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MSI Wind U100 running Windows Vista

Microsoft has been saying for a while that Windows 7 will be able to run on many low powered computers including netbooks. And we’ve seen that a pre-release version of the operating system runs decently current netbooks including the MSI Wind, Asus Eee PC 1000H, and HP 2133 Mini-Note. But what exactly are the minimum system requirements for Windows 7?

Microsoft’s not ready to say quite yet, because the company has kind of gotten into trouble in this area in the past. But TechRadar has some info that may prove helpful. For example, Windows 7 will require at least 8GB of disk space, not just for a freshly installed operating system, but for all the log files and other items that Windows writes over time. In other words, you may be able to install Windows 7 on a system with a tiny 4GB solid state disk like the base model Dell Inspiron Mini 9. But you’d better be prepared for that disk to fill up quickly. If you want room to install programs, store documents, and maybe hold a few media files, you’ll probably want s 16GB or larger disk.

The next version of Windows is also expected to work better with solid state disks than Windows Vista or XP, and will be generally more modular, which means services you don’t need won’t be running which should help cut back on memory use.