Know about Windows Vista _Part 7_

							Hardware requirements

Computers capable of running Windows Vista are classified as Vista
Capable and Vista Premium Ready.[62] A Vista Capable or equivalent PC is
capable of running all editions of Windows Vista although some of the
special features and high-end graphics options may require additional or
more advanced hardware. A Vista Premium Ready PC can take advantage of
Vista's high-end features.[63]

Windows Vista's Basic and Classic interfaces work with virtually any
graphics hardware that supports Windows XP or 2000; accordingly, most
discussion around Vista's graphics requirements centers on those for the
Windows Aero interface. As of Windows Vista Beta 2, the NVIDIA GeForce 6
series and later, the ATI Radeon 9500 and later, Intel's GMA 950 and
later integrated graphics, and a handful of VIA chipsets and S3 Graphics
discrete chips are supported. Although originally supported, the GeForce
FX 5 series has been dropped from newer drivers from NVIDIA. The last
driver from NVIDIA to support the GeForce FX series on Vista was
96.85.[64][65] Microsoft offers a tool called the Windows Vista Upgrade
Advisor[63] to assist Windows XP and Vista users in determining what
versions of Windows their machine is capable of running. Although the
installation media included in retail packages is a 32-bit DVD, customers
needing a CD-ROM or customers who wish for a 64-bit install media are
able to acquire this media through the Windows Vista Alternate Media
program.[66] The Ultimate edition includes both 32-bit and 64-bit
media.[67] The digitally downloaded version of Ultimate includes only one
version, either 32-bit or 64-bit, from Windows Marketplace.
Windows Vista system requirements[59]   Vista Capable    Vista Premium
Ready
Processor 800 MHz[68]        1 GHz1
Memory     512 MB      1 GB
Graphics card    DirectX 9.0 capable    DirectX 9.0 capable and WDDM 1.0
driver support
Graphics memory 32 MB        128 MB
HDD capacity     20 GB       40 GB
HDD free space   15 GB
Optical drives   DVD-ROM drive[69] (Only to install from DVD-ROM media)
^1 Even though this is Microsoft's stated minimum processor speed for
Windows Vista, it is possible to install and run the operating system on
early IA-32 processors such as an Intel Pentium II/III and older Celeron
and AMD Athlon (K7 and Thunderbird), K6/K6-2/K6-III and AMD K5 with or
without SSE instructions. Windows Vista is not compatible with processors
older than Pentium II (such as Original Pentium and Pentium MMX) because
it requires an i686 (Intel) or RISC86 (AMD) Compliant Processors with an
ACPI Compliant motherboard.
Physical memory limits

Maximum limits on physical memory (RAM) that Windows Vista can address
vary depending on the both the Windows version and between 32-bit and 64-
bit versions.[70] The following table specifies the maximum physical
memory limits supported:
Physical memory limits for Windows Vista versions[70] Version Limit in
32-bit Windows   Limit in 64-bit Windows
Windows Vista Ultimate       4 GB 128 GB
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Home Premium   16GB
Windows Vista Home Basic     8GB
Windows Vista Starter 1 GB   N/A
Processor limits

The total maximum number of logical processors[71] in a PC that Windows
Vista supports is: 32[72] for 32-bit; 64[73] for 64-bit.[74]

The maximum number of physical processors in a PC that Windows Vista
supports is: 2 for Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate, and 1 for Starter,
Home Basic, and Home Premium.[75]
Service packs

Microsoft occasionally releases service packs for its Windows operating
systems to fix bugs and add new features.
Service Pack 1

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released on February 4, 2008,
alongside Windows Server 2008 to OEM partners, after a five-month beta
test period. The initial deployment of the service pack caused a number
of machines to continually reboot, rendering the machines unusable.[76]
This caused Microsoft to temporarily suspend automatic deployment of the
service pack until the problem was resolved. The synchronized release
date of the two operating systems reflected the merging of the
workstation and server kernels back into a single code base for the first
time since Windows 2000. MSDN subscribers were able to download SP1 on
February 15, 2008. SP1 became available to current Windows Vista users on
Windows Update and the Download Center on March 18, 2008.[77][78][79]
Initially, the service pack only supported 5 languages – English, French,
Spanish, German and Japanese. Support for the remaining 31 languages was
released on April 14, 2008.[80]

A whitepaper published by Microsoft near the end of August 2007 outlined
the scope and intent of the service pack, identifying three major areas
of improvement: reliability and performance, administration experience,
and support for newer hardware and standards.

One area of particular note is performance. Areas of improvement include
file copy operations, hibernation, logging off on domain-joined machines,
JavaScript parsing in Internet Explorer, network file share browsing,[78]
Windows Explorer ZIP file handling,[81] and Windows Disk
Defragmenter.[82] The ability to choose individual drives to defragment
is being reintroduced as well.[78]

Service Pack 1 introduced support for some new hardware and software
standards, notably the exFAT file system,[78] 802.11n wireless
networking,[83] IPv6 over VPN connections,[83] and the Secure Socket
Tunneling Protocol.

Booting a system using Extensible Firmware Interface on x64 systems was
also introduced;[78] this feature had originally been slated for the
initial release of Vista but was delayed due to a lack of compatible
hardware at the time. Booting from a GUID Partition Table–based hard
drive greater than 2.19 TB is supported (x64 only).[84][85]

Two areas have seen changes in SP1 that have come as the result of
concerns from software vendors. One of these is desktop search; users
will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided
by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that
comes with Windows Vista, and desktop search programs will be able to
seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system.[79] These
changes come in part due to complaints from Google, whose Google Desktop
Search application was hindered by the presence of Vista's built-in
desktop search. In June 2007, Google claimed that the changes being
introduced for SP1 "are a step in the right direction, but they should be
improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop
search providers".[86] The other area of note is a set of new security
APIs being introduced for the benefit of antivirus software that
currently relies on the unsupported practice of patching the kernel (see
Kernel Patch Protection).[87][88]

An update to DirectX 10, named DirectX 10.1,[78] marked mandatory several
features that were previously optional in Direct3D 10 hardware. Graphics
cards will be required to support DirectX 10.1.[89] SP1 includes a kernel
(6001.18000) that matches the version shipped with Windows Server 2008.

The Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) was replaced by the Group
Policy Object Editor. An updated downloadable version of the Group Policy
Management Console was released soon after the service pack.

SP1 enables support for hotpatching, a reboot-reduction servicing
technology designed to maximize uptime. It works by allowing Windows
components to be updated (or "patched") while they are still in use by a
running process. Hotpatch-enabled update packages are installed via the
same methods as traditional update packages, and will not trigger a
system reboot.[90]
Service Pack 2

Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista was released to manufacturing on April
28, 2009,[91] and released to Microsoft Download Center and Windows
Update on May 26, 2009.[92] In addition to a number of security and other
fixes, a number of new features have been added. However, it did not
include Internet Explorer 8:[93][94] Windows Vista Service Pack 2 is
build 6002.18005.090410-1830.[1]

    Windows Search 4.0 (currently available for SP1 systems as a
standalone update)
    Feature Pack for Wireless adds support for Bluetooth 2.1
    Windows Feature Pack for Storage enables the data recording onto Blu-
ray media
    Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi configuration
    Improved support for resuming with active Wi-Fi connections
    Improved support for eSATA drives
    The limit of 10 half open, outgoing TCP connections was removed
    Enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows
correct file synchronisation across time zones
    Support for ICCD/CCID smart cards
    Support for VIA 64-bit CPUs
    Improved performance and responsiveness with the RSS feeds sidebar
    Improves audio and video performance for streaming high-definition
content
    Improves Windows Media Center (WMC) in content protection for TV[95]
    Provides an improved power management policy that is up to 10% more
efficient than the original in some[clarification needed]
configurations[citation needed]

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 share a single service pack binary,
reflecting the fact that their code bases were joined with the release of
Server 2008.[93] Service Pack 2 is not a cumulative update meaning that
Service Pack 1 must be installed first.
Platform Update

The Platform Update for Windows Vista was released on October 27, 2009.
It includes major new components that shipped with Windows 7, as well as
updated runtime libraries.[96][97] It requires Service Pack 2 of Windows
Vista or Windows Server 2008 and is listed on Windows Update as a
Recommended download.

The Platform Update allows application developers to target both Windows
Vista and Windows 7. It consists of the following components:

    Windows Graphics runtime: Direct2D, DirectWrite, Direct3D 11, DXGI
1.1, and WARP;
    Updates to Windows Imaging Component;
    Updates to XPS Print API, XPS Document API and XPS Rasterization
Service;
    Windows Automation API (updates to MSAA and UI Automation);
    Windows Portable Devices Platform; (adds support for MTP over
Bluetooth and MTP Device Services)
    Windows Ribbon API;
    Animation Manager Library.

Some updates will also be available as separate releases for both Windows
XP and Windows Vista:

    Windows Management Framework: Windows PowerShell 2.0, Windows Remote
Management 2.0, BITS 4.0
    Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 (RDP7) client

Although extensive, the Platform Update does not bring Windows Vista to
the level of features and performance offered by Windows 7.[98] For
example, even though Direct3D 11 runtime will be able to run on D3D9-
class hardware and WDDM drivers using "feature levels" first introduced
in Direct3D 10.1, Desktop Window Manager has not been updated to use
Direct3D 10.1.[98]

Microsoft also has released Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista
and for Windows Server 2008 (KB2117917),[99] which brings many Direct2D
and DirectWrite fixes from Windows 7 SP1 to Windows Vista SP2 with
Platform Update installed. Another update, KB2505189[100] fixes another
DirectWrite bug on Vista SP2 with Platform Update.