Microsoft getting ready to get you ready for Vista
Our long, slow march crawl towards Windows Vista continues. Like many others, I've been able to install and run Vista on my Toshiba M205 Tablet, and even "get a little glass". I'm actually grabbing the latest build as we speak; build 5381 looks to be a preview of Vista Beta 2 that hits more folks next week. Paul Thurrott has a quick bunch of screenshots, but he indicates that not much has changed in this iteration. Oh, they did add support for the XBox 360 as a Media Center Extender, so I'll be playing with that later. ;)
Now that we have more handhelds and UMPCs running full Windows XP or are Vista-capable, it's probably a good time to see if you've got what it takes to run Vista. eWeek has a nice write-up with additional details to help you plan, although I'm concerned that for top performance, they're thinking 2 GB of RAM. Regardless, they allude to a Microsoft site that we'll see next week called "Get Ready". If you go there now, it takes you to the general information area for Windows Vista, but keep an eye out for this site to change on May 22nd.
- kct
I'd recommend 2GB for Windows XP for top performance too. It's not really the OS that needs it. It's the apps. Apps in general are just getting bigger. Especially as more and more of them are using the .NET Framework which does carry a bit of an up-front memory footprint.
I'm gonna give Vista Beta 2 a try again. I know I shouldn't keep doing this to myself but I can't resist.
Posted by: Josh Einstein | May 18, 2006 at 11:53 AM
Oh come on Josh. Don't let me go through the pain and suffering all by myself! Actually, the new Vista build is running a tad smoother for me on my WMCE machine right now. I do have 1.5 GB of RAM and a dedicated GPU with 128 MB of video memory. Now the tablet...that's another story and probably why I didn't upgrade that machine just yet. ;)
You're spot on with the applications needing more resources. As much as I hate to have my information elsewhere, I'm finding myself leaning towards web services every chance I can get vs. traditional software for this reason.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | May 18, 2006 at 11:58 AM
The http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx site now has the Vista criteria. For a "Windows Vista Premium Ready PC" you need a DVD-ROM drive, though it may be external. Hopefully this is only needed for installation and not for operation or for automatic updates.
It is not clear why the DVD drive is a requirement for a "Windows Vista Premium Ready PC" and not for a "Windows Vista Capable PC".
Posted by: Mickey Segal | May 18, 2006 at 04:33 PM