Upgrading an extremely old laptop (Samsung X10) from XP to win10

I'm planning to give away to local charity my old trusty Samsung X10 Laptop installed w/ win XP. Knowing that it's completely out-dated and lacks any support whatsoever, I fear that it might produce more trouble than the potential benefit. As such, I'm thinking of a clean install of win10 so that hopefully someone can get some use out of it with little hassle. It's got a 1.5Ghz single core CPU and 2Gb of RAM w/ 40Gb PATA HDD. I *believe* it should meet the minimum requirement for windows 10. Here're the problem I've encountered so far:

I copied the win10 ISO file onto the USB and used virtual CD program to access it (create the drive, then mount the file etc etc). Unfortunately the laptop complained the setup.exe is NOT a valid win32 app. I check the very same file on my own laptop and the it is perfectly intact. I also defrag'ed the HDD on the X10 prior so that there is literally NO fragmented file anymore. At this point, I'm running out of option and can't seem to find a good solution while searching the net. Any help/pointer pls? Tx in advance.

The normal way to do a clean install of Windows 10 is to boot from physical install media (DVD or USB). You can download the Media Creation Tool and use that to make install media for another PC. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

alecela said:

I'm planning to give away to local charity my old trusty Samsung X10 Laptop installed w/ win XP. Knowing that it's completely out-dated and lacks any support whatsoever, I fear that it might produce more trouble than the potential benefit. As such, I'm thinking of a clean install of win10 so that hopefully someone can get some use out of it with little hassle. It's got a 1.5Ghz single core CPU and 2Gb of RAM w/ 40Gb PATA HDD. I *believe* it should meet the minimum requirement for windows 10. Here're the problem I've encountered so far:

I copied the win10 ISO file onto the USB and used virtual CD program to access it (create the drive, then mount the file etc etc). Unfortunately the laptop complained the setup.exe is NOT a valid win32 app. I check the very same file on my own laptop and the it is perfectly intact. I also defrag'ed the HDD on the X10 prior so that there is literally NO fragmented file anymore. At this point, I'm running out of option and can't seem to find a good solution while searching the net. Any help/pointer pls? Tx in advance.

There is no direct upgrade path from XP to Win10. By attempting to launch setup from within XP, that is, essentially, what you are trying to do. A clean install is only accomplished booting the installation media and allowing it to run the setup from within. The correct way is to create a bootable USB drive from the ISO, or burn it to a DVD.

Your laptop should run Win10 but there may be issues with finding compatible drivers, especially for the video. I'm trying to find specs on this unit but they seem to have fallen off the map about 9 years ago.

sn00ker said:

So you bought windows 10 and your going to install it on a old laptop just to give it away for charity. You're better off to leave xp . There really isn't much one can do with it on windows 10 that can't be used with xp .

Thanks for your response. The intention of installing win10 is NOT mainly for added functionality. More like I fear that XP is so out dated & vulnerable that it might actually cause more hassle for the charity organization.

Caledon Ken said:

You might even consider installing Ubuntu. Its free, has less demands on machine, uses Firefox or Chrome as a browser, Libre Office will install as a good stand in for Office, also free, and it likely will be easier to secure from Malware.
Ken

That's a great idea! I might just do that if I failed to get win10 or even win7 to install... Thanks for the suggestion!

mike s said:

There is no direct upgrade path from XP to Win10. By attempting to launch setup from within XP, that is, essentially, what you are trying to do. A clean install is only accomplished booting the installation media and allowing it to run the setup from within. The correct way is to create a bootable USB drive from the ISO, or burn it to a DVD.

Your laptop should run Win10 but there may be issues with finding compatible drivers, especially for the video. I'm trying to find specs on this unit but they seem to have fallen off the map about 9 years ago.

Very clear. Crossing my fingers that win10 should hopefully be backward compatible w/ my 10yr+ old laptop in terms of drivers... Thanks!

Bree said:

The normal way to do a clean install of Windows 10 is to boot from physical install media (DVD or USB). You can download the Media Creation Tool and use that to make install media for another PC. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...load/windows10

Thanks for the great pointer. Will let you know if I have any success.