Microsoft Announces System Requirements, Feature Regressions For Windows 10

We’ve heard all about what features are coming to Windows 10 over the past few months. First announced at the end of January, Windows 10 is set to be a blockbuster release for Microsoft and will be a free upgrade for existing Windows 7 and Windows 8 customers. More recently, we’ve learned that Windows 10 will be available for customers on July 29, and we’ve also received a preliminary look at pricing for the operating system (for those that don’t qualify for the free upgrade).

We’re now learning more about the system requirements for Windows 10, and thankfully it looks as though it won’t take much to get decent performance from machines more than a few years old. Here are recommendations straight from the horse’s mouth:

• Latest OS: Make sure you are running the latest version either Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
• Don’t know which version you are running? Check here to find out.
• Need to download the latest version? Click here for Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.1 Update.
• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
• Display: 1024x600

You can view the Windows 7/8 to Windows 10 upgrade matrix below:

Microsoft also notes that you can check to see if your current desktop, notebook, or tablet is capable of running Windows 10 by running the Check My PC” function in the Get Windows 10 app. With respect to antivirus applications, Microsoft makes the following note:

During upgrade Windows will check to see if your Anti-virus or Anti-malware subscription is current. Windows will uninstall your application while preserving your settings. After upgrade is complete, Windows will install the latest version available with the settings that were set prior to upgrade. If your subscription is not current, upgrade will enable Windows defender.

And since we’ve heard plenty about what’s being added with Windows 10, we should also be well aware of what’s being stripped away by upgrading to Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system. As we previously reported, if you’re a heavy user of Windows Media Center, it won’t be available at all with Windows 10. That’s a big bummer, but there are plenty of third-party alternatives out there that should be able to satiate your media needs. Native DVD playback will not be available out-of-the-box in Windows 10, so you will need your own third-party alternative. Windows 7 gadgets will be also nixed when you upgrade to Windows 10.

But what is perhaps one of the biggest changes is that Windows 10 Home users will see their Windows Updates downloaded and installed automatically as soon as they are available. This is definitely a big drawback for users that don’t want to be interrupted with a system reboot to finish the update process, and for users that want to take a “wait and see approach” with certain updates. However, Microsoft makes it clear that Windows 10 Professional and Enterprise editions will still be able to defer updates.

For more information on Windows 10 and additional requirements for advanced features like Windows Hello, Continuum, Device Guard, Secure Boot, BitLocker, and Miracast can be found at the link below.