Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

I first posted this a week ago. I decide to repeat the computer specs and correct changes to make it easier to follow.

Here is an update...

I just fixed this old laptop by replacing its hard drive and installing Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit on it. I have since upgraded that to Windows 7 Professional 32-bit by taking advantage of Anytime Upgrade.

Today I decided to take the plunge and try to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro 32-bit from within Windows 7 Pro. To my surprise the upgrade went without a problem.

Note back in 2012 I upgraded the RAM from 1GB to 4GB which is the max RAM the specs indicate. I am glad I did that.

I could have installed Windows 10 Pro 64-bit but that would have required me to do a clean install. I will leave it the way it is because I can't justify changing from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Checking the specs I find I only have the wireless options:

• 2.4GHz 802.11g
• 5.0GHz 802.11a

I couldn't get any WiFi to work at first but discovered that was because the computer only supports WPA2. I changed the 2.4GHz band on the router from WPA3 to WPA2 to allow the router to connect to it. For now I am sticking with 2.4GHz 802.11g. I could try 5.0GHz 802.11a but that would require me to reduce the security on it from WPA3 to WPA2 also.

As a final comment I am surprised that this laptop is able to run Windows 10 22H2. It was first purchase in June 2006 which means it was probably built a year before Windows Vista was released. Toshiba did provide drivers for Windows Vista so that may have helped with compatibility with Windows 7 and 10.

What a difference between this laptop and my older laptop which was bought in October 2004. It was a bust in trying to install Windows 10 on it. It never had drivers for Windows Vista so that what may have made the difference. The other computer had an Athlon64 and a dedicated GPU so would have been better for games. Now it doesn't matter because the other computers video chip failed.

UPDATE:

I liked Windows 10 on this laptop but it was annoying slow. A few months ago I pulled the hard drive and installed a different one. I installed Windows 7 Pro on it. It is still slow but at least tolerable.

Note I originally did the free upgraded from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro in July 2023. I kept the drive with Windows 10 intact because the free upgrade is no longer allowed.

Original Specs
Toshiba Tecra M7-S7331 laptop/tablet
Chipset: Mobile Intel 945GM Express
CPU: Intel Core Duo T2400
RAM: 1024MB (2x512MB) DDR2-533
GPU: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with 8MB-128M shared RAM
DSP: 14.1-inch 1440x900 (WXGA+) (16:10)
Network:
Wired: Intel PRO/1000 VE (10/100/1000Mbps)
Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g)
HDD: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 HTS541010G9SA00 100GB 5400RPM 2.5-inch SATA-150
ODD: MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-841S PATA
PEN: Toshiba Tablet PC Pen II
O/S: Windows XP Tablet Edition 2005 *
* Windows Vista Premium Ready

Upgrades
RAM: 4096MB (2x2048) DDR2-667
HDD: Western Digital Scorpio WD2500BEVT-75ZCT2 250GB 5400RPM 2.5-inch SATA-300
O/S: Windows 10 Professional (upgrade from Windows 7)

Hello!

I recently came at my mother's village at the beautiful island of Crete for vacations. I had an old Pentium D based PC there that was still at Windows 10 v1809 32-bit because I couldn't go at Crete due to Covid-19. The disk was cloned from my father's computer, so I didn't have the chance to install 64-bit Windows. I will upgrade to SSD some time and test it with Windows 11. I will post at the relevant thread of Windows 11 Forum

The hardware:
Motherboard: Supermicro PDSG4 (workstation class)
Chipset: Intel 955X (code name: Glenwood)
CPU: Intel Pentium D 945 3400MHz (dual core, 64-bit)
RAM: 4x 1GB DDR2 667MHz, total 4GB
GPU: nVidia GeForce GT 710 1GB DDR3, latest nVidia ForceWare driver for Windows 10
Audio: Realtek C650 @ Intel 82801GB ICH7 - AC'97 Audio Controller
LAN: Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection
HDD: WDC WD10PURX-64E5EY0 ATA Device (1 TB, 5400 RPM, SATA-III)
DVD-RW: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H12N ATA Device

How I did the upgrade:

First I tried to run Setup directly from the latest Windows 10 32-bit ISO. This did not complete and said some updates were missing. So I run Windows Update to install the necessary updates and then tried tp upgrade again. After spending several hours to install the updates and the final upgrade to 22H2, I was finally at version 22H2. I did the remaining updates up to build 19045.3324

The computer was a little slow, so I disabled all visual effects to speedup. I also noticed that the available RAM was 3.7GB because of the 32-bit Windows. So I applied the latest NX/PAE patch to use the full 4GB RAM! See here: How to patch windows 7, 8, 10 32-bit to see above 4gb ram (new patch)

@hsehestedt, do you have a Windows 11 elevated command prompt to backup the drivers ? Thanks friend !

flashh4 said:

@hsehestedt, do you have a Windows 11 elevated command prompt to backup the drivers ? Thanks friend !

Yes they both require elevated command prompts.
You can just follow the instructions in the relevant tutorial
Backup and Restore Device Drivers - TenForumsTutorials
Backup and Restore Device Drivers - ElevenForumTutorials


All the best,
Denis

@Try3, thanks Denis ..... much appreciated !!

hsehestedt said:

@MisterEd, glad to see that you got this system working on Windows 10. Now that it is working, may I offer one suggestion? Forgive me if you already do this, I just find this extremely helpful on my older systems where finding appropriate drives can be difficult.

Backup all drivers from this system in one shot by doing this:

Open an elevated command prompt and run these commands:

MD C:\Drivers_Backup
pnputil /export-driver * C:\Drivers_Backup

Done!

Now, make a copy of this somewhere that you can get to if you ever do a clean install of Windows 10 on this system. When the time comes, after a clean install, open Device Manager. At the top of driver list, right-click on the name of the machine and select "Add drivers". Point it to your backup of the drivers. That will install all of the drivers and you should be good to go.

Thanks I am just did that.

Like somebody else mentioned in Device Manager right-clicking on computer name does not have option to "Add drivers". I didn't have that option in my other Windows 10 computers either. However, I did have that option in my Windows 11 laptop. Is this a Windows 11 only thing?

MisterEd said:

Like somebody else mentioned in Device Manager right-clicking on computer name does not have option to "Add drivers".

All drivers have a means of being installed without Device mgr having to invite them but it can be used if desired.
- The tutorials I posted links to show how to backup drivers. The inf file created for each one can then be used to install them individually if required. Just right-click on an inf and select Install.
or
- In Device mgr,

click anywhere in the main window such as on the computer name entry,
click on the Action menu,
click on Add legacy hardware [it will not have to be legacy, this is just a means of getting into this wizard],
Next,
Install the hardware that I manually select from a list [Advanced],
Next,
Next,
Have disk,
Browse to the inf,
if what you have is a cab file then extract its contents as its just like a zip file,
select the inf,
Open,
OK.

But I find going straight to the inf without using Device mgr more straightforward.

You might well have a problem identifying the inf of interest. I make driver listings using several different methods, some of which are built-in.
my driver backup and driver properties lists ditty [post #43] - TenForums
I update my driver backup & my driver listings every time there is a driver update.
I search through the listings for the device name and filter on the rows found then I use properties given in other columns of those listings to find the corresponding entry in the other listings so I can end up with each file filtered to just the device of interest and I can look up whatever properties I want for it such as the HardwareID that I can then search for within the backed up driver folders.


The Windows 11 Add drivers mechanism is, in essence, the same as the Windows 10 Add legacy hardware mechanism with an added search function that Windows 10 no longer has.
An update removed the original Windows 10 Add drivers option several Versions back for reasons that I have never understood.


All the best,
Denis