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Which PC Is A Windows Vista PC?: Page 3 of 5

"Vista Capable" PCs support the security features of Vista -- Windows Defender and Windows Firewall -- and Parental Controls, but not the advanced graphics and Aero interface features, or media and networking features. PCs with Vista Basic installed wear "Windows Vista Basic" stickers.

Requirements for "Premium Ready" PCs include:

  • Minimum 1GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor.
  • Miniumum 1 GB of system memory.
  • Support for DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM driver, Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel, and 128 MB of graphics memory (either dedicated or shared -- if the graphics processor uses shared memory, then no additional graphics memory is required beyond the 1 GB system memory requirement but the diversion of memory may impact overall system performance; if the GPU uses dedicated memory then 128MB is required.)

Unfortunately, while "Premium Ready" is the clearest indicator of support for Aero and advanced media-center and networking features, there is no "Premium Ready" sticker.

Also, Microsoft's Web site notes that some product features may require advanced or additional hardware: