Windows on an old computer

What’s the Windows alternative if you have an older computer? On Linux I just install XFCE, LXQT, or Openbox and that’s it. Or some ChromeOS version for computers. But with windows I don’t know. Is it better to make a Windows 11 lite or a Windows 7 lite that I secure? In both cases I’m gonna turn off all extra services and stuff.

Here’s the computers I’m targeting right now.

Toshiba Satellite C850 16W
Intel i3- 2310M (2.1GHz, 2C4T)
8GB (1333MHz, ddr3)
Gonna put some ssd in it.

Dell Latitude d620
Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz, 2C)
4GB (667MHz, ddr2)
Gonna put some ssd in it.

You’ll have a mighty hard time with Windows 11. Virtualization was the only way I got Windows 11 to install on one of my old machines, and the Xeon CPU is around the time of the Intel Core i3-2310M. Earlier versions of Windows 10 should work and is a bit more modern than Windows 7, which is over 15 years old by now.

An Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 doesn’t support virtualization, so I suspect all paths to Windows 11 for that machine are blocked. Windows 7 should still work if lack of security updates and such are not concerns.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what the performance comparison looked like to a weak, but modern CPU.

Ryzen 3 8440U vs Core 2 Duo T5500

Core i3-2310M vs Core 2 Duo T5500

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Didn’t think of a Windows 10 lite by some reason. Think it’s plain win10 on the T5500 right now but it’s only used to flash mobile phones and not really for anything else. I’ll probably put linux on it in the end, this is just theoretical gymnastics.

The T5500 is in a Dell Latitude D620. A business laptop you could kill a bear with because of the internal magnesium frame. Hmm… it kind of reminds me of something, but it’s blue :stuck_out_tongue:

Using the older Win95/98 theme helps a lot on the older systems, as well as disabling a lot of the menu animations. But these days, I am not so sure especially because I dont use Win 11 a lot.

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On the first one I wouldn’t go past Windows 10, even if it’s gonna be dead next year. Lighten it up with some script and you’ll be alright.
For the second one, if you don’t need to access the internet, Windows XP is the best you can hope for in my opinion. Windows 7 will run but it’s not gonna fair that well. Windows 10 and 11 a total nightmare.

i use those windows 10 ‘gamer’ OS builds on a lot of older laptops. they are pre-stripped and work really well with limited resources. i think the last one i installed was the ‘Atlas’ build.

Yeah, that’s probably the smart way. I’m just a bit too paranoid. I’m slightly worried about the driver packs that exists too. Would be too easy to slide something bad there :slight_smile:

like MS just did in the last round of windows updates?

at this point windows 11 itself is malware.

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Using Ntlite to make your own clean version will go a long ways. My win 11 boots up at 1.3 Giga used with my stuff. However even that lean a aging system like yourself would be hard to run.

You can get win 7 or 8.1 fairly lean that would still work.

Why install Windows on such old machines at all? Genuinely interested in the reasoning.

Although the first one should be passable, if perhaps a bit sluggish. The second one is pushing it; if you can install Windows at all on it, it will probably be swapping as soon as you begin to use any software in earnest.

Theoretical gymnastics and bored. I haven’t used Windows since XP and when it comes to Linux I know how to do these things and install it on a dead badger, but I realised I didn’t know if it was possible to turn off enough whistles and bells in a modern windows to make it run on a slower machine. So, mostly bored :stuck_out_tongue: