Windows 7 on OLD computers

[Kouen]

Hello all,

Would you all think it worth it to test Windows 7 Home Premium on my Laptop (My emergency and travel machine)

Specs:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 2M Cache, 2GHz, 533 MHz FSB
Memory: 2Gb Elixer DDR2 PC2-6400
Hard Drive: 80Gb Fujitsu MHT2080AT 8MB Cache 4200RPM ATA100
DVD RW Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7560A
Graphics: Intel GMA 900 (With GMA Booster)
LCD Screen: 14in 1280x768
Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio ALC260

Thanks in advance
​

 

[DocBrown]

Hello all,

Would you all think it worth it to test Windows 7 Home Premium on my Laptop (My emergency and travel machine)

Specs:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 760 2M Cache, 2GHz, 533 MHz FSB
Memory: 2Gb Elixer DDR2 PC2-6400
Hard Drive: 80Gb Fujitsu MHT2080AT 8MB Cache 4200RPM ATA100
DVD RW Drive: Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7560A
Graphics: Intel GMA 900 (With GMA Booster)
LCD Screen: 14in 1280x768
Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio ALC260​

Thanks in advance​

Should work ok. I put win7 32bit on a Compaq V5000 laptop for a student. It only had 768mb ram memory. But it did work great for a travel computer to check email & surf the net from wireless Free hotspots. They didn't do any gaming on it.

 

[Kouen]

Should work ok. I put win7 32bit on a Compaq V5000 laptop for a student. It only had 768mb ram memory. But it did work great for a travel computer to check email & surf the net from wireless Free hotspots. They didn't do any gaming on it.

Well a GMA900 is very weak for most gaming so im not expecting much in that aspect although on XP Home it does handle some WoW which aint bad id spose,

Well I'll Give it an install and see how it fairs since I need to reinstall Windows anyways

 

[Kouen]

Gave it a bash, Ran fairly well as it goes! but given i couldn't get the Aero basic to be in like a Black theme I Reverted for now to XP Home on the lappy again

Scores if anyone was wondering was

CPU 3.8
Ram 4.4
Aero 1.9
Gaming 1.0
HDD 3.8

 

[DocBrown]

Yes, it is usually the built in graphics chips on laptops that slow win7 down from peek performance.

 

[Kouen]

Well after some searching around ive found a work around that should work that im testing now, a mixture of a small launch app for transparancy and overwriting the aero theme

ill let ya know how it goes... not that ill have to do it all over again in about a week when the new hdd arrives, upgrading from 80gb 4200rpm Fujitsu to a 120Gb 5400rpm samsung

 

[bobtran]

Gave it a bash, Ran fairly well as it goes! but given i couldn't get the Aero basic to be in like a Black theme I Reverted for now to XP Home on the lappy again

Scores if anyone was wondering was

CPU 3.8
Ram 4.4
Aero 1.9
Gaming 1.0
HDD 3.8

I run Windows 7 on a Dell C640 and I also do not get Aero, but, If that is your only stopper then True Transparency works just fine and imitates Aero reasonably well.
You might also want to patch your theme to get the Vista style taskbar instead of the basic blue as you can see from my screen print.

I find that I like Windows 7 better on my laptop (it seems faster than XP, personal feeling....not tested fact) and Aero is not that important (You just get Windows basic interface). I do have True Transparency installed and theme patched to Vista sytle just because I don't like the basic theme in Windows 7, you can set TT to run on startup if you wish. Consistency across my machines is nice although my wife's machine still runs XP pro.

 

[madtownidiot]

It should install and run ok. You won't get aero with it, and will be a bit slower than with XP.

 

[Kouen]

I Wasn't able to get the black taskbar to kick in unfortunately it kept using the same old light blue one

 

[bobtran]

I Wasn't able to get the black taskbar to kick in unfortunately it kept using the same old light blue one

Change taskbar color:
http://www.intowindows.com/change-w...-basic-edition-with-home-basic-color-changer/

Use 3rd party theme's:
You must use "Universal Theme Patcher" as Microsoft does not allow you to use 3rd party themes by default:

The one I used:
http://www.unawave.de/aufhuebschen/win-7-basic-design-en.html?lang=EN
I used the "Areo.msstyles" found here:
Two other themes with Vista Retro Look and XP "Luna" Style.

A couple of additional sites:
Windows Vista Theme For Windows 7 | The Windows Club
or
Universal Theme Patcher for Windows 7 - Universal theme patcher - Windows 7 Download

do a little Google research to find alternate theme's (many to choose from, just make sure to run virus check on the file before using).

Alt theme: http://themestyles.blogspot.com/2009/06/free-alternative-theme-for-windows-7.html

Enjoy....the only drawback is that major upgrades like service packs tend to reset the uxtheme.dll and you have to re-run the theme patcher to get back to your 3rd party theme's but normal updates do not effect the theme patcher (No disabling of it in Windows 7 so far).

 

[Kouen]

I Wasn't able to get the black taskbar to kick in unfortunately it kept using the same old light blue one

Change taskbar color:
Change Window & Taskbar Color In Windows 7 Home Basic Edition With Home Basic Color Changer

Use 3rd party theme's:
You must use "Universal Theme Patcher" as Microsoft does not allow you to use 3rd party themes by default:

The one I used:
UNAWAVE - Windows 7 Basic Theme transparent
I used the "Areo.msstyles" found here:
Two other themes with Vista Retro Look and XP "Luna" Style.

A couple of additional sites:
Windows Vista Theme For Windows 7 | The Windows Club
or
Universal Theme Patcher for Windows 7 - Universal theme patcher - Windows 7 Download

do a little Google research to find alternate theme's (many to choose from, just make sure to run virus check on the file before using).

Alt theme: Free Alternative Theme for Windows 7 | Theme Styles

Enjoy....the only drawback is that major upgrades like service packs tend to reset the uxtheme.dll and you have to re-run the theme patcher to get back to your 3rd party theme's but normal updates do not effect the theme patcher (No disabling of it in Windows 7 so far).

Ah sweet cheers for that ill pug that away in my infamous "Apps, themes and drivers" folder im mostly experimenting atm till the new faster and larger hdd arrives, been working, upgrading and fixing up this laptop for emergency and out n about stuff! been coming on well too

 

[Dodge34]

I got it running on an old rig just to see it suffer and die, but its still running on this crap :

Intel D845GVSR motherboard
Celeron 335 2,8GHZ
512mb ddr (-8mb for integrated video card)
60gb hard disk
Old dvd writer just to boot the dvd of Windows 7
Integrated crappiest video card in the world (G845 express I think)

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on this beast (its just a trial version, don't worry won't pay Microsoft for this windows) there's no aero on it (what a surprise...) but it runs pretty well, was able to watch 360p youtube on firefox 3.6.12 and the machine used around 400mb of ram (of course I've disabled a load of services and crap that wasn't needed like Media Center, Tablet PC and such) I've not installed any anti-virus, that would probably kill the usability of this crap if I even installed AVG on it.

 

[2 Bunny]

WINDOWS Reply

I got it running on an old rig just to see it suffer and die, but its still running on this crap :

Intel D845GVSR motherboard
Celeron 335 2,8GHZ
512mb ddr (-8mb for integrated video card)
60gb hard disk
Old dvd writer just to boot the dvd of Windows 7
Integrated crappiest video card in the world (G845 express I think)

I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on this beast (its just a trial version, don't worry won't pay Microsoft for this windows) there's no aero on it (what a surprise...) but it runs pretty well, was able to watch 360p youtube on firefox 3.6.12 and the machine used around 400mb of ram (of course I've disabled a load of services and crap that wasn't needed like Media Center, Tablet PC and such) I've not installed any anti-virus, that would probably kill the usability of this crap if I even installed AVG on it.

Thats not that bad. 2.8Ghz is better than some modern computers.

- 2 Bunny

 

[Intel8088]

HP pavailion a 1510y desktop

Has anyone install on an old HP Pavilion a1510y?. I don't have the CPU specs as it is a friend of mines . It currently has factory installed vista he said he bought the pc right after vista first came out.

 

[DocBrown]

Has anyone install on an old HP Pavilion a1510y?. I don't have the CPU specs as it is a friend of mines . It currently has factory installed vista he said he bought the pc right after vista first came out.

If it came with Vista, I'm almost sure it will run win7. Find out how much ram memory it has.


Here's what I found:

:ar:

Model name and product number
This document contains basic features and specification for the following HP CTO model:

• HP Pavilion a1510y
• Product number: RJ028AV

Introduction date
27-Jan-2007

Country/region sold in:

• US
• Canada

Included features
Included features Specification Motherboard Name ECS: RC415ST-HM

HP: Alhena5-GL6Chipset ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 for Intel Processors Memory

• Memory slots: 2 DIMMS
• Maximum memory: 2 GB (2 x 1 GB)

Front-side-bus (processor dependent)

• 800/533 MHz

Power output wattage

• 300 Watt

Expansion Slots

• PCI: 3
• PCI Express x16: 1

Drive Bays

• 5.25" external: 2
• 3.5" external: 2
• 3.5" internal: 1

Graphics

• integrated graphics (ATI Radeon Express 1100)

Sound

• 5.1 capable sound with front autdio ports (integrated)

rb:


Probably best to run Win7 32 bit

 

[Lispkell]

I would try this on my old and useless desktop: AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 256MB RAM, some old low-budget 128MB ATI Radeon video card. It will never work out, but there's nothing on that computer (I formatted the drives) so I'd like to see what happens. It doesn't have a DVD player, though so I can't install it.

why not install a linux ? there are many lightweight linux distributions out there like xubuntu or puppy linux

 

[Intel8088]

Thanks DocBrown!

LipSkell - I think it would be a good candidate for linux but he uses it primarly for Quickbooks Premier 2007.

Vista is corrupted and he does not have the recovery disks. The goal is to get another year out of it. I figure if everything has to be re-installed may as well see in Win 7 will work. Maybe split the family pack with him.

 

[Carl Lawrence]

Yeah you could try that.

 

[ken9122]

Thanks DocBrown!

LipSkell - I think it would be a good candidate for linux but he uses it primarly for Quickbooks Premier 2007.

Vista is corrupted and he does not have the recovery disks. The goal is to get another year out of it. I figure if everything has to be re-installed may as well see in Win 7 will work. Maybe split the family pack with him.

I've installed 7 on a lot older systems than that. But I would add as much RAM as you can.

Ken

 

[DocBrown]

That motherboard has a max of 2gb !