Assessing System Requirements

Article
03/04/2010

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The project teams should study the technical documentation for Internet Explorer and identify the system requirements for deployment. Sources of technical information include:

This Resource Kit
The Microsoft Windows Technologies Internet Explorer Web site
Internet Explorer Help that is included with the product
The Internet Explorer Customization wizard Help, which is included with the Microsoft Internet Explorer Administration Kit (IEAK)

The following sections describe the system requirements for installing and running Internet Explorer 5 and the Internet Explorer Customization wizard.

Requirements for Internet Explorer 5

Windows Update Setup for Internet Explorer 5 and Internet Tools offers four installation options: minimal, typical, full, and custom. The following table provides a list of components that are included with each of these options. If you select a custom installation, you can install only the Web browser - the minimal custom installation - or you can install the Web browser with as many other components as you like. In addition, you can use the Internet Explorer Customization wizard to build custom packages of Internet Explorer that include up to 10 additional custom components.

Internet Explorer 5 Components

This option	Includes these components
Minimal installation	Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Web browser (all other components can be installed using the Automatic Install feature)
Typical installation	Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Web browser, Microsoft Outlook Express 5, Microsoft Windows Media Player, and other multimedia enhancements
Full installation	Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Web browser, Microsoft Outlook Express 5, Microsoft Windows Media Player, and other enhancements
Custom installation	Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Web browser and any of the following components: Microsoft Internet Explorer 5: Offline Browsing Pack, Microsoft Internet Explorer Help, Microsoft Virtual Machine, Microsoft Internet Connection wizard, Microsoft Internet Explorer core fonts, Dynamic HTML data binding, Microsoft Internet Explorer browsing enhancements Communication components: Microsoft NetMeeting 2.11, Microsoft Outlook Express 5 Multimedia components: Microsoft Windows Media Player, Microsoft Windows Media Player codecs, Microsoft DirectAnimation, Vector Graphics Rendering, AOL Art Image Format support, Macromedia Shockwave Director, Macromedia Flash Web authoring components: Microsoft FrontPage Express, Microsoft Web Publishing wizard, Web folders, Visual Basic scripting support, additional Web fonts Multi-language support: Language auto-selection, Japanese text display support, Japanese text input support, Korean text display support, Korean text input support, Pan-European text display support, Chinese (traditional) text display support, Chinese (traditional) text input support, Chinese (simplified) text display support, Chinese (simplified) text input support, Vietnamese text display support, Hebrew text display support, Arabic text display support, Thai text display support

Disk space requirements depend on the components that you install. The following table lists the minimum hardware and software system requirements to deploy Internet Explorer 5 on Windows 32-bit versions. For information about requirements for other systems, including Windows 16-bit versions, UNIX, or Macintosh, see the Microsoft Windows Technologies Internet Explorer Web site.

Requirements for Windows 32-Bit Operating Systems

Item	Windows 95/Windows 98	Windows NT 4.0
Service pack	All	Service Pack 3 or later is required
Processor	486/66	486/66
Memory	16 MB	32 MB
Maximum disk space needed to accomplish installation	92 MB typical Web install 71 MB typical CD-ROM install 145 MB full Web install 112 MB full CD-ROM install	88 MB typical Web install 67 MB typical CD-ROM install 141 MB full Web install 109 MB full CD-ROM install

Requirements for the Internet Explorer Customization Wizard

The following table lists the system requirements that must be met to install and run the Internet Explorer Customization wizard. The Customization wizard is used to build custom packages of Internet Explorer.

Requirements for the Customization Wizard

Item	Requirements
Processor	486/66
Operating system	Windows 32-bit versions
Memory	16 MB for Windows 95 and Windows 98 16 MB for Windows NT 4.0
Disk space	8 MB to 70 MB to install 16 MB to 100 MB for each media type
Connection	A modem and Internet connection are needed to run the wizard the first time, if Internet Explorer is installed from a Web download site (not from CD-ROM)

Note Windows Desktop Update is included with Internet Explorer 4.0, but not with Internet Explorer 5. To install Windows Desktop Update with Internet Explorer 5, you must select this feature when you build your custom packages using the Internet Explorer Customization wizard.

You must install Internet Explorer 5 before running the Internet Explorer Customization wizard. If Internet Explorer 5 is not installed and you attempt to run the wizard, you will receive a message requesting that you install the browser first.

The disk space required to build custom browser packages varies considerably, depending on the number of components you plan to include. For example, a minimal installation, which includes only the Web browser, requires 16 MB of free disk space. A standard installation, which includes the Web browser, Outlook Express, Media Player, and other multimedia enhancements, requires 36 MB of free disk space. Also, you will need additional disk space for any custom components that you include with your browser installation.

The disk space required to install custom browser packages varies depending on the distribution method you use. If you plan to distribute Internet Explorer on CD-ROMs or floppy disks, the custom packages include the distribution files for the CD-ROMs or floppy disks. Therefore, CD-ROMs require about twice as much disk space, and floppy-disk packages require about three times as much disk space as packages that do not use these media.