I've just ran the Vista Upgrade Advisor beta on my laptop. This is a mid-range Dell I just use for work, and the odd game if I have to. I ran the test to see if it would give me any information on the actual hardware requirements for Windows Vista.

Now my laptop doesn't have amazing specifications - 2.8GHz Celeron, 512mb RAM, 64mb integrated graphics, 30GB Hard Drive and other normal stuff. Let's see what the Upgrade Advisor makes of my spec when asking if I can run Windows Vista Ultimate (which presumably requires the best specifications).

Results

"We're sorry, but your PC cannot currently install and run the core experiences of Windows Vista. However, you may be able prepare your computer for Windows Vista by upgrading your PC hardware."

From what this tool told me, I needed 15GB free space to install Vista, but a 40GB Hard Drive was recommended as a minimum. This isn't so much a problem, as I'd format before any install, but it gives us the size of Windows Vista installations (presumably unstaged). You wouldn't be running a 10 or 20 gig hard drive on your main PC anyway, so that should be alright for everyone who needs Vista.

I was also short of the requirements for the Aero interface. Between the tool and the Microsoft Website, Aero requires a 'DirectX 9-class graphics processor' that supports the following:

• WDDM
  
• Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
  
• 32 bits per pixel
  
• Adequate graphics memory
  
• 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor less than 1,310,720 pixels
  
• 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions from 1,310,720 to 2,304,000 pixels
  
• 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
  
• Meets graphics memory bandwidth requirements, as assessed by Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor running on Windows XP

This is a problem for my laptop, upgrading the graphics card isn't easy, but most/all graphics cards you buy these days should fit in

A 'modern processor' (at least 800 MHz) would run Vista, but 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) would be required to run the Premium editions. Microsoft point out that different types of processor need higher clock speeds due to their architecture and efficiency.

A DVD-ROM drive is required (internal or external), but that is no surprise. Good luck to anyone who tries to burn Vista onto a 700mb CD-ROM.

One thing to point out, is that to run Vista at all, you seemingly don't need audio, internet access, much free space, much graphics memory or an optical drive. More to the point, these are not specified. It presumably means that, in theory, you could get Vista running on any old clanger if you tried hard enough, but just don't bother and instead put the effort into getting a job to buy a half-decent PC.

For any other details, I'll need to run this tool on a lower-spec PC so it'll tell me what I need to get. In that case I'll fish out the 3.11 PC... and install XP... and run this tool again... one day...

Hardware Drivers

The next page of the tool reveals that my Network Adapter, IDE/ATA Controller, USB Controller and PCMCIA Adapter would have Vista-compatible drivers installed automatically on installation of Vista. However it said Vista drivers may not be availbable for my I/O Controller, Graphics Controller, Wireless Network Adapter (PCMCIA card), USB Controller (?), Audio card, Graphics Chipset and Graphics Platform (SoftBIOS). A bit of a mouthful, and contradictory, but thats what it says. It is a beta, after all.

Well it looks like I'll just have to upgrade then, doesn't it.