Solved Impossible

[criminalist]

I have a Windows 10 PC that is a POS. It takes forever to boot and then forever to get over whatever it is doing. It takes at least ten minutes before I can even open a program.

I hate Windows 10 with a passion, but need it for Cricut, Brother, Singer, Husqvarna, and many other corporations that are clueless on keeping customers content. I have programs that must have Windows 10 to run.

It is a Dell Optiplex 3020 with 8GB RAM DDR3
Intel i5-4590 CPU at 3.30GHz
Intel HD Graphics 4600 (113MB)
500GB hard drive
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

What can I do to speed up this POS before defenestration?

 

[SIW2]

It takes forever to boot and then forever to get over whatever it is doing. It takes at least ten minutes before I can even open a program.

SSD.

Unfortunately the prices have gone through the roof in recent months. Used to be able to get a decent crucial mx500 1tb for £60 they are several times that price now

WIN10 is awful on a mechanical hd

you might find a cheap and cheerful pny 500gb no dram at a tolerable price
or a fanxiang

or

Crucial BX500 SATA SSD 480GB are still available
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT480BX500SSD1-Internal-Solid-State/dp/B07G3KGYZQ
apparently it is QLC
Crucial BX500 500 GB Specs | TechPowerUp SSD Database

so better to find a TLC disk

 

[townsbg]

In October I got a 2.5" 500 gb WD blue for only $45. Now that model isn't available from the manufacturer directly and indirectly it is over $100. Their 250s are $85. I found a 480 gb 2.5" pny for $52. Amazon.com I've never had pny for a internal hard drive. Perhaps you should ask for performance advise on 10 forums. Those are small laptop sized hard drives. The only 3.5" SSDs I found where high end expensive drives designed for servers. If you only have a 3.5" drive bay you'll need a converter. I got this one. Amazon.com. It's very solid and has room for 2 drives however the bottom slot will be difficult to use due to having to feed the tiny screws through tiny holes on the outer rail a few inches to the holes that go into the actual drive on one side. I wouldn't want to have to do that. Right now it's $8. There are others. All that have a slot on the bottom will likely have that problem due to the 2.5" drives being narrower. Those drives are smaller in every which way.

If you see the gap on the right it's the problem child. The top one doesn't have that problem but I still had trouble getting the screws in. They're smaller than I'm used to..

 

[criminalist]

I thought I posted in the Windows 10 Forum. Took forever to remember how to create a new thread, so I'm not surprised it's in the wrong forum.

Is it possible to have it moved to the correct forum or just leave it here?

I have a spare 500GB SSD. I will see about using it. (Spare from a laptop I had where I swapped for more GB.)

The link to amazon is for UK. I was puzzled at first, because the popup reads something about shipping to the U.S. The same hard drive on the U.S. site is twice the price.

Newegg.com has it at a more reasonable price. I trust Newegg more than Amazon.

Win10 is way too stressful!

 

[SIW2]

I have a spare 500GB SSD.

The ssd should make a big difference. I tried win10 on a hd and it was unusable

 

[criminalist]

I researched the PC with Windows 10; it was not meant for Win10. "Compatible OS" includes everything up to Windows 8.1.

Maybe, I should switch the optiplex 3020 with my self-assembled Windows 7 PC. (My father's neighbor was all about computers, so he threw away parts that were awesome. My father went dumpster diving and I've had the PC since before 2014. It still runs perfectly.)

 

[michael diemer]

I've had better luck running W10 on hard drives, after extensive modification. It's starting up fast on both a WD Blue and WD Black, almost as fast as W7 on a SSD. Get rid of Edge, get it updated to EOL, and always do hard shutdowns, as opposed to restarts. Uninstall the bloat, turn almost everything that tracks you off. Then it will behave itself.

 

[criminalist]

What is "EOL"? I seldom use 'Edge'. I don't think I have any bloat on this particular PC. (My Windows 7 is another story. After a decade, it just accumulates.)

I have Vivaldi and Opera for browsers. Outlook for email (the latest version, which is not to my liking). I have some crafting software, such as PE Design 11 and Craftsy.

I will purchase a SSD and clone the existing drive to it. (I used Macrium Reflect, but the clone will not boot the PC as it is missing the boot file.)

Thank you, everyone, for all your assistance.

 

[michael diemer]

EOL means End Of Life, but this is in reference to Windows 10. We kind of got sidetracked a little.

 

[criminalist]

I figured that's what it meant, but with today's newest software, who knows! I know Windows 10 is being updated to Windows 11, but my system claims it is does not meet the requirements. I cannot afford another PC.

 

[Bree]

I figured that's what it meant, but with today's newest software, who knows! I know Windows 10 is being updated to Windows 11, but my system claims it is does not meet the requirements. I cannot afford another PC.

There are workarounds to install or upgrade an unsupported system to Windows 11.

Your System One has an AMD Phenom II X4 840. This lacks the SSE4.2 instruction set, an un-bypassable requirement for Windows 11 24H2 or later. The last version it could run was 23H2, but that has reached EOL now.

Your System Two with its 4th generation Core i5-4590 has SSE4.2 and can run the latest versions of Windows 11. All Intel Core processors from 1st gen onwards have the necessary SSE4.2, I have 25H2 running on a 1st gen i5.

Bypass Windows 11 System Requirements on Unsupported PC | Windows 11 Forum

 

[criminalist]

There are workarounds to install or upgrade an unsupported system to Windows 11.
Your System Two with its 4th generation Core i5-4590 has SSE4.2 and can run the latest versions of Windows 11. All Intel Core processors from 1st gen onwards have the necessary SSE4.2, I have 25H2 running on a 1st gen i5.

Bypass Windows 11 System Requirements on Unsupported PC | Windows 11 Forum

I have no intention of upgrading my Windows 7 PC, but if upgrading the Windows 10 PC would make it perform better, I'll risk it. First, though, I want to clone the drive in case of this hard drive's failure.

My Windows 7 PC only had ONE issue since creation and that was the "automated" update that made it crash.

I will see about Windows 11.

Any links?

- - - Updated - - -

I jinxed myself. My Windows 7 PC just crashed. First my iPad, then my iPhone, now my Windows 7 PC.

I give up.

 

[torchwood]

unfortunately you'll have to buy a w10/w11 product key if you go that route

 

[criminalist]

Honestly, I just wanted to know why my Windows 10 is slower than 80 weight grease in January in Northern New England.

 

[criminalist]

It worked. I bought the same size SSD and used macrium to copy the hard drive. It is so much faster that I am shocked. Now, what to do with the old hard drive.