Premium notebooks ready and capable for Windows Vista (a.k.a. Longhorn)

Probably you all know that Windows Vista (a.k.a. Longhorn) is the new Microsoft Operating System. You probably also know that it requires some powerful hardware resources from your notebook.

It is a good thing to know if your premium notebook is ready and capable for Windows Vista, otherwise you will keep on using Windows XP.

Microsoft Vista requirements

Microsoft made public the requirements that Vista asks : a computer needs at least an 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of memory and a graphics card that can run DirectX 9 graphics.

Computers optimized for premium performance on the OS can be 32-bit or 64-bit, but they will require a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of main memory, 128 MB of memory and a graphics card that supports Vista's new graphics interface, called Windows Aero.

So you should look on the performances of your premium notebook, and compare them to these listed above to see if it is “ready and capable for Vista”. As software producers say, about half of the computers sold today are ready for Vista.

Notebooks situation: are notebooks ready for Microsoft Windows Vista?

However, for notebooks the situation is a bit more complicated. Rob Helm, a consultant with Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash observed that “The premium requirements are pretty complicated. Right now it is hard to find machines, particularly laptops, with these capabilities in them”

Microsoft launched a “Windows Vista "Get Ready" Web site” that helps users find information regarding computers, desktop and notebooks ready for Vista.