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Windows 10 Anniversary Update will require more RAM

If you're running Windows 10 on a budget PC, or a system that's a few years old, then the upcoming Windows Anniversary Update might require a hardware upgrade.
Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Contributing Writer

One gigabyte of RAM might have been enough for Windows 10 - and Windows 7 and Windows 8 - but the upcoming Windows Anniversary Update is set to change that.

According to Microsoft documentation, the 32-bit Windows Anniversary Update will bump the minimum RAM requirement from the current 1GB to 2GB of RAM.

The RAM requirement for 64-bit systems remains the same, at 2GB.

All other minimum system requirements remain unchanged:

  • 1GHz processor
  • 16GB of free storage for the 32-bit version and 20GB free storage for the 64-bit version
  • DirectX 9 support

Is this RAM bump going to be a problem? Well, If you bought a new PC in the past couple of years or so, probably not, but for older systems that have been upgraded to Windows 10 (especially those of a Windows 7 vintage), then the Windows Anniversary Update will be the end of the line for those who skimped on RAM.

Fortunately, upgrading the RAM in most systems is cheap, quick, and simple (unless we're talking about tablets, in which case, it is the end of the road), and will significantly improve system performance.

The Windows Anniversary Update is expected to land July 29, and will feature an improved Cortana, the Hello login feature, and a tweaked Start menu.

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