Visio FAQ

For information on how to license Visio, please visit our licensing page.

Component	Minimum Requirement
Processor	1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor with SSE2 (Streaming SIMD Extensions 2) instruction set
Memory	1 gigabyte (GB) of RAM for 32-bit (x86) processors or 2 GB of RAM for 64-bit (x64) processors
Hard disk	2.0 GB available
Operating system	Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows Server 2012 with Microsoft .NET 3.5 or later.
Graphics	Graphics hardware acceleration requires a DirectX 10 graphics card with 1024×576 minimum resolution.
Other	Microsoft Visio Pro for Office 365 requires a Microsoft Office 365 account and tenant. Touch features require a touch-enabled PC running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Certain functionality requires internet connectivity.

• Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2013, Microsoft SharePoint Online, or Microsoft SkyDrive is required for coauthoring.
• SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Server 2013, or SharePoint Online are required for viewing Visio Services diagrams through a web browser. Compatible browsers include Internet Explorer 10, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 10.x or later, Safari 5 (Mac) or later, and Chrome 17.x or later.
• Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2013 will help improve workflow creation and publishing if installed on the same computer as Visio 2013 Professional.
• SharePoint Server 2013 or SharePoint Online is required to view new file format diagrams through a web browser.
• Lync is required for presence notification.

Visio Professional 2013, Visio Standard 2013 and Visio Pro for Office 365 introduce a new XML-based file format that earlier versions of Visio may be unable to open. You can save files that were created in the new Visio in the Visio 2003-2010 Drawing (VSD) format, which earlier versions of Visio can open. To do this, on the File menu, choose Save As. Once a location has been selected, change the Save as type to Visio 2003 – 2010 drawing.

When you open a file created with an earlier version of Visio in the new Visio, some features will be disabled for compatibility. Converting the file to the new Visio file format will enable all features. To convert a Visio 2003-2010 drawing to the new file format, on the File menu, click Info, and then click Convert.

The core features of the two products are identical. Visio Professional has a perpetual license—once activated, the software will not expire. Visio Pro for Office 365 requires an active Office 365 subscription for editing capabilities.

Visio Pro for Office 365 requires an Office 365 account and tenant. You can sign up for Office 365 here and then add Visio Pro for Office 365 licenses to your account.

To ask questions or provide feedback, please connect with us on the Visio forums, including the Visio Answers forum or the Visio MSDN forum.