Windows Vista Starter Edition Supports More Than 1GB Memory (Tested on 2 GB System)

Windows Vista Starter edition is the most basic and cheapest edition of Windows Vista available, which aims to address digital divide in the world by helping people in developing technology markets in owning and learning to use computer. As such, Windows Vista Starter is not available in developed technology markets such as the United States, the European Union, Australia, or Japan, and various restrictions have been in place in system requirements, such as type of processors and maximum physical RAM memory supported to ensure that only low cost and entry level PCs are using it.

For users who want to save money, and prefer to use no-frill version of Windows Vista, will probably turn off by this memory limitation, which is important to make system running faster. Microsoft lists the memory requirements for Windows Vista Starter edition as a minimum of 384 MB and a maximum of 1 GB of RAM (512 MB recommended). With cheap RAM modules, some users may forgo upgrading, or are forced to buy higher edition of Windows Vista if the total physical memory is more than 1024 MB.

However, in actual, Windows Vista Starter edition can be successfully install and run on system with more than 1 GB memory. A few users have tested Windows Vista Starter edition on system with 2 GB memory, and proven that the system is running fine and properly.

So, if you live in 139 countries not one of the developed countries listed above, and decide to save money on Windows OS but want to have more than 1 GB RAM on older machine, it’s possible to buy the Starter edition license and product key. But note that only OEM version is available for Windows Vista Starter edition.