Determining system requirements.:.

[Psi Babe]

I am amateur programmer and want to list the system requirements in the readme file that goes with it, but I actually have no idea how to determine what the requirements are.

 

I can look in the task manager while my program is running to see how much memory it is using and

highlight all the files to see how much HDD space they take,

but is there any good way to figure out how fast a processor one needs or

which versions of Windows it will run on?

 

I only have 1 desktop and 1 laptop so I don't have PCs with all the different versions installed to test it out on.

 

FYI it's a small program that replaces the disabled windows start up sound option by picking a sound file from a list of user-selected files, plays the sound then shuts itself down, so it's not a huge program by any means. But I would like a way to say with some degree of certainty that it should run on most, if not all, modern versions of Windows, instead of just assuming so without testing first.

 

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

Psi

 

[Eigenvektor]

Hardware requirements are pretty much irrelevant for a small program like this, I wouldn't worry about it. If you want to make sure it's compatible with multiple Windows versions, you could try it out in a virtual machine. Or go the easy route and say "Tested on Windows 10, should be compatible with …, but hasn't been tested". You probably want a disclaimer like the "provided as-is" that the MIT license has at its bottom in any case: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

 

Hardware requirements are mostly important for stuff that runs in the foreground (like a game) that consumes a considerable amount of resources. In that case you could test it on multiple hardware configurations to guess/estimate what hardware is needed to e.g. run at 60 fps with minimum details ("minimum") and what is needed to run at 60 fps with high details ("recommended"). In many cases these requirements are not something that's been rigorously tested, but rather something that's extrapolated based on performance of hardware that's on hand.

[Psi Babe]

@Eigenvektor Thank you so much. I'll add the disclaimer.

 

Task manager says it only takes up 30 Mb memory when playing a sound so it is a really small program.

 

Now all I need is to find someone old enough to remember when Windows played a startup sound and nostalgic enough to want a program to bring it back.

[Franck]

Your requirement should be at least matching your framework requirements. Then you need to alter this upward to match your app if you need more. Usually the hard disk space is the first you need to change.

[mariushm]

Your system requirements are "any computer that is capable of running Windows, and has a working sound card" 

 

Unless you compiled your executable with specific CPU instructions (AVX, SSE4 etc) that would rule out some processors, it should work fine on any cpu. 

 

The usefulness of your application is debatable .. after all, why wouldn't someone just go in control panel, sounds, and set up whatever sound they want ... and your application wouldn't have to play the sound when Windows itself could play it..

[Guest]

If you want to calculate it, you'd have to add up all the variables, and how much all the commands take up. 

 

Then for the speed, you'd have to determine how slow it can run whilst still performing as expected. 

 

The easiest ways to do this are:

1. Look at the task manager. 

2. Pick the slowest cpu you can test on. 

 

That's tested minimum.