Requirements
The GIMP should run on Windows 98/ME/NT4/2000/XP. It is recommended to use an NT-based version of Windows (NT4, 2000 or XP). Starting with GIMP 2.2 and GTK+ 2.4, older versions such as Windows 95 are not supported anymore. The amount of memory can be an important factor, especially if you intend to work on large images. A minimum of 128 MB of RAM is recommended, but the more RAM the better.

Configuration
• The first time you run the GIMP.
When you run the GIMP for the first time, it will install some files in your home directory and it will show you some dialogs that give you the opportunity to adapt it to your environment.
• How to set the tile cache.
The tile cache tells the GIMP how much memory it can use before swapping some image data to disk. Setting the size of the tile cache can be critical for the performance of your system.