April 1st, 2006
No Vista, But Here, Have Some Stickers
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
It’s not going to be available until 2007, but heck, if you can’t get the OS, will stickers do? Starting next month, PCs with stickers saying “Windows Vista Capable” will be in stores. The stickers will be placed on those PCs that currently run Windows XP, but will be able to run Windows Vista Basic when it is available. In other words, the stickers will let you know that, yes, you can go out and give Microsoft still more money next January if you so choose.
At a minimum, the requirements met by Windows Vista Capable PCs will allow customers to run Windows Vista Home Basic, according to Microsoft. However, they do not represent the minimum hardware requirements for higher-end versions of Vista, requirements Microsoft says it will provide in the future as the program expands.
Joe Wilcox, analyst with Jupiter Research, stresses the importance for customers of the distinction between PCs “capable” of running Vista and those that are actually “ready” to do so. Source: PC World
We Say: If you’d rather not bother with a sticker, the minimum requirements, according to Microsoft are a modern CPU (glad they are so specific here so that I know an ENIAC-era CPU won’t work), 512MB of RAM or more, DirectX 9 GPU. Actually, you can drill through to here to get more details on the CPU requirements. Of course, I figure this is sort of like the minimum requirements for, say, Half-Life 2. It’ll run but don’t expect much performance or eye candy.
R Barrera says:
Actually, they are already in stores; I bought an HP with the sticker yesterday at Best Buy in Denver. The pseudo-geek retail clerk, when asked if the machine will run Vista, pointed to the sticker, but he did not mention capable only of Vista Home Basic. I bought the machine not because of the sticker, but just because I needed another machine.
April 1st, 2006 at 7:24 pm
James says:
You bought an HP? You’re a friggin retard. I hope you choke on your own feces you god damned bitch
April 1st, 2006 at 9:41 pm
Allen says:
James,
Cool it. Your comments are crude and uncalled for.
April 1st, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Luis says:
The feces thing was rather tasteless… totally on the mark with “friggin retard” tho. HP sucks.
April 2nd, 2006 at 12:15 am
Perros says:
Well… HP aren’t great for home computers, and i’ve heard bad things about their service. But it could be worse.
-Perros-
April 2nd, 2006 at 3:06 am
David Johnston says:
I’ve had no more problems with HP’s than with any other computer manufacturer. Of course, I’ve never called tech support either.
April 2nd, 2006 at 6:48 am
James says:
Ok, I was a bit drunk when I left my comments involved implied mental retardation of R Barrera and my wished of death by fecal impaction. However, seeing as how I am now sober, I will explain that I’ve been building my own computers for the past 3 years. Before that, I bought them over the internet. Never in my life have I just walked into a store and purchased a computer on the shelf, which is what I’m guessing that person did. Do I hope that R Barrera actually chokes to death on fecal matter? Probably not. However, I do hope that R Barrera outlives his/her children.
April 2nd, 2006 at 10:25 am
Stephen says:
I have no confidence that those PC’s so stickered will actually be able to run Vista Home Basic at more than a crawl. My girlfriend has an HP computer running XP. I was wondering why the hard drive was being acesses so much. Checked the memory…yep…only 128KB. To think that HP was actually selling XP machines with only 128KB to unknowing customers as actually capable of being able to run XP is criminal in my book…hence my lack of confidence in either HP or Windows when it comes to minimum system requirements.
April 3rd, 2006 at 5:43 am
ValuedCustomer says:
There’s nothing “wrong” w/ HP machines that isn’t “wrong” w/ any other machine like Dell or whoever. Sure you can build one yourself for less money that’s more customized to your taste but to say HP sucks and/or that people who purchase them are “retards” is, well, retarded. - My Fortune 5 employer w/ over 275,000 HP users didn’t get to the position they’re at being a “retard”.
April 3rd, 2006 at 7:21 am
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
No Vista, But Here, Have Some Stickers
Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes: It’s not going to be available until 2007, but heck, if you can’t get the OS, will stickers do? Starting next month, PCs with stickers saying “Windows Vista Capable” will be in stores. The stickers will be plac…
April 3rd, 2006 at 1:54 pm
Lee451 says:
Drunk or not I feel that James is dealing with some serious personal issues. My first comp was a HP and the only problems I had were due to my own ignorance. I currently use an Emachines that I have upgraded about as far as I can. It works just fine. In the media center at my church we use Dells. No complaints there. Most of the comps I have opened up have parts manufactured by the same companies. Building your own computer can be fun but not everyone has the skill or knowledge to do so.
April 3rd, 2006 at 6:37 pm
alastait says:
i think Stephen must be mistaken in his post above. Windows XP would never run on 128KB of RAM. did you mean MB ?. or did you mean KB unused.
if you PC actually says 128KB RAM something has gone very wrong
April 4th, 2006 at 2:01 am
Eric says:
Well it is safe to say that HP really does suck now that the BETA for Vista is out. They have done nothing to develop drivers for the computers that they claimed were “vista ready”. There website is even less helpful. If they have so much confidence that their machines will be able to fully support Vista why are there no drivers for some of the basic components?
I regret the day I shelled out cash for a HP.
July 20th, 2006 at 12:59 am