Install Windows 7 on Computer with Less than 512MB RAM

Can anyone confirm that this works with the retail version of windows 7? I have modified the winsetup.dll and burnt a new iso per the directions but i still get the cannot install with 512mb of memory message.

sir...can i change this using dos window?
if so then what are the commands?

do you mean to open the iso itself ,because i cant get winsetup.dllwinsetup.dll?

Follow these steps,
* Extract the windows 7 DVD iso to a folder
* Now mount boot.wim using DISM. To mount, use the following command

C:\Windows\system32\dism.exe /mount-wim /wimfile:C:\Win7\sources\boot.wim /index:2 /mountdir:C:\mount

* Now you can see a folder "sources" in the mount folder. Now get into that folder and replace the winsetup.dll with the patched one.
* Now save the image using the following command

C:\Windows\system32\dism.exe /unmount-wim /mountdir:C:\mount /commit

* Now you may need to pack the windows 7 folder as bootable.
* Use OSCDIMG.exe to create a bootable ISO. Thats it

I got Win 7 installed without modifications from a Retail DVD on a P3 450mhz and 384MB RAM (Four memory slots of SDRAM: 64+64+128+128)

BenGman said:

I got Win 7 installed without modifications from a Retail DVD on a P3 450mhz and 384MB RAM (Four memory slots of SDRAM: 64+64+128+128)

This is because by default windows vista and 7 allow for 128 MB memory to be allocated to on-board video, 512-128 = 384 MB available to the OS, in this way you were tricking windows hardware wise into thinking that there was an on-board video card, unfortunately the cap as to how much space the windows v/7 family allocates to on-board graphics is 128 MB, It's a good thing to know this formula in case you are short on memory, or are installing in a virtual machine, as this formula also works for the areo requirement of 1GB too, assuming that a 3D capable GPU is present

And one quick question WHY wloud ANYONE want to install Windows 7 on something with less than 384 MB of memory? Windows XP 128MB of memory is recommended, and you know microsoft, you might as well double the recommended because it's never enough, that makes my recommendation for XP 256 MB, Why put windows 7 on something that should be running XP? It Dosn't Make any sense to me!

koman90 said:

BenGman said:

I got Win 7 installed without modifications from a Retail DVD on a P3 450mhz and 384MB RAM (Four memory slots of SDRAM: 64+64+128+128)

This is because by default windows vista and 7 allow for 128 MB memory to be allocated to on-board video, 512-128 = 384 MB available to the OS, in this way you were tricking windows hardware wise into thinking that there was an on-board video card, unfortunately the cap as to how much space the windows v/7 family allocates to on-board graphics is 128 MB, It's a good thing to know this formula in case you are short on memory, or are installing in a virtual machine, as this formula also works for the areo requirement of 1GB too, assuming that a 3D capable GPU is present

And one quick question WHY wloud ANYONE want to install Windows 7 on something with less than 384 MB of memory? Windows XP 128MB of memory is recommended, and you know microsoft, you might as well double the recommended because it's never enough, that makes my recommendation for XP 256 MB, Why put windows 7 on something that should be running XP? It Dosn't Make any sense to me!

I have a bunch of older systems P2/P3 with 4MB AGP Cards. I put 384MB in them because that is the min RAM I have tested that runs XP SP3 smoothly (256MB startup time is too slow). There are many systems, more than the available RAM I have, so I want to split the RAM around as much as possible but give a decent performance.
By decent I mean word processing, internet browsing and maybe play a DVD (for DVD systems I put 512MB RAM, but same video card and the system runs well under XP).

Everywhere I see that people say they get a better performance from Win 7 than XP. So I left the same specs that runs XP decent and tried Win 7.

I actually love how they run with Win 7, install was smooth, startup time, app launches are all very good. But ultimately I have to return to XP because of driver support for the 4MB video cards and old PCI/ISA Sound Cards. If I could get decent video (16bit colour) with 4MB video cards on Win 7, then I will keep Win 7.

Since these threads talk of the minimum specs Win 7 runs on (never mind Microsoft's official min req specs), what is the minimum spec video card that will allow 16bit colour on Win 7?

BenGman said:

koman90 said:

BenGman said:

I got Win 7 installed without modifications from a Retail DVD on a P3 450mhz and 384MB RAM (Four memory slots of SDRAM: 64+64+128+128)

This is because by default windows vista and 7 allow for 128 MB memory to be allocated to on-board video, 512-128 = 384 MB available to the OS, in this way you were tricking windows hardware wise into thinking that there was an on-board video card, unfortunately the cap as to how much space the windows v/7 family allocates to on-board graphics is 128 MB, It's a good thing to know this formula in case you are short on memory, or are installing in a virtual machine, as this formula also works for the areo requirement of 1GB too, assuming that a 3D capable GPU is present

And one quick question WHY wloud ANYONE want to install Windows 7 on something with less than 384 MB of memory? Windows XP 128MB of memory is recommended, and you know microsoft, you might as well double the recommended because it's never enough, that makes my recommendation for XP 256 MB, Why put windows 7 on something that should be running XP? It Dosn't Make any sense to me!

I have a bunch of older systems P2/P3 with 4MB AGP Cards. I put 384MB in them because that is the min RAM I have tested that runs XP SP3 smoothly (256MB startup time is too slow). There are many systems, more than the available RAM I have, so I want to split the RAM around as much as possible but give a decent performance.
By decent I mean word processing, internet browsing and maybe play a DVD (for DVD systems I put 512MB RAM, but same video card and the system runs well under XP).

Everywhere I see that people say they get a better performance from Win 7 than XP. So I left the same specs that runs XP decent and tried Win 7.

I actually love how they run with Win 7, install was smooth, startup time, app launches are all very good. But ultimately I have to return to XP because of driver support for the 4MB video cards and old PCI/ISA Sound Cards. If I could get decent video (16bit colour) with 4MB video cards on Win 7, then I will keep Win 7.

Since these threads talk of the minimum specs Win 7 runs on (never mind Microsoft's official min req specs), what is the minimum spec video card that will allow 16bit colour on Win 7?

I'm no so shure abut that MS documentation is verry euge on vidoe requirements it only says

DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display driver Model 1.0 or higher driver

I would assume any 16 bit capable card would work, by default you have no options for color quality in windows 7, with my nvidia i was able to put my video card in 16-bit mode, and you do not need the above specified by Microsoft if you are urning areo basic, which is default in 16-bit, so a 16bit video card and 384 MB memory will get you through the setup, and install windows basic mode.

W7 runs on a "DINOSAUR": P2 266MHz, 160MB RAM & 4MB Graphics card.
note: W7-RC runs on 96MB, RTM (the final version) needs 160MB.

Oldest "Dinosaur" Running Win7