site. But while it does take a minimum of 512MB of RAM, Gartner says your computer should have 1 Gb of memory to make it work best...and you need a more up-to-date graphics processor also.

Microsoft is going to release a "Windows Capable" program, which helps highlight PCs capable of being upgraded with the OS for consumers. But that has not happened yet. And it has not yet release its final hardware recommendations for the new OS, including details on the hardware necessary to run its full Aero interface.

Here are some interesting quotes from the Gartner report:

"Since most organizations keep PCs for three to five years—we recommend three years for mainstream notebook users and four years for mainstream desktops. PCs purchased in 2006 will be in service well after Windows Vista ships"

"While nearly all PCs on the market today will run Windows Vista, we estimate that about half will not enable the user to take full advantage of the advanced Windows Aero user experience, so care must be taken to properly configure them.

"This will be important for some users, but less important for others. Organizations that plan on upgrading 2006 PCs to Windows Vista, or those that want to keep their options open, need to buy the right PCs now to reduce migration costs later."

"New PCs should have at least 1GB RAM to prepare them for running Windows Vista. If PC virtualization will be used during the migration to run an older OS and Windows Vista on the PC simultaneously, an extra 512MB of RAM should be added."

Choosing the right graphics will require the most advanced planning. Vista's most basic user interface, which is expected to be able to run on just about any PC released in the recent past, will offer a redesigned start menu and taskbar, along with tweaks to the control panel and features such as search. But, some of the new features require extra graphics horsepower, which many, but not all, current graphics processors can do.

Windows Aero, the advanced interface, adds a translucent task bar and window frames, in addition to things like real-time thumbnail previews. Under the hood, it also employs a new WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model), which promises to increase a PCs' stability.

So while we have a while yet to plan the move to Windows Vista, it is good to know a little more now what we have to think about if we want to migrate.