Installing Windows 10 on old notebook that runs XP?

My son has an old Acer notebook. It still works but not without the occasional hiccups, probably a compatibility issues. It's an Acer Aspire One D260 on Windows XP. Intel Atom Processor N450, 1.66GHz with 1G RAM. I plan on maxing the memory to 2G and replacing the 160G HHD with a 120G SSD, before doing a clean install for Windows 10 32-bit. Online feedback was mixed, some claimed Windows 10 made it worse despite the SSD and more RAM while others experienced improvements. He doesn't need the notebook for games, just Youtube, Google and maybe OpenOffice for making notes etc. Do you think it will work?book

I was dubious, but I see that it had drivers for Win7 X86 (32 bit) and X64. Product Support | Acer United States

It may be possible. Worthwhile? Also possible.

Caledon Ken said:

I guess work has two definitions.

Will it install and will you be able to find all the necessary drivers or ....

Will this laptop be fast enough to be usable.

I have an old XP laptop Dell D630 which runs 10 fine. Like you I installed SSD but I could up memory to 4GB. (and I got new wireless radio)


Do you have a spare HDD? If not do you feel comfortable Imaging and using restore software.

What I was thinking is install as is just to see if Win 10 installs ( which it will ) and if you can solve any driver issues. You may not have any driver issues, Windows 10 does a pretty good job.

If all goes well then you can decide on investing in memory and SSD. I would also look at a Wireless USB dongle. Likely that old laptop is "G" based radio so that will also hamper speed.


Ken

Thank you for your reply. Funny, I have recently bought a Dell Latitude D630 that was upgraded to Windows 10 64-bit. It had two mismatched memory modules, the first one 2G 6400s and the second one 512MB 5300s, they're different in frequency as well as latency. I guess someone thought putting another 1/2 G in would make it run faster. Unfortunately, the little extra turned out to be a sandbag, making everything slower. I replaced it with another 2G module matching the first one and the problem was solved. I yet have to replace the HDD with a small SSD and add a bluetooth card to see if it will function 100%.

Back to the Acer Aspire One, I do have another HDD that I can try though I already have a 120G SSD on the way, should be here by tomorrow. At this point, I believe I have everything to start, just need to know if it will work.

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bobkn said:

I was dubious, but I see that it had drivers for Win7 X86 (32 bit) and X64. Product Support | Acer United States

It may be possible. Worthwhile? Also possible.

Thank you. I am all eager but I am a wee bit concerned that my son would be upset if it didn't work. He has a whole different setup for gaming but this was his first pc and he's a bit sentimental about it.

Caledon Ken said:

I should have added you can get Win 10 for free for this test. Eventually you will need a license to activate.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/soft...load/windows10

Download tool, execute and following the prompts.

Thanks again. I've already made a bootable USB for Windows 10 32-bit. If it works, I will definitely buy him a license.

althetrainer said:

...It's an Acer Aspire One D260 on Windows XP. Intel Atom Processor N450, 1.66GHz with 1G RAM. I plan on maxing the memory to 2G and replacing the 160G HHD with a 120G SSD, before doing a clean install for Windows 10 32-bit. Online feedback was mixed, some claimed Windows 10 made it worse despite the SSD and more RAM while others experienced improvements. He doesn't need the notebook for games, just Youtube, Google and maybe OpenOffice for making notes etc. Do you think it will work?

I have an Acer Aspire One D270 currently running 32-bit 1909 with 2GB RAM. It's hardly fast, but works well enough for general browsing and LibreOffice. It's the machine I take on my holidays.

Youtube will be a problem though. There are no W10 display drivers available for these systems. This means that the Microsoft Basic Display driver will be used. For most purposes that is good enough, but for video the frame rate will be low, about 5-10 fps. Youtube videos are only watchable in a window, no larger than about half the screen size. At full screen it will be unacceptably slow and jerky.

You will need a licence to activate W10, I didn't because mine came with Windows 7 Starter, which upgraded to 10 for free.

Bree said:

I have an Acer Aspire One D270 currently running 32-bit 1909 with 2GB RAM. It's hardly fast, but works well enough for general browsing and LibreOffice. It's the machine I take on my holidays.
Youtube will be a problem though. There are no W10 display drivers available for these systems. This means that the Microsoft Basic Display driver will be used. For most purposes that is good enough, but for video the frame rate will be low, about 5-10 fps. Youtube videos are only watchable in a window, no larger than about half the screen size. At full screen it will be unacceptably slow and jerky.

You will need a licence to activate W10, I didn't because mine came with Windows 7 Starter, which upgraded to 10 for free.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience. This is exactly what I need to know. He will definitely want Youtube so I guess I have come to the end of my quest. Too bad, he really loves his first pc. I guess it's time for him to let go.

althetrainer said:

Too bad, he really loves his first pc. I guess it's time for him to let go.

You may have more luck with Linux, if you can't bear to throw out an old friend

Bree said:

You may have more luck with Linux, if you can't bear to throw out an old friend

My next quest, learn Linux.