Requirements

The Requirements page allows you to specify the minimum system requirements for your product. These requirements are checked at the beginning of the installation process; if they are not met, the installer will display a message to inform the customer and refuse to install.

The system requirements checks are built into the installer and all requirements are checked before a message is issued (if any). You can control the text of the messages that are issued in case of failure by editing the corresponding localizable strings on the Messages page.

Tip: To deal with product requirements that can be resolved by pre-installing additional system components (for example, the .Net runtime support), use the Prerequisites project page.

Warning System requirements options changed in InstallMate 9.5. Specifically, support for Windows versions prior to Windows XP/2003 was removed. Documentation for the InstallMate 9.0-9.4 system requirements options is available separately.

Attributes and options

The following attributes and options are available on the Requirements page.

Attribute Description
Windows XP
Windows Server 2003
Windows Vista
Windows Server 2008
Windows 7
Windows Server 2008 R2
Windows 8
Windows Server 2012
Windows 8.1
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 10/11
Windows Server 2016-2022

Check these boxes to allow installation on the corresponding Windows version, or clear them to prevent installation. If a version box is checked, you can also specify a minimum Service Pack level from the drop-down list on the right.

Depending on the Windows version, you can specify acceptance and service pack levels separately for 32-bit (x86-based), x64, and IA64 variants of the operating system. Note that this refers to the operating system version, not the processor per se: if you run a 32-bit Windows version on an x64 processor, it will be treated as a 32-bit system.

Internet Explorer Select the minimum required Internet Explorer version from the drop-down list, or select Don't check if Internet Explorer is not required.
.Net runtime

Choose the minimum version of the .Net runtime that must be present on the target system prior to installation, or select Don't check if .Net support is not required.

If you are using a prerequisite handler to install the desired .Net runtime support, then select Don't check for the .Net runtime check, or the installer will never get a chance to install the missing prerequisite.

MSI runtime Choose the minimum version of the MSI (Windows Installer) runtime that must be present on the target system prior to installation, or select Don't check if MSI support is not required. (You do not need MSI for the Tarma installer; the MSI option is meant only for third-party installers that your main installer might use, or for your own product.)
Display size

Select the minimum required display size from the drop-down list, or select Any resolution if the display size does not have to be checked.

Note: On systems with multiple monitors, only the display size of the primary monitor is checked.

Color depth

Select the minimum required color depth from the drop-down list, or select Any color mode if the color depth does not have to be checked. The various color depths correspond to bits-per-pixel as shown in the following table.

Colors Bits per pixel Notes
Any color mode Not checked  
256 colors or more 8 bits/pixel Uses palettes to render bitmap images.
32K colors or more 15 bits/pixel  
64K colors or more 16 bits/pixel  
16M colors or more 24 bits/pixel  
True Color (32 bits) 32 bits/pixel Essentially 24 color bits for 16M colors plus an 8-bits alpha channel.

Note: On systems with multiple monitors, only the color depth of the primary monitor is checked.

Memory size

Enter the minimum required physical memory (RAM) size, expressed as megabytes (MB; 1 MB = 1024 x 1024 bytes), or 0 if no memory size check is required.

Note: Windows typically underreports the amount of memory slightly. For example, a system with 512 MB of RAM installed may be reported as having 511 MB. Please bear this in mind if you specify a minimum Memory size value; it's safest to specify 1 MB less: 127 instead of 128 MB, 255 instead of 256, etc.

Reset all Click this button to reset all system requirements to their defaults, which generally means that any and all Windows versions and hardware specifications are accepted.

Related topics

Working with project pages