Microsoft unveils today the hardware and software minimum requirements to run its forthcoming Office 2010 suite. While the 2010 version of the forthcoming suite of Microsoft Office will not come before June 2010, while tariffs have been presented there is little in our columns, Microsoft informed us today of the minimum required to hardware and operating system to run.
To recall, the Office 2010 suite will be offered in five different editions:
* Family and Student: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote
* Family and Small Business: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook
* Standard: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher
* Professional: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access
* Professional Plus: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access, Communicator, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace.
Not to mention Office 2010 Starter will follow Works by offering versions with limited features of Word and Excel, but will be offered only on new PCs through OEM partners of Microsoft. This suite is free but funded by advertising.
Hardware Requirements Specification
According to Alex Dubec, Program Manager of the team responsible for the performance of Office, in most cases, if your PC is already running Office 2007, then the 2010 version will work without worry, the amount of memory and minimum processor required are the same in both cases, namely, 256 MB RAM and a 500 Mhz CPU Type Intel Pentium III.
* If your current computer runs Office 2007, Office 2010 will run
* If you have a multi-heart, the functioning of Office 2010 will be accelerated
* If your computer is running Office 2003, it is possible that Office 2010 also works, but it will check the minimum specifications required
If you have this minimum configuration, Office 2010 will work with acceptable performance, eg open a 20-page document, or launch two Office applications simultaneously. Of course, you’ll have more available RAM and your processor will have a high frequency, the better ease of use of Office.
Interestingly, the transition from Office 2007 to Office 2010 does not require a more powerful configuration, cons by the disk space increases from 500 MB to 1.5 GB
Note that Office 2010 will use the GPU of your graphics cards to accelerate certain operations, including PowerPoint 2010 integration with new graphics and video.
OS Required
The operating systems supported by Office 2010 are described in the two tables below, respectively for 32-bit and 64. Note that the oldest supported OS is Windows XP with its Service Pack 3.
For most of you neophytes, do not worry, any PC less than 5 years to fully meet these requirements. A PC for less than 3 years you will ensure an optimum user convenience.
