As first spotted by Windows Latest, Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 PCs and tablets would need a minimum of 2 GB of RAM to run the Anniversary Update.
However, the company has now updated the requirements, stating that the Anniversary Update can run on PCs and tablets with a minimum of 1 GB of RAM. This is good news for users who were unable to get the Anniversary Update previously.
According to the support document, Windows 10 can be installed on a PC with a 1Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, and up to 16GB of storage. That’s the bare minimum. In the case of IoT Core, you can install Windows 10 with less than 256MB RAM, but the display won’t work.
| Component | Windows 10 Mobile OS | Windows 10 Desktop Editions | Windows IoT Core |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Processing Unit | Minimum: 32-bit architecture | Minimum: 1 GHz or faster SoC | Minimum: Dual-core 400 MHz or faster |
| Graphics Processing Unit | DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver | DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver | N/A |
| Memory | At least 1 GB RAM | 1 GB for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit | Minimum: 256 MB (no display support) |
| Storage | Minimum: 8 GB | 16 GB for 32-bit OS or 20 GB for 64-bit OS | Minimum: 2 GB (no display support) |
The 32-bit version requires a minimum of 1GB of RAM. The company has also updated the list with the minimum screen size requirement.
For devices that want to or need to update the Anniversary Update, the device should have a minimum screen size of 8 inches, up from the earlier 7 inches, to run on resolutions SVGA (800 x 600). However, for tablets and smartphones, the minimum screen size for Windows 10 Mobile has to be 7 inches.
These changes arrive as Microsoft has started preparing for the next major update, Redstone 2, aka the Creators Update, which the company will release in April 2017.
