Q. I need to buy a computer. I will upgrade to Windows 7 when it's released. Can you tell me what I need? I was looking at a Dell Inspiron 546. It is either dual- or quad-core with a 64-bit processor. Will this do, or do I need something more powerful?
—Ken in Myrtle Beach, SC, listening on WRNN 99.5

A. The system requirements for Windows 7 differ only slightly from Vista's. So, you shouldn't have trouble upgrading.

XP machines are a different story. XP was released eight years ago. That is approximately two eons in computing. So, XP machines may need new hardware. However, if the machine was made in the past couple of years, it may be OK.

Now, let's talk about the basic requirements for Windows 7.

First, you'll need 16 gigabytes of free hard drive space. If you're running a 64-bit version, you'll need 20 gigabytes.

Microsoft recommends 1 gigabyte of RAM for 32-bit versions; 2GB for 64-bit. Microsoft's recommendations for RAM are usually low. I'd double these.

You'll need a 1 GHz processor or faster. That's for both 32- and 64-bit versions. This won't be a problem. Additionally, you'll need DirectX 9 graphics with a WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.