Is Your Hardware Compatible With Windows 10?

Windows 10 upgrade is available for all existing windows 7 and Windows 8 machines as Microsoft announced that Windows 10 upgrade is a full version and the size of the upgrade is 3 GB. To get all the advantages of this free offer, you must upgrade your PC within one year of availability. The upgrade offer is valid only for qualified Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 devices you own. But there are some hardware or software requirements which differ from device to device. If you are running Windows 8 on your device then Windows 10 is being delivered as recommended update and it should run smoothly but for Windows 7 devices it is optional. So, here’s a checklist:

Is Windows 10 upgrade beneficial to you?

The Windows 10 Operating system is definitely beneficial for your existing Windows system as it features the return of the start menu for Win 8 particularly for regular desktop and non-touch screen users. The full-screen Windows 8 start screen never made sense when used with mouse and keyboard. The Windows 10 start menu incorporated Live tiles which make it more intuitive and simple to use. It allows virtual desktops that pretend you are using multiple monitors. It’s immensely useful if you work with many applications at once but have limited screen space. You also get Cortana, Bing search on the desktop, new browser, all Windows 8 features and also some other features which you only get in Windows 10.

Hardware Requirements for Windows 10

For the final version of Windows 10 hardware requirements have yet to be confirmed, but the preview version will have exactly the same hardware requirements as Windows 8. However, Windows 10 installer will also automatically check whether your system is suitable for the new OS or not.

Here are the hardware requirements for Windows 10 Technical Preview (TP):

Processor: 1 GHz or faster

RAM: 1 GB (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)

Free hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

If you are still not sure about your hardware specs you can use Microsoft’s Windows Compatibility Center which help you find out whether you can upgrade your system or not. Basically, it is a tool which provides information on whether your current system is suitable for Win 10 or not. Presently, this tool is intended only for those who are interested in an upgrade to Windows 8.1, but if your computer can run Windows 8.1 then it should also run Windows 10.

Please note that efore running this tool be sure that all hardware peripherals like printer, scanner, gaming consoles etc are also connected to your computer as Win10 compatibility with all these devices will also be verified. However, if your hardware is not connected with your PC then you should check the website of the device manufacturer to confirm whether your devices are compatible with Windows 10 or not.

Is Windows 10 compatible with your existing software?

Before upgrading it is important to check your software compatibility because that can avoid an expensive mistake. Even if Windows 10 is made available to you as a free upgrade, you wouldn’t want to waste time downloading and creating backups. If your hardware is compatible but the software which is most important for your work is not then it worthless for you.

Windows 10 is a big leap for Windows 7 users but if you depend on traditional Windows desktop application, you shouldn’t have to worry. Don’t think the big leap would not let you run you applications on Windows 10. If an application ran on Windows 7, it should also run on windows 10. Yes, it can run traditional Window desktop application as it is very similar to Windows 8 and Windows 7.There is no big application security model or driver architecture changes which were huge, if you move from Win XP t o Vista or Win XP to Win 7. Yes, Windows 10 includes a whole new application model, but traditional Windows desktop applications run side-by-side with those new applications.

Compatibility Modes

Compatibility mode options in Windows 7 that trick applications into thinking that they are running the older versions of Windows. Many older applications will run fine in Windows 10 using this mode but still there is an uncertainty. Windows 10 will automatically enable this option if it detects an app needs them but you can manually select it by right-clicking an application’s .exe file or shortcut and in properties select the compatibility tab.

There are few things which work properly in your previous Windows may not work on Windows 10. It might be a problem for you if your application requires an old driver or hardware to run. If an application interfaces with Windows XP-era hardware devices or the manufacturer has never provided a driver that works on Windows 7 then you are likely in trouble. If you depend on 16-bit applications, be sure you install a 32-bit version of Windows 10. This is similar to Windows 7, which wouldn’t run on a 64-bit version of Win 7.

How to find out application compatibility

Any applications or hardware devices that won’t work properly on Windows 10 can’t be found out by Upgrade Advisor application “Get Windows 10” which is offered by Microsoft that scans your system and informs you if it finds any application or hardware incompatibility. This application has been rolled out to Windows 7 and windows 8.1 users via Windows Update. When your system gets this update an icon will show the icon in your system tray. If you are using some special application for some business purposes or anything else irreplaceable, you should contact the developer or software company that produces them and ask them whether the application is compatible with Windows 10 or not.

Windows Media center built into Windows 7 and available as a paid download for Windows 8 is no longer available in Windows 10 as it removes these built-in features. Some traditional games which are available in previous Windows version like Hearts, Solitaire, and Minesweeper are no longer available. Desktop gadgets and DVD playback are also gone but this increases your Windows security.