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Can’t upgrade your PC to Windows 11? Buy a new one, is Microsoft’s laughable solution
(www.techradar.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2024
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Humm, I installed Windows 11 on a really old Dell laptop (clean install). I'm sure it was not HW supported but it installed fine. I may have had to click something like, " Yeah I know it doesn't meet the specs"; but otherwise fine.
No, I don't like Windows but it's what my partner needed at the time.
As long as it is 8th gen Intel or newer it is officially supported. It depends on what you mean by "really old." I have hardware from the early 2000s that runs Debian.
Finally got around to looking up the info on it.
It's a Dell Latitude D630 (model PP18L according to the label). CPU is: Intel Core 2 T7250, 2.00GHz, 800MHz, 2M L2 Cache, Dual Core Built: 27 MAR 2008 (actually newer than I thought) Last OS to have support from Dell was: Windows Vista 32/64 bit RAM is: 2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM
Per this page it doesn't meet the specs: Windows 11 requirements But that page also states:
so it's more of a soft spec than an actual hard minimum.
I have systems from before 2000 that I'm sure would run x86 Linux (especially DSL Linux: [DamnSmallLinux.Org](https://www.damnsmalllinux.org/ and such). Can't wait to browse using Lynx again :-)
edit: formatting
You can run a bunch of of things on that hardware. The limiting factor is the ram so if you can upgrade it there will be a massive improvement. Also look into getting a SSD.
I would go Debian with Firefox ESR and ublock origin. You can apply the Firefox privacy patches if you want.
I can't see investing upgrades into HW that old (I know I could, just doesn't seem like the best use of money in the long run).
Also, my partner's SW is only available for Windows and I don't feel like teaching them enough Linux to run Wine under it.
Well that hardware isn't going to run a supported version of Windows anyway.
2 GB of ram should be enough
That was my original point: it is running Windows 11 right now. A bit slow, but it runs.
Windows 11 requires 4 GB of memory and a newer CPU. There is no way that's officially supported by Microsoft.
However, somehow I think you know that. Just keep in mind it probably will have issues and updates may not apply. (No security patches potentially)