ClinicOffice v4 runs on Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 (also Windows Server 2000, 2003 and 2008). It also has full support for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

If you're thinking of purchasing a new computer, then we thoroughly recommend the excellent Windows 7. Our second choice would actually be Windows XP as from experience we tend to recommend avoiding the much maligned Vista if at all possible.

This table shows both the recommended and minimum hardware specifications for COv4 :-

	As a general rule of thumb, any new Intel Core2Duo computer will be fine, as will most decent computers purchased within in the last couple of years.
	Budget Intel Atom Netbooks (or 'Net-top' computers) are not adequate for running a database application like ClinicOffice v4. (For more information, see this comparison of Intel Atom vs Core2Duo)
	IMPORTANT! There are known issues with Avast! Antivirus interfering with database applications running on networks with Windows File Sharing. We strongly advise against the use of Avast!. AVG or Avira are excellent free alternatives.

Whenever possible, we recommend a wired Gigabit (1000mbit) network for running COv4 over your local area network (LAN). The second best solution is a wired 100mbit network which will also perform well.

Although ClinicOffice v4 will work over a wireless network, we advise against it. Database applications (like ClinicOffice) require constant network availability and a flakey wireless connection can introduce stability issues. Furthermore, even the fastest wireless network hardware will still perform much slower than a standard wired connection.

If you are going to have more than 5 computers simultaneously accessing the same database, we recommend that you consider having a dedicated server computer and using the ClinicOffice v4 Server Edition.

Here are the recommended and minimum specifications for a dedicated server machine :-

ClinicOffice 2005 (and previous versions) were written using Borland's excellent Delphi programming language (http://www.codegear.com/products/delphiforwin32) with DBISAM  (www.elevatesoft.com) serving as the database engine.

With the recent advent of newer hardware technologies (particularly 64-bit processors and operating systems) it seemed like a good time to move away from the older Windows 32 bit development and move ClinicOffice over to Microsoft's .NET Framework (pronounced "dot-net framework").

Hence, ClinicOffice v4 was rewritten from the ground up in a different language called C#. Customers also have the choice of the ElevatedDB (www.elevatesoft.com) database engine which is ideal for smaller installations, and the PostgreSQL Client/Server database engine (www.postgresql.org) for larger installations.