Windows XP users face expensive upgrade

Users looking to migrate from Windows 95 to the forthcoming Windows XP face an expensive upgrade path, confirms Microsoft.

The company finally approved the minimum and recommended hardware specifications for the new operating system at its reviewers' conference in New York last week.

The minimum hardware requirements are a 233Mhz Pentium II-class processor with 64Mb of Ram, while the recommended spec is a 300Mhz Pentium II with 128Mb of Ram.

Both are far in excess of most off-the-shelf PC systems designed for Windows 95.

"More people got Windows 95 by buying a new PC than by buying the software through retail," said John Gray, group program manager for Windows XP at Microsoft.

"They did this because they saw the move to Windows 95 as an opportunity to improve their graphics, Ram and hard disk by getting an all-new system with the operating system pre-installed - and they're still using these."

"We're expecting to see a similar situation again and we recommend this as the best way to get to Windows XP. The point is that there are a lot more older systems out there than there are modern 800Mhz systems, which are good candidates for upgrade."

Meanwhile, Microsoft is overhauling its desktop collaborative working and conferencing offering with a revamped version of its instant messaging client, which will now take in elements of the NetMeeting application.

The new client, called Windows Messenger, incorporates desktop videoconferencing and point-to-point voice communications, as well as collaborative working and instant messaging.

Windows Messenger will be embedded directly into the OS, bringing Microsoft into fresh conflict with AOL.