How to Find Windows 10 Computer Specifications & Systems Requirements

Here’s an overview of how to find computer specification requirements, versions, and languages available for Windows 10.

Table of Contents

System requirements for installing Windows 10

These are the basic requirements for installing Windows 10 on a PC. If your device does not meet these requirements, you may not have the great experience intended with Windows 10 and might want to consider purchasing a new PC.

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

Hard drive size:

32GB or larger hard disk

Note: See below under “More information on hard drive space to install or update Windows 10” for more details.

Compatible with DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver

Display: 800×600 Internet Connection:

Internet connectivity is necessary to perform updates and to download and take advantage of some features. Windows 10 Pro in S mode, Windows 10 Pro Education in S mode, Windows 10 Education in S mode, and Windows 10 Enterprise in S mode require an internet connection during the initial device setup (Out of Box Experience or OOBE), as well as either a Microsoft account (MSA) or Azure Activity Directory (AAD) account. Switching a device out of Windows 10 in S mode also requires internet connectivity. Learn more about S mode here.

There may be additional requirements over time for updates, as well as requirements to turn on specific features within the OS.

Keeping Windows 10 up-to-date

Windows 10 is designed to deliver updates for the supported lifetime of the device. Two types of updates may be provided: quality updates and feature updates. Quality updates include both security and non-security updates and are typically targeted to be released once a month. Feature updates also include security and non-security fixes as well as new features to Windows 10 and are typically provided twice a year. Ensuring that your device receives these updates and is kept up-to-date is important for your device security. Windows 10 periodically checks for updates so you don’t have to. When an update is available—and sufficient free disk space is available on your device—it will be automatically installed. So that Windows 10 continues to stay updated, it’s important to ensure your device has sufficient free space. See additional applicable details in the following notes.

Important notes about updates:

• A device might not be able to receive updates if the device hardware is incompatible, if it lacks current drivers or sufficient available hard drive space, or if it’s otherwise outside of the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (“OEM”) support period. Visit the Windows Lifecycle Fact Sheet or the Lifecycle FAQ for Windows products to learn more about the servicing timeline for each feature update.
  • Some of the disk space needed for installing updates is only temporarily required. Typically, ten days after installing an update, a disk cleanup will be automatically performed to delete copies of the older, unneeded Windows files and free up space again.
• Not all features in an update will work on all devices.
• An internet connection is required to perform updates and Internet access (ISP) fees might apply.
• If you need assistance installing an update, Windows 10 Update Assistant may be able to help.

More information on hard drive space requirements to install or update Windows 10

The size of the Windows operating system that comes with your device and the amount of space needed to download and install Windows updates, are highly variable as they depend on a variety of factors. Visit here to learn why. The factors that impact the amount of free hard drive space needed to take an update include: the versions of Windows previously installed on the machine, the amount of disk space available to reuse from Windows files, such as the virtual memory pagefile or hibernation file, which applications are installed on your device and how those applications store data. Starting with the May 2019 Update, the system requirements for hard drive size for clean installs of Windows 10 as well as new PCs changed to a minimum of 32GB. The 32GB or larger drive requirement is set to leave space for users to install apps and to keep data on the device. Installing Windows or updating from a previous version of Windows on devices with less than 32GB storage will continue to work if the device has enough free space available. When updating, Windows will attempt to automatically free up enough hard drive space and guide you through freeing up even more if the automatic cleanup is not sufficient. You can also take steps to free up space on your own. For more information, see Free up space to install the latest Windows 10 update or visit the related FAQ.

Feature-specific requirements for Windows 10

In addition to the requirements above that are needed to run Windows, some features have additional requirements. In some cases, features included with updated versions of Windows 10 will be best experienced with newer processors. For specific hardware support please refer to your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). Below are some additional details regarding requirements for key features:

• BitLocker Drive Encryption (available with Windows 10 Pro or Windows 10 Enterprise only) requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2 or higher and Trusted Computing Group (TCG)-compliant BIOS or UEFI. BitLocker can be used on devices without TPM, but you will need to save a startup key on a removable device such as a USB flash drive. TPM 2.0 and InstantGo support is required when you want to automatically encrypt the local drive when joining a device to Azure Active Directory (AAD). Check with your PC manufacturer to confirm if your device supports the correct TPM version and InstantGo for the scenario you want to enable.
• BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive (available in Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise only).
• Client Hyper-V requires a 64-bit system with second level address translation (SLAT) capabilities and additional 2 GB of RAM (available in Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise only).
• Cortana is only currently available on Windows 10 for the United States, United Kingdom, China, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Spain, Australia and India.
• Microsoft account is required for some features.
• Miracast requires a display adapter which supports Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.3, and a Wi-Fi adapter that supports Wi-Fi Direct.
• Movies & TV application is not available in all regions. For the most up-to-date list of regions, please go to the Movies & TV information page.
• Secure boot requires firmware that supports UEFI v2.3.1 Errata B and has the Microsoft Windows Certification Authority in the UEFI signature database.
• Skype is available only in select countries and regions. Calling to select countries and regions only. Excludes special, premium and non-geographic numbers. For details, visit the Office FAQ page.
• Snap: The number of applications that can be snapped will depend upon the minimum resolution for the application with a limit of two applications in Tablet mode and four applications in Desktop mode.
• Speech recognition will vary by device microphone. For a better speech experience, you will need a:
  • High fidelity microphone array
  • Hardware driver with microphone array geometry exposed
• Tablet mode is available on tablets and 2-in-1s with GPIO indicators or those that have a laptop and slate indicator will be able to be configured to enter «tablet mode» automatically.
• Touch: To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multi-touch.
• Two-factor authentication requires the use of a PIN, Biometric (finger print reader or illuminated infrared camera), or a phone with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capabilities.
• Windows Hello requires a camera configured for near infrared (IR) imaging or fingerprint reader for biometric authentication. Devices without biometric sensors can use Windows Hello with a PIN or a portable Microsoft compatible security key.
• Xbox application requires an Xbox Live account, which is not available in all regions. For the most up-to-date list of regions, please go to Xbox Live Countries and Regions website.
• Wi-Fi Direct Printing requires a Wi-Fi adapter that supports Wi-Fi Direct and a device that supports Wi-Fi Direct Printing.

The REAL System Requirements for Windows 10

After releasing Windows 10 version 1903, Microsoft has updated the official system requirements for it. Users whose PCs have bare minimal hardware required for installing Windows 10 may have already noticed that the OS is literally unusable because it runs extremely slow. Technically, it will run on minimal requirements but the experience will be bad. Here are the real recommended hardware requirements your device should meet to have an impressive user experience with the latest OS version from Redmond.

Officially, Windows 10 version 1903 will require a PC which fits the following specifications:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
• Hard disk space: 32 GB for both 64-bit and 32-bit OS
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later
• Display resolution: 800 x 600, a minimum diagonal display size for the primary display of 7-inches or larger.

Anyone who tries to use Windows 10 on such hardware can confirm that these system requirements are far optimistic. 2GB of RAM is nothing for the OS, and hard disk kills its performance.

Another official document , first spotted by Vadim Sterkin , sheds some light on what hardware Microsoft themselves consider suitable for their product.

As is evident from the document, you must have 8 GB of RAM, or better 16 GB, and SSD/NVMe plays an important role for the device configuration.

I have a laptop here with an Intel Core i7 Mobile CPU and 16GB Ram with a 20H1 build installed on a classic HDD. It has very poor performance, so the SSD requirement makes sense.

The document mentions these requirements from the point of security. «If you are a decision maker purchasing new devices and you want to enable the best possible security configuration, your device should meet or exceed these standards.», it says.

Other notable hardware requirements include Intel 8th generation processors (Intel i3/i5/i7/i9-7x), Core M3-7xxx , Xeon E3-xxxx, and Xeon E5-xxxx processors, AMD 8th generation processors (A Series Ax-9xxx, E-Series Ex-9xxx, FX-9xxx) or ARM64 processors (Snapdragon SDM850 or later).

So, the optimal hardware configuration for Windows 10 looks at least as follows:

• Processor: Intel 8th generation processors (Intel i3/i5/i7/i9-7x), Core M3-7xxx , Xeon E3-xxxx, and Xeon E5-xxxx processors, AMD 8th generation processors (A Series Ax-9xxx, E-Series Ex-9xxx, FX-9xxx) or ARM64 processors (Snapdragon SDM850 or later)
• RAM: 4 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 16 GB for 64-bit
• SSD/NVMe: at least 128 GB for both 64-bit and 32-bit OS
• Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later
• Display resolution: 800 x 600, a minimum diagonal display size for the primary display of 7-inches or larger.

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About Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer from Russia who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

27 thoughts on “ The REAL System Requirements for Windows 10 ”

really nonsense.
it works on 4 gb of ram and a hdd, intel i6 processor

yep, if you have 10240.

Did you even read the article? “Works” is meaningless at that configuration. Maybe you have been using a super slow computer all your life so you never knew what fast means?

Not sure about 1903 onwards, but I installed LTSC 2019 (1809) on someone’s laptop for them which had 2GB RAM and after about an hour of using to test it, it performed surprisingly well. Perhaps LTSC is the reason, though something in me doubts that.

Todas as versões do windows 10 funcionam no meu computador de boa.

Processador: intel celeron dual core e3200 com base em 64x
Ram: 2gb
Placa de vídeo: Nvidia GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i
Disco Rígido: 297gb // Original: 320gb
DirectX: 11
WDDM: 1.0
Fabricante: Semp Toshiba Informatica LTDA
Bios: Phoenix – AwardBIOS v6.00PG

Hello. please let me know that intel core i3 6th gen processor can run Windows 10 or not.

My aged i5 Socket-1155 machines lost the ability to run recent builds of Windows 10. It just doesn’t work there.
Your hardware is much newer, so it should not have issues with Windows 10.

What new features make new builds so slow? Also, can Author suggest best Windows 10 build for extremely old PC (Maybe second version counting from OEM release of Windows 10?)

The reason that MS makes new OS builds so slow with nosense “features” is that it is a money maker machine for them and the hardware business.

Disable all nonsense “features” and most of the so called Patriot Act “security” features with winaero tools and you will get a fast and usable computer.

not really. I am running version 1903 and it works flawlessly.
If you are writing this article for clickbaits, it’s not a good way to do it.

Well, I didn’t write the article ‘for clickbaits’. It reflects my personal experience and the actual situation. I am happy to know that you are satisfied with 1903/Windows 10/your hardware. I wish I could be too.

Your personal experience is that you need 16gb of RAM, just to run Windows 10 x64?

That’s an interesting take.

i have a really shitty intel i5 processor with 2gb of ram on a hdd 500gb drive and windows 10 has never run fast on it since i had the bloody thing but since upgrading to 1903 its had a new lease of life runs well for what it is now
go and figure that one 😀

yes he is right windows 10 is shit on old hardware and am done with it
now am on windows embedded industry pro that can even run on old Atom CPU Best decision ever!!

2Gb of RAM is fine for 32bit/x86 Windows 10

Open one tab in Chrome and you will throw this PC out of a window. Whats the point if you can’t use it?

Use Firefox, Chrome will just blow up your PC.
I use it on a Pentium Dual T3400 with 2 gigs of DDR2 RAM on a Windows 7 Enterprise x86 laptop which got upgraded from Windows Vista Basic x86 and I’m planning to upgrade it to Windows 10 through a clean install, since I can’t upgrade from Windows 7 Enterprise to Windows 10 without having some volume key or something like that which you can only get on a business or that’s what I understood.

This isn’t really a good representation of the specs that would run Windows smoothly performance-wise. The specs listed are purely from a security standpoint because of Meltdown/Spectre. From this standpoint, a AMD A4-9120C is the minimum-spec x64 processor that would still run Windows 10 securely. AMD A4-9120 probably provides a smoother experience though. A Core 2 Quad Q6600 would still run Windows fine, it would just be less secure.

Caveat – Windows 10 runs significantly better on a SSD because of SuperFetch and other specific design considerations that benefits a SSD. Also 4GB of RAM runs fine on x64 (web browsing, Spotify or YouTube, Word and Excel, all at the same time) in my experience, although I don’t know if Windows 10 is optimized in a way such that it runs additional security programs if more RAM is available.

My PC has an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, 8GB DDR2, a Radeon HD 5700, a 240GB SSD and I don’t have any performance issues. It will not be a PC Gamer but for emulation and Internet browsing it is more than enough.
Windows 10 x64 works very well. I can not complain.

I just updated to latest Windows 2004 from 1909 64 bit, Its same good performance with dual core 2.6Ghz processor with 8GB ddr2 ram and old 250GB HDD. I always open many almost 8 tabs on 2 browser and still performed satisfied. I had also more than 10 external extensions on any browsers.
Last year, I had tested clean installed 1903 32 bit on my netbook with dual core 1Ghz, 2GB ram and another 240GB HDD, the speed is also acceptable when I use to open 1 browser with a few tabs only. I had installed some minor software which will run on the background. However, I found the Windows 10 was still a little slower than my original bloated Windows 7 on this same netbook. So i reverted back to Windows 7 HDD because I need some of the old external hardware drivers that Windows 10 did not support anymore.
I have many old laptops and old desktops from 15 years ago that tested with Windows 10 are all still good performing. How fast do you want? Lighting speed? I also just bought a new laptop with i5-10210, nvme ssd 4GB ddr4 ram and it start up in 11 seconds on Windows 1909 64 bit with all updated and also less than 10 external software!
SO I DO NOT BELIEVE YOU! I HAD PROVEN MYSELF THAT YOU DO NOT NEED SO MUCH RAMS, EXPENSIVE PROCESSOR, NOR SDD NOR EVEN EXPENSIVE GPU! You only need these when you play hardcore games!

Nice guide, but I don’t think the CPU or RAM requirements are very accurate. I’m running Windows 10 x64 2004 on a first-gen Core i5 and 4GB of RAM, and it runs very well. Even if I have many tabs open on Firefox, it’s really smooth. Then again, I use about 40%-60% memory while idle, so 8GB is probably better for x64.

It’s not really Windows that has become slow on these low RAM PCs. It’s the applications that you run on them. I have a PC with 4GB ram that originally came Windows 10 and it’s still as fast as 10240. However after opening apps like Edge and Chrome it really gets sluggish since browsers these days use a lot of RAM. But other than that I never really saw a perfomance drop after updating to new version of Windows 10. Infact 2004 is much faster than 10240 in some cases because of the optimizations that they have done.

i am running windows 10 home n on a 1.8 Ghz CPU (intel core 2 duo) with 2G RAM and 80G HDD, but this old laptop is only for testing a few stuff. windows is working fine atm

You have to take the massive performance slowdowns into account too due to Spectre and Meltdown and other CPU vulnerability fixes which on older generation CPUs are in double digits. Considering them, this article is spot on. Unless you have a fairly recent CPU, Windows 10 won’t fly on it, it will run but there will be a slowdown. If you run a modern browser with dozens of tabs open and multiple processes, you need at least 16 GB RAM (all the notebooks today also come with 16 GB RAM precisely for that – the web browser has started taking up huge amounts of memory).

Actually, the official Microsoft Windows 10 system requirements are supposed to be the minimum specs needed to run Windows 10 and only Windows 10. If you install any third party apps and games that have higher requirements than the OS, then that becomes the actual system requirements for your device.

Personally, I think Microsoft did a terrible disservice to its customers by allowing notebooks with minimal spec’s to even be manufactured. They went as far as offering PC makers a inexpensive Windows 10 S mode to enhanced this low end market of cheap notebooks or as some say were Chromebook killers. But Chrome OS is a much lighter OS even compared to Win 10 S mode and can run on minimal specs like a Celeron CPU. Windows 10 not only requires a faster CPU and graphics, but bigger storage and more RAM. Even for the basic tasks like web browsing and office productions your probably going to want a Core i3 and 8Gb RAM and at least 256Gb storage just as reasonable minimums.