MS Money Plus (2008) System Requirements

A while back, I posted an article about issues that I was having with Microsoft Money 2004. I have the 2007 version of MS Money, and found it to be generally good, but there are a few features that are missing. For example, you can more easily switch between investments in the 2004 version. There is a drop-down box that allows you to quickly view any securities that you've entered into MS Money, but this feature doesn’t exist in the 2007 version. Also, the 2007 version of Money only runs under Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows Vista.

For 2008, Microsoft has renamed their financial software as "Microsoft Money Plus". Have you seen the system requirements? Again, you need to be running either Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows Vista.

Looking at the box for MS Money Plus (Deluxe version), I was actually shocked by the system requirement to run the software under Windows Vista. For PCs running Windows XP, the minimum requirements are quite reasonable: a Pentium II 300-MHz or faster processor (or compatible), and 128 MB of RAM.

However, for those with PCs running Windows Vista, the requirements are much more demanding: a Pentium (or compatible) 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, and a whopping 1 GB of RAM.

I’m starting to question why the requirements are so drastically different for Windows Vista versus the same software running under Windows XP. Is Vista version of MS Money Plus so phenomenally superior to Windows XP? Is there anybody who has the software that can give some insight as to what the main differences are between the two software versions?

DC