Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

MisterEd said:

If you had the computer and all the other parts to make it work then all you would need is Windows 2000 Pro. I have a feeling that you would be disappointed by its performance.
One time I tried to use a computer I had not used in 5 or 10 years. I found it painfully slow. I didn't remember it being that slow when I first got it. It's all about what we are used to at the time.

My expectations are tempered (have you noticed the thread we're in :). I would find something to do on it that wasn't painful.

I'm posting this right now on a 2008 C2D MacBook with 4GB (maxed) and the latest MacOS. It's actually pretty responsive. I can watch 1080p YouTube without problems. Teleconference with the built in webcam without a problem.

I have 2x Dell M6400 laptops (2008) coming in the mail that will be the new 'daily usable' spec Win10 machines (2008 quad core and high clock dual core . Pretty high spec for this thread but I already have a Pentium-M testbed and I don't want to mess with any more stuff that old.

- - - Updated - - -

I just did the drive swap trick from a C2D machine to a Pentium-M machine and it seems to be working. The Pentium-M is taking forever to do the first few setup startups though. Maybe I should have let those run on the C2D instead.

All the latest posts are nice talk, but not relevant with this thread, we are referring to old personal computers, not workstations or servers. Also please do not try to scare novice readers that do not know much about computer hardware! Surely if you want acceptable performance (this is very objective) for a new computer you need at least 4GB or 8GB RAM, since the difference in cost is rather small. But that doesn't mean that a 2GB computer is useless! Of course I'm talking about refurbished computers with 2GB, not new, there is no point buying a new computer with only 2GB RAM (assuming you can find one). Performance is very relevant and mostly depends on the intended use of the computer. Of course the higher performance, the better, but why pay too much if you are a novice user (not likely to reach the computer's full potential soon), and you only need it for office work, Facebook and a casual online game or watching online videos up to 720p or 1080p? All the above are achievable with a refurbished computer Intel Core 2 Quad (quad core) or newer with 4GB RAM and onboard or better graphics. Of course a refurbished Intel Core-i3 or higher with 8GB RAM will be even faster, but the average user will not notice the difference, so why pay more for that? If you are a gamer or a professional, then you should not buy a refurbished computer but a new one instead. Again performance depends on your budget and the games you want to play. The same games can be played on a variety of computers with lowering the graphics effects. If you want to run every single game at 1080p ultra settings, then you need a rather expensive computer, probably. But if you don't have enough budget and you don't demand running at 1080p ultra settings, you can save some money by playing the games at medium with most visual effects disabled. So Performance is relevant, do not scare novices! Not everyone needs a 16-core CPU with 32GB RAM and a $500 graphics card! Before buying anything think about what you will be using the computer most for. If it is office and Facebook, buy a reasonable priced refurbished, no need to buy a brand new one! It's called common sense!

MisterEd said:

To gain a little performance try this:
Right-click on "This PC"
Select "Properties"
Select "Advanced system settings"
Under Performance select "Settings"
Select "Adjust for best performance"
Select "OK"

You can also get to "Properties" through: Control Panel > System

Yep that was one of the first things I did. I don't think it helps much in my case. The UI was always very fluid. I'm just getting really bad lag spikes in apps. I don't think I'm going to spend much more time on it but I'll keep the install around in case something comes up.

shaocaholica said:

Yep that was one of the first things I did.....

And was going into Settings > Privacy > Background apps and turning off 'Allow apps to run in the background' the second thing you did?

Bree said:

And was going into Settings > Privacy > Background apps and turning off 'Allow apps to run in the background' the second thing you did?

Didn't do that so I just did it now. Didn't do anything for app lag.

The lag is like the app UI will be totally unresponsive but the mouse cursor will be fine and certain UI highlighting will be running at full speed but just the app is frozen for ~5sec to 20sec and then it will come back and be fine for a while until it happens again and it happens quite frequently.

spapakons said:

I see you have only 2GB RAM and this is the main reason the computer is too slow. Too bad you cannot add more. I would also press Win+R to get the Run dialog box and run the command msconfig then go to Services and carefully uncheck any non-important services (such as Google updater) to disable them. Then right-click on the taskbar, select Task Manager, go to Startup and disable any non-important startup application. Finally, cleanup your hard disk and then defrag it for best performance. Windows build-in defrag utility is not ideal, I use Auslogics Free Defrag utility or Defraggler. Also make sure you download and install DirectX 9.0c runtime for full acceleration of old applications and games. You will prompted to enable dotNET 2.x and 3.x support, do it for full compatibility with older applications. Some old games (from Steam for example) also require to enable DirectPlay from Control Panel ->Programs and Features -> Windows Features-> Legacy Components, if you don't they will fail to load. You can also enable NTVDM to run 16-bit programs, if you like.

I don't think 2GB is the problem. If you look at my screenshot the system is only using 1.2G with a bunch of stuff open including a browser.

Don't need to defrag either. I'm using a SSD.

And yes, I've turned off every startup item and set services to blackvipers 'laptop safe' presets. I might even turn off more later. And realtime protection is turned off too.

I think the lag might be something more fundamental.

Why is using only 1.2GB? Surely some RAM is allocated to the graphics card but 800MB is too much. Go in BIOS and see if you can change this amount. I would set 128MB or 256MB maximum, you won't notice any difference by allocating more.