Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

Hazel123 · 17 Jun 2021

Bree said:

Looks like this thread may be drawing to a close in a year or so......

Actually my optimism that 11 May run on an Eee pc 1015px may have been over optimistic as it seems it is only for uefi and not mbr bios. So that would rule out a LOT of old hardware - unless they have a legacy version as well or unless it’s possible to run in a VM. But W10 is still suppprted to 2025.

re another comment above. Something that runs W7 won’t always run W10. It depends on the chip and graphics driver. The little Eee 701sd ran windows 7 very well but would not install w10 at all. No drivers for the chip or graphics. Just ain’t possible. That is the Intel 915. No support for it.

Mind you my main laptop doesn’t have uefi either! About 10 years old. So may not run W11 either.

Bree · 17 Jun 2021

Hazel123 said:

Actually my optimism that 11 May run on an Eee pc 1015px may have been over optimistic as it seems it is only for uefi and not mbr bios. So that would rule out a LOT of old hardware - unless they have a legacy version as well or unless it’s possible to run in a VM. But W10 is still supprted to 2025.

I have some half dozen or more laptops, all running W10 21H1 without issue. Vintages range from 2009 to 2016 and CPUs from Atom N2600 through the Pentium and Celeron of the two in my specs below, an i5-520M and up to an i7-6600U.

A straw poll of all my machines shows that none of them meet W11's minimum spec of TPM 2.0. Of those that do have TPM all are 1.2, with only the one machine, a Dell Latitude E7270, capable of its TPM firmware being flashed to upgrade from 1.2 to 2.0.

Dell systems built between 2015 and 2018 may have shipped from the factory with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) firmware version 1.2.

This article lists the system models that may have shipped with TPM 1.2 so you can upgrade the TPM firmware to version 2.0 if needed.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/e...ion-1-2-to-2-0

You can check your version of TPM (if any) by running TPM.MSC.

So on the face of it I only have one machine I could install Win11 on. However, seems there may workarounds, some involving 'borrowing' some of the install files from Win10 media.

How to Download and Install Windows 11 Right Now (Leaked Build) | Beebom

re another comment above. Something that runs W7 won’t always run W10. It depends on the chip and graphics driver.....

I have an Acer Aspire One AOD270 with an Atom N2600. There are no graphic drivers for that beyond Win7, and installing one of those will BSoD. However for most purposes the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter is perfectly adequate, even YouTube is watchable as long as you watch it low res in a window (full screen is a step too far).

spapakons · 17 Jun 2021

As I have said on many occasions in this thread, systems that can run Windows 7 can also run Windows 8 and 10, if some additional requirements are met. To be able to install and use Windows 8/10 32-bit CPU must also support NX/PAE and be enabled in BIOS. So old motherboards that do not support this feature are ruled out. From CPUs almost any Intel socket 775 or newer can run Windows 10 32-bit, not taking into account the speed. If you want DirectX hardware acceleration, the graphics card must also have WDDM 1.0 (Vista) or newer drivers. If not, Windows 8/10 will use Microsoft Basic Display Adapter driver which is software only (no acceleration) and makes your system look 10 times slower than it actually is! If you want to run Windows 8/10 64-bit, having an 64-bit CPU is not enough. It must also support certain instructions, plus you also need an 64-bit WDDM graphics driver and of course 64-bit drivers for all other hardware. If there are no 64-bit drivers, stay with 32-bit instead. Any 32-bit Vista or 7 or 8 driver should also work in Windows 10 32-bit with the exception of some Intel graphics drivers that Intel has deliberately blocked at 10 in order to force us upgrade our hardware. Usually Windows Update installs an appropriate WDDM driver but without the Intel Graphics Settings. The same is tru for 64-bit. Almost any 64-bit Vista or newer driver will also work in Windows 10 64-bit with specific deliberate exceptions.

CountMike · 17 Jun 2021

Despite this

Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware-image.png

It still didn't recognize it.
What I found in BIOS that i was set as Discrete (that should mean a connector on the MB).

Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware-tpm-1jpg.jpg

Instead of Firmware (directly on the MB

Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware-tpm-2.jpg

Bree · 17 Jun 2021

Hazel123 said:

Actually my optimism that 11 May run on an Eee pc 1015px may have been over optimistic as it seems it is only for uefi and not mbr bios.

I have found that the UEFI/TPM requirements only seem to apply for a clean install. Looks like this W11 is completely happy to upgrade a Legacy MBR install of Windows 10 to Windows 11. There was one addition requirement I found though, the in-place upgrade requires a minimum of 4GB RAM.

Install Windows 11 Home using Local Account | Windows 11 Forum

spapakons · 17 Jun 2021

Just read the rumors about Windows 11. I believe that unless they change the hardware requirements, any system that can run Windows 8/10 32-bit can also run Windows 11 and the same is true for 64-bit. Also normally all Windows 10 compatible drivers (this includes Windows Vista or 7 or 8 drivers) will also work in Windows 11 until there are Windows 11 specific drivers. This was done since Windows 95. Windows 95 drivers worked in 98 and Me, Windows NT 4.0 drivers worked in Windows 2000 and XP, and so on.

CountMike · 17 Jun 2021

spapakons said:

Just read the rumors about Windows 11. I believe that unless they change the hardware requirements, any system that can run Windows 8/10 32-bit can also run Windows 11 and the same is true for 64-bit. Also normally all Windows 10 compatible drivers (this includes Windows Vista or 7 or 8 drivers) will also work in Windows 11 until there are Windows 11 specific drivers. This was done since Windows 95. Windows 95 drivers worked in 98 and Me, Windows NT 4.0 drivers worked in Windows 2000 and XP, and so on.

Unless there are some substantial changes to Windows core, there will be no need for specific drivers. All drivers used in W10 I also use in W11.
Even TPM was asked for only during installation, once W11 was installed it's not needed or used.

ish4d0w · 17 Jun 2021

Bree said:

Looks like this thread may be drawing to a close in a year or so......

Attachment 337549

Would not bet on this. This would essentially exclude almost ALL of the desktop computers since most of them don't have TPM. ANd it would exclude a lot of notebooks too since many of them have TPM 1.1, and not 2.0

This sounds more like a preventive measure to keep users like us installing this leaked stuff

spapakons · 17 Jun 2021

I guess the leaked installation detected TPM in the target system and demanded version 2.0. Have you tried to disable it in BIOS before installing? Does it gives an error or just proceed without it?

Bree · 17 Jun 2021

ish4d0w said:

Would not bet on this. This would essentially exclude almost ALL of the desktop computers since most of them don't have TPM. ANd it would exclude a lot of notebooks too since many of them have TPM 1.1, and not 2.0

This sounds more like a preventive measure to keep users like us installing this leaked stuff

In subsequent testing I have found that the UEFI and TPM 2.0 are only required for a clean install.

An in-place upgrade is apparently happy to accept a Legacy MBR machine with no TPM, so it looks like all my machines may be eligible for a Win11 upgrade after all.

Bree said:

It seems that the requirements for TPM 2.0 and UEFI only apply to a clean install, the upgrade did not say anything about that. One new requirement for installing W11 popped up though, apparently it requires a minimum of 4GB RAM...

Install Windows 11 Home using Local Account | Windows 11 Forum