I keep wondering, since the first rumors began to circulate, what the requirements of Windows 12, Microsoft’s next operating system, will be. Some information suggested that, in essence, its requirements were going to be practically identical to those of Windows 11, but more recent sources indicate that its requirements they will be much higher.
These types of contradictions are totally normal, but I think that in this case may be the result of a wrong approach, and it is that we may meet two different levels of Windows 12 requirements that in the end they would be different faces within the same coin.
Thus, on the one hand we would have more affordable requirements to use it at a more basic levelprobably without advanced AI features or with this very limited and software-based feature, and other more advanced requirements that would allow us to use those advanced AI features and hardware acceleration.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but what I just told you makes a lot of sense. Remember that Microsoft itself has hinted on more than one occasion that Windows 12 will be a smart operating systemand that artificial intelligence could help it offer substantial improvements that will affect both the user experience and security and stability.
What could be the requirements of Windows 12
This possible division into two levels, one basic and one advanced, has not yet been confirmed, but if this were confirmed it is clear that we would have two very different sets of requirements. The basic level of Windows 12 requirements should be roughly similar to the Windows 11 requirements, while the advanced level would mean more RAM, and probably a newer and more powerful CPU, or even with specific hardware to accelerate those artificial intelligence functions.
On the other hand, according to the information that we have been able to see through certain leaks from dev channels, It seems that the requirements of Windows 12 will be a little higher than those of Windows 11. For now, and based on this first information (which does not have to be definitive) we would have a configuration of minimum requirements that would look like this:
- Dual-core CPU based on Zen+ (Ryzen 2000), Coffee Lake (Core Gen8) or higher.
- 8 GB of RAM.
- Graphics card compatible with DirectX 12.
- 64 GB of storage capacity.
- TPM 2.0 chip.
The most important difference compared to Windows 12 would be in the increase in the RAM memory requirement, which it would go from 4 GB to 8 GB. It is important to note that as this is a modular operating system, the storage capacity requirement should be flexible and easy to adapt.
The launch of Windows 12 is expected to happen sometime in 2024, and it will coexist with Windows 11 for a few years. We don’t know if Microsoft will offer free upgrades from Windows 11 to Windows 12, or if it will allow it to be installed on computers that don’t meet the minimum requirements.
