Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

hsehestedt · 3 Weeks Ago

I too have a machine with only 32GB of storage, but at least it has 4GB RAM. I used the "Compact OS" option so I still have about 9GB of free storage space, but with only 32GB of storage I'm rather limited in what I can do with it. But I keep it handy when I'm watching television in case something comes up where I want to do a quick web browsing session. It also has exceptional battery life and seems to run practically forever when in sleep, so it does still serve a purpose.

EDIT: I should note that I am actually running Win 11 Pro on that machine, so the 9GB of free storage space is even with Win 11 on it.

cereberus · 3 Weeks Ago

MisterEd said:

A family member bought a Walmart "special" laptop for only $125 new. It also had only a 32GB EMMC storage. The problem with 32GB storage is that there is not enough free space for a yearly update. Have you tried to create a USB with the latest Windows 10 release and tried a clean install? That might work.

You could upgrade by inserting a usb stick as temporary memory but I also worked out a way of doing it via hyper-v (complicated).

Tablet is defunct now as screen go broken , but there was some update a few years ago that meant tablet could no longer be upgraded but cannot remember why.

cereberus · 3 Weeks Ago

hsehestedt said:

I too have a machine with only 32GB of storage, but at least it has 4GB RAM. I used the "Compact OS" option so I still have about 9GB of free storage space, but with only 32GB of storage I'm rather limited in what I can do with it. But I keep it handy when I'm watching television in case something comes up where I want to do a quick web browsing session. It also has exceptional battery life and seems to run practically forever when in sleep, so it does still serve a purpose.

EDIT: I should note that I am actually running Win 11 Pro on that machine, so the 9GB of free storage space is even with Win 11 on it.

Many of the earlier emmc devices were 32bit uefi - these could not run W11.

spapakons · 3 Weeks Ago

baconkingroblox said:

I have a Toshiba Satellite L10-117 with 512MB RAM, Intel Celeron M 370, and a 40GB HDD. I attempted to install Windows 10 1903, Tiny10, and Technical previews (10073, 9926) with W8CPUFeaturePatch, but it didn't work. I either got a 0x0000005C error, or it was stuck at the Windows logo without the loading circle. I tried WinToUsb, gimagex, etc. Not even Windows 8.0 boots. For now, I'm using Windows 7 and Windows 8 Developer Preview until I manage to get Windows 10 on it.

The CPU lacks the NX/PAE instruction, so officially you cannot install Windows 8 32-bit or higher. You can force install Windows 8 32-bit if you patch the appropriate files so it doesn't check compatibility. But you must then disable Windows Update completely. Every update might replace the patched files and render the system unbootable. You have to patch the files after each update to load Windows again. Unfortunately the patch doesn't work for Windows 10 32-bit because they have relocated the relevant code. There is no new patch that works on Windows 10 32-bit as far as I know. You are stuck with Windows 7 32-bit or with Windows 8 32-bit if you don't mind patching it almost every day.

baconkingroblox · 3 Weeks Ago

Bree said:

That is far too little RAM, even upgraded to the max the Satellite L10 can only take 1GB.
The Celeron M 370 is a 32-bit CPU
Its 40GB HDD is an IDE drive.

No, much as I enjoy pushing hardware to the limits (and beyond), that is a step too far.

The T2050 is also 32-BIT cpu.

The T2050 has NX/SSE2 support I think. And 1GB RAM should be okay for Tiny10 32 bit.

spapakons · 3 Weeks Ago

It is a 64-bit CPU, you can even install Windows 11. Just maximize RAM to improve performance.

baconkingroblox · 1 Week Ago

spapakons said:

It is a 64-bit CPU

The T2050 isn't 64-bit. The Celeron M 370 has PAE/NX/SSE2 according to cpu-world and Intel, but there's no information about the Toshiba Satellite L10-117 having or not having PAE/NX/SSE2. Windows 8 and above won't boot (windows logo without spinning dots) even with PAE/NX/SSE2 bypass (W8CPUFeaturePatch) for some reason.

- - - Updated - - -

According to coreinfo, the Toshiba Satellite L10-117 doesn't have support for NX, but has PAE and SSE2 support.

spapakons · 6 Days Ago

My bad. It is a Core Duo 32-bit CPU. I thought it was Core 2 Duo 64-bit like that in my test laptop. This limits you to Windows 10 32-bit, not bad for the time being.