If the CPU will support Windows 10 my observation has been that the less powerful a computer is, the better of a performance gain you will see on that computer by upgrading to Windows 10. My lowest spec computer is an Acer Aspire One with an Atom processor and 2gb of memory. Windows 10 was an improvement over Windows 7 on it.
Since the OP hasn't replied back at all we still don't know if he is asking if 10 would be good to simply look over or for an "Every Day OS" on the old P4 system he has there and if that is even his own main machine, spare, or simply asking for someone else! And VMs are not that hard to set up when already having the "Windows.iso" downloaded by way of either the Media Creation tool or from the Tech Bench site downloaded and saved to a folder on one of the drives.
You simply point the VM program to the iso an watch the installation go on when going to start the VM rather then tampering with the OS already on and working. System image backups should be made periodically anyways especially when planning to any newer version or other OS out for the right time.
The point however in regards to the original question was practically compared to hardware limitations which have to be taken into account when the question of "Is 10 worth it?" was asked. There wasn't a lot of tech babble but being sure the OP understood the potential drawbacks he would likely run smack into if planning to replace 7 with 10 to be the Every Day OS and not just a "well I have this spare pc laying around doing nothing at the moment....." Simply getting 10 to go on and comparing that to an OS you can count on everyday are two different things entirely.
A program like the latest VM Workstation 12 Player(with option to buy Player Pro license) that replaces the former VM Player(100% non commercial) you later would switch to VM Player Pro for full support runs just about any OS with relative ease and can allow an examination of an OS without making any system change. You simply see the VM stored as a file on the drive over replacing the existing OS if only wanting a quick look at something.
So far Lx07 has made a few of the best observations so far in regards to the possible issues regarding the PAE and NX with the P4 cpu itself.
Unfortunately you are still trying to compare Apples to Oranges there. The Atom is a mobile cpu with a newer design compared to the outdated Pentium seires to start with. Plus 10 is a dual platform desktop/laptop vs Tablet/netbook/chromebook type OS geared in both directions making it flexible for a portable which generally runs with a limited OS to start with when embedded.
The P4 on the other hand is the old Intel design going back now over 12yrs. in total still running an OS 5yrs. new with 7 which obviously wouldn't run the same on a netbook being that it was designed strictly for the desktop platform while people still it going on netbooks mostly due to the introduction of the just then seen MinWin kernel that replaced the growth Vista had seen. MS trimmed the fat out of the OS with 7 while 10 was the 3rd version to see the combination of desktop/mobile with further enhancement on the MinWin kernel as part of the continuing development.
The mininum system specs for both the two versions are 1gb for the 32bit and 2gb highly advised for the 64bit in contrast to how MS had originally understated what would make Vista run better over 512mb set too low there. Even XP saw a noticable improvement when running with 2gb installed!
With 6gb on the OP's machine there was never going to be any doubt there wasn't going to be enough memory while the Coreinfo already seeing a long time rep should indicate things as well as trying to start the upgrade and watch the compatible or not compatible message come up. We still don't know the other system specs which could also play a role in ending up the the incompatible message. And without knowing that how can anyone simply say "oh don't worry about a thing! we can guaranty...." BUZZER SOUNDS OFF!
You can't guaranty anything at this point! At least not for expecting a 10 to turn out with the desired results since there is the reality check of hardware incompatibility to deal with not only just the cpu alone. On the other thread with the laptop there that already saw Vista/7 support being new when Vista was first out and 7 was just coming back then where it only saw a lack of drivers at the manufacturer's own support site but could still be found.
The OP faces similar driver issues as well only with apparently even older gear. oops! no one thought about that one either! This is why even if 10 is able to go on and run with the cpu there's still not guaranty it can be run as the typical everyday OS. Tweaking the OS and forcing mickey mouse driver installs only allows for jerry rigging to simply say 10 is on a machine but not the OS you want to count on if too many sacrifices have to be made.
So is 10 worth it? That's a question all by itself in more then aspect. On the 5yr. old build here both play well and I haven't seen much of a performance difference between the two while the desktop takes a little longer to appear but things are still loading longer on 7 after the desktop comes up quicker then 10. You still end up waiting the same amount of time for things to finish loading up with the almost exact same programs in use on both versions except for the need of either updated versions of same or more 3rd party media players on 10!
[QUOTE=The cpu series is simply too old and you would only run the 32bit on a P4 since it lacks the architecture for Virtualization support and other thing the newer iCore 3, 5 cpus are designed to support. [/QUOTE]
At first Thanks to everyone : I think, I just need some more clarification about my PC. I'm using Windows-7 64bit and it is 3rd generation. I've NVIDIA GeForce GT 610 Graphics Card, Actually I've no idea about Hyper-V. [hope it'll help you a lot to identify, Exactly] I just need your conclusion.
Thanks in advance...
You need to check if your processor is compatible. Please follow steps 1 to 4 as described here How To Check If Your Processor (CPU) Supports Windows 8
Your coreinfo.exe output should look like this.
The 3 requirements for either 32 or 64 bit Windows 10 (NX, PAE and SSE2) are highlighted in red.
The 3 additional requirements for 64 bit (CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF) are highlighted in green.Code:Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586] (c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\WINDOWS\system32>c:\users\hali\desktop\coreinfo.exe Coreinfo v3.31 - Dump information on system CPU and memory topology Copyright (C) 2008-2014 Mark Russinovich Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M CPU @ 2.50GHz Intel64 Family 6 Model 58 Stepping 9, GenuineIntel Microcode signature: 0000001B HTT * Hyperthreading enabled HYPERVISOR * Hypervisor is present VMX - Supports Intel hardware-assisted virtualization SVM - Supports AMD hardware-assisted virtualization X64 * Supports 64-bit mode SMX - Supports Intel trusted execution SKINIT - Supports AMD SKINIT NX * Supports no-execute page protection SMEP * Supports Supervisor Mode Execution Prevention SMAP - Supports Supervisor Mode Access Prevention PAGE1GB - Supports 1 GB large pages PAE * Supports > 32-bit physical addresses PAT * Supports Page Attribute Table PSE * Supports 4 MB pages PSE36 * Supports > 32-bit address 4 MB pages PGE * Supports global bit in page tables SS * Supports bus snooping for cache operations VME * Supports Virtual-8086 mode RDWRFSGSBASE * Supports direct GS/FS base access FPU * Implements i387 floating point instructions MMX * Supports MMX instruction set MMXEXT - Implements AMD MMX extensions 3DNOW - Supports 3DNow! instructions 3DNOWEXT - Supports 3DNow! extension instructions SSE * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions SSE2 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 SSE3 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 3 SSSE3 * Supports Supplemental SIMD Extensions 3 SSE4a - Supports Streaming SIMDR Extensions 4a SSE4.1 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.1 SSE4.2 * Supports Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 AES * Supports AES extensions AVX * Supports AVX intruction extensions FMA - Supports FMA extensions using YMM state MSR * Implements RDMSR/WRMSR instructions MTRR * Supports Memory Type Range Registers XSAVE * Supports XSAVE/XRSTOR instructions OSXSAVE * Supports XSETBV/XGETBV instructions RDRAND * Supports RDRAND instruction RDSEED - Supports RDSEED instruction CMOV * Supports CMOVcc instruction CLFSH * Supports CLFLUSH instruction CX8 * Supports compare and exchange 8-byte instructions CX16 * Supports CMPXCHG16B instruction BMI1 - Supports bit manipulation extensions 1 BMI2 - Supports bit manipulation extensions 2 ADX - Supports ADCX/ADOX instructions DCA - Supports prefetch from memory-mapped device F16C * Supports half-precision instruction FXSR * Supports FXSAVE/FXSTOR instructions FFXSR - Supports optimized FXSAVE/FSRSTOR instruction MONITOR - Supports MONITOR and MWAIT instructions MOVBE - Supports MOVBE instruction ERMSB * Supports Enhanced REP MOVSB/STOSB PCLMULDQ * Supports PCLMULDQ instruction POPCNT * Supports POPCNT instruction LZCNT - Supports LZCNT instruction SEP * Supports fast system call instructions LAHF-SAHF * Supports LAHF/SAHF instructions in 64-bit mode HLE - Supports Hardware Lock Elision instructions RTM - Supports Restricted Transactional Memory instructions DE * Supports I/O breakpoints including CR4.DE DTES64 - Can write history of 64-bit branch addresses DS - Implements memory-resident debug buffer DS-CPL - Supports Debug Store feature with CPL PCID - Supports PCIDs and settable CR4.PCIDE INVPCID - Supports INVPCID instruction PDCM - Supports Performance Capabilities MSR RDTSCP * Supports RDTSCP instruction TSC * Supports RDTSC instruction TSC-DEADLINE - Local APIC supports one-shot deadline timer TSC-INVARIANT * TSC runs at constant rate xTPR * Supports disabling task priority messages EIST * Supports Enhanced Intel Speedstep ACPI * Implements MSR for power management TM * Implements thermal monitor circuitry TM2 * Implements Thermal Monitor 2 control APIC * Implements software-accessible local APIC x2APIC - Supports x2APIC CNXT-ID - L1 data cache mode adaptive or BIOS MCE * Supports Machine Check, INT18 and CR4.MCE MCA * Implements Machine Check Architecture PBE * Supports use of FERR#/PBE# pin PSN - Implements 96-bit processor serial number PREFETCHW * Supports PREFETCHW instruction Maximum implemented CPUID leaves: 0000000D (Basic), 80000008 (Extended). Logical to Physical Processor Map: **-- Physical Processor 0 (Hyperthreaded) --** Physical Processor 1 (Hyperthreaded) Logical Processor to Socket Map: **** Socket 0 Logical Processor to NUMA Node Map: **** NUMA Node 0 No NUMA nodes. Logical Processor to Cache Map: **-- Data Cache 0, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 **-- Instruction Cache 0, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 **-- Unified Cache 0, Level 2, 256 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 **** Unified Cache 1, Level 3, 3 MB, Assoc 12, LineSize 64 --** Data Cache 1, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 --** Instruction Cache 1, Level 1, 32 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 --** Unified Cache 2, Level 2, 256 KB, Assoc 8, LineSize 64 Logical Processor to Group Map: **** Group 0 C:\WINDOWS\system32>
A "*" (like in my example above) means your Processor supports that feature.
A "-" means your Processor does not support that feature.
If you are in any doubt please post your results of coreinfo.exe..
As others have said the only other way of telling is to try it and see as some Pentium 4 have the required processor features and some don't.
Running Windows 7 doesn't help with knowing that answer and nor does graphics card. Hyper-V doesn't exist in Windows 7 so please don't worry about that.
That was what I found when going to the NVidia site directly to look up how far newer then 7 the drivers went and as you can see the 10 x64 driver is found at http://www.nvidia.in/Download/driver...px/97899/en-inGeForce Game Ready Driver
Version: 361.75 WHQL Release Date: 2016.1.27 Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit Language: English (India) File Size: 371.86 MB
Note I did run across a number of posts about that model card crashing on 10 but was finding mostly August-Sept. 2015 with this driver only just coming out! Often this will be the case where the manufacturers always seem to take their time coming out with drivers for a new version of Windows up until the first year!I had to run Vista along side 7 for a time since no 64bit Vista drivers were even out yet for the tuner card I had.
Next besides running Coreinfo as lx07 pointed you to some additional system information besides the video card like the make and model board and if you use a separate sound card or expansion cards, nic card(network adapter typically PCI or PCIe for Express), etc. as well as the type of connection you have to see about the rest. First finding out about the cpu of course is must know to see that will be the main obstacle.
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