Advice Request How slow would Windows 10 32-bit run? (Solved)

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Ink

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Keeping it short. Some others have experienced with older hardware and newer OSes.

How much slower would Windows 10 32-bit make this PC?

All-in-One PC hardware specs:
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2GHz
  • 2GB RAM
  • Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT 256MB
  • 250GB HDD
  • currently running Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit
  • offline for 5 years (unused)


Thanks in advance
 

Shadowave

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Aug 10, 2012
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Keeping it short. Some others have experienced with older hardware and newer OSes.

How much slower would Windows 10 32-bit make this PC?

All-in-One PC hardware specs:
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2GHz
  • 2GB RAM
  • Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT 256MB
  • 250GB HDD
  • currently running Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit
  • offline for 5 years (unused)


Thanks in advance
Will work much better than windows 8 :), will be much better if you could upgrade to minimum 4gb ram

I never liked windows 8, on my old pc`s I was always downgrade to windows 7 or upgrade to w10 :))
 
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BoraMurdar

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I have noticed that the speed of the hard drive is maybe the most important for running an OS with smooth experience.
My laptop had similar specs (just without dedicated GPU) and I just couldn't imagine running Windows 10 on it without an SSD.
Older Windows 10 builds are usually lighter than the newer ones, which can be considerably noticed on older hardware. You can also try to slim Windows 10 in order to make less things running in the background.

Simple answer is yes. But only if you can live with slow responsiveness. Which is, again, relatively observed.
 

jogs

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If you're not using heavy programs and also not using lots of tabs in the browser then RAM will be okay, but as we all know most of the time more is better.
As Bora has mentioned the HDD will actually cause the pain.
I have a similar kind of system, the HDD is 160 GB and it runs quite well, actually PS CS6 also goes on quite okay.
But one thing I have noticed is that if you don't use a HDD for long time then most of the time its gone.:emoji_disappointed:
 

Ink

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Will work much better than windows 8 :), will be much better if you could upgrade to minimum 4gb ram
There's a difference between meeting the minimum spec and running on on minimum specs. Cannot upgrade to 4GB, unless I have the correct tools to take everything apart - which I'm not willing to do.
I never liked windows 8, on my old pc`s I was always downgrade to windows 7 or upgrade to w10 :))
It's running Windows 8.1, which runs better than 8.0, it also comes with Network Inspection service for Windows Defender.

I have noticed that the speed of the hard drive is maybe the most important for running an OS with smooth experience.
My laptop had similar specs (just without dedicated GPU) and I just couldn't imagine running Windows 10 on it without an SSD.
Older Windows 10 builds are usually lighter than the newer ones, which can be considerably noticed on older hardware. You can also try to slim Windows 10 in order to make less things running in the background.

Simple answer is yes. But only if you can live with slow responsiveness. Which is, again, relatively observed.
It originally shipped with Windows Vista, but upgraded to 7 and then 8/8.1. I'll have to check whether it's 5400 or 7200 rpm, but seems to run smooth on start up and running basic built-in apps. I've not used the machine in 5 years, so I'll have to consider what impact the latest 8.1 OS updates and drivers.
 

redsworn

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There are many guides out there to strip down Win 10 installation without sacrificing its stability and security. Try to look it up. Win 10 could feel sluggish on older system because of its bloats. If you can take care of that I'd say that specs should run fine for basic computing usage.
 
L

Local Host

I been running Windows 10 on ancient laptops with no issues (with specs even worse than yours, them Intel Pentium and no dGPU, on 5400RPM HDDs), 32 bits as well.

So if you want my advise, ignore everyone and test it yourself, most of the problems are user side (not to mention Windows Defender). Get rid of Windows Defender and you'll notice a huge boost in performance.
 

Deletedmessiah

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I agree with @Local Host's advice. My old device ran very poorly with 10 compared to 8.1. But I've also seen several people like Local Host who mentioned 10 running better than any other Windows in their old devices. So only way to find out is clean installing and see if it works. If 10 runs bad, go back to 8.1 again, if not stay with 10. You can also install some Linux distro since I've heard they run a lot better in older devices.
 

AriDfoix

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Can be ways to trim the Windows 10 I agree, I think of course this won't be a videoediting platform:

  • Nvidia GeForce 8400M GT 256MB
Sure we can install Linux, for little systems I like MX-Linux, it is user friendly and based on Debian, I use it on one my laptop and is fast as flash.

I saw on github there are some projects to trim iso images of windows, and some works can be done, I think you can do what you want do, but with some granular tuning you better results.

Regards :)
 

Evjl's Rain

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I think that adding ssd is more effective than adding memory.
true but adding an SSD on a 2GB RAM machine will degrade the SSD very very quickly because memory swapping has to work all the time. 4GB is better but still not enough
6GB+ is a sufficient amount of RAM which keeps most of the programs out of swapped memory

strongly not recommend to use Windows 10 on <4GB RAM machine because W10 consumes much more memory than older windows versions despite all tweaking and slimming. I tried w10 32bit, multiple versions on i5 first gen + 4GB of RAM laptop, with really bad result (acceptable for some people but not my standard)
If you want win10, I recommend windows 10 v1511 because it's the most stable and the lightest w10 version I can find
Windows 8.1 v9300 (latest) is similar to W10v1511 but lighter and more stable

My old laptop is blazing fast with a cheap SSD on W8.1 v9300, noticeably more responsive than itself on any windows 10 version
W8.1 is now very stable and light, unlike itself years ago, when my PC took 2-3mins to boot

with 2GB of RAM, windows 7 is highly recommended. More free RAM is better for the machine
 
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jogs

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The best solution wil be to use Win XP and keeping it offline from the internet.
 
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Ink

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Thanks for the responses, I'm going to do further research into some of the options to see which works out best.

The best solution wil be to use Win XP and keeping it offline from the internet.
Unfortunately that is neither a good solution, or a viable option for an Internet-enabled PC. Kill XP.
 
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show-Zi

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true but adding an SSD on a 2GB RAM machine will degrade the SSD very very quickly because memory swapping has to work all the time. 4GB is better but still not enough
6GB+ is a sufficient amount of RAM which keeps most of the programs out of swapped memory

strongly not recommend to use Windows 10 on <4GB RAM machine because W10 consumes much more memory than older windows versions despite all tweaking and slimming. I tried w10 32bit, multiple versions on i5 first gen + 4GB of RAM laptop, with really bad result (acceptable for some people but not my standard)
If you want Windows 10, I recommend windows 10 v1511 because it's the most stable and the lightest w10 version I can find
Windows 8.1 v9300 (latest) is similar to W10v1511 but lighter and more stable

My old laptop is blazing fast with a cheap SSD on W8.1 v9300, noticeably more responsive than itself on any windows 10 version
W8.1 is now very stable and light, unlike itself years ago, when my PC took 2-3mins to boot

with 2GB of RAM, windows 7 is highly recommended. More free RAM is better for the machine
I agree with the disadvantages that affect the lifetime of ssd. Unlike hdd, disk access to ssd by swap is quiet and hardly noticed as it does not feel slow down. I feel that there is a need for caution.:)
 
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Ink

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I looked around the PC and found the RAM cover, I could upgrade by adding another 2GB DDR2 stick, but is the price worth the hassle? What are the exact benefits?

So a quick update regarding the OS situation;
Dumped Windows 32-bit, installed Linux 64-bit - as 32-bit no longer offered for this distro.
 
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BoraMurdar

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I looked around the PC and found the RAM cover, I could upgrade by adding another 2GB DDR2 stick, but is the price worth the hassle? What are the exact benefits?
It is not worth the investment. I have DDR2 2GB on my laptop and adding 2GB more wouldn't change much as adding an SSD for those 50 bucks ( at least in my country 2GB DDR2 RAM is equal to 128GB SSD).

Lubuntu Disco Dingo is good alternative to Windows these days.
 
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Ink

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In the end, I chose elementary.io
  • very simple for a beginner
  • mimics macOS user interface - which is something they are used to
  • easy to install and update apps
  • Firefox was available - installed uBlock Origin and Emsisoft
After about 6 hours of use and tests, I think it will run well for watching livestreams and YouTube.
 
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