Will Windows 7 Run on a Pentium 3?

Jake0604 said:

I got windows 7 utimate running on a 697mhz Penitum 3 with 512mb of ram, and a 32mb video card, all in a Compaq Presario 7599

Hello Jake0604, and welcome to Windows Seven Forums! Awesome!

As a trial I have been working to restore a Dell CSx Piii, H500, laptop. Dell specs say that it can only support 320 mb mem. max. After updating the BIOS to their last version A13, I was able to upgarde the mem. to 512mb, by replaceing the chip under the keyboard and the user slot with 256mb chips, giving me the max 512 mb. I decided to try installing Win7, I attached the external DVD, ran the setup program, updated the drivers to their latest available versions. Win7 loaded, activated and runs smoothly. My only problem is the video graphics cannot load the directX needed toplay videos.

Using a 16gb SSD, the install is close to 9gb, with updates and utilities. Loaded programs running include Office 2003, word, excel, and publisher. A CAD program, Polderbits recording software, Adobe XI reader, Cute PDF creator. Leaving available disc space of 4gb of work space. With additiona PCMCIA flash card(s) for long term data storage of up to 16b.

Startup is a little slower than Xp, but after it loads I do not see that speed is a problem. Only limited to running fewer programs at once, it is an acceptable setup, as long as you do not need the video for games and such.