Windows 10 on a netbook

[zxcvbob]

Wife was cleaning junk out of her sewing room and found an old netbook that I have been looking for for a over a year.  It has an Atom N280 processor with 1GB of RAM (from what I remember it's soldered in, no sockets), and Windows 7 Starter.  The stickers on the back are kind of faded and I can't read a manufacture date.  (there's probably a BIOS copyright date on the power-on flash screen)

It powered up just fine for the first time in I don't know how long.  I'm seeing now if the battery will hold a charge.  It appears to be charging slowly which is a good sign.  Will W10 Home (32-bit version) run on that?  I don't want to try to install it, have the install fail, and not be able to get back to Win7.  I guess I could install something like Puppy Linux...

[WLJ]

Check this out

10 on a Netbook? SUCCESS!
https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/13200-10-netbook-success.html

BUT
IMHO don't bother, the amount of fustration isn't worth it unless you're looking for a challenge. Even if you got it to work that thing is going to run like molasses in Antarctica  

[zxcvbob]

Check this out

10 on a Netbook? SUCCESS!
https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/13200-10-netbook-success.html

BUT
IMHO don't bother, the amount of frustration isn't worth it unless you're looking for a challenge. Even if you got it work that thing is going to run like molasses in Antarctica  

Thanks!  Looks like it will work.  I don't care if it's actually useful for anything :)   I should see if this is the one with an SSD or if it has a HDD.  SSD would really help.  But I need to get 10 activated first...

[lee n. field]

Wife was cleaning junk out of her sewing room and found an old netbook that I have been looking for for a over a year.  It has an Atom N280 processor with 1GB of RAM (from what I remember it's soldered in, no sockets), and Windows 7 Starter.  The stickers on the back are kind of faded and I can't read a manufacture date.  (there's probably a BIOS copyright date on the power-on flash screen)

It powered up just fine for the first time in I don't know how long.  I'm seeing now if the battery will hold a charge.  It appears to be charging slowly which is a good sign.  Will W10 Home (32-bit version) run on that?  I don't want to try to install it, have the install fail, and not be able to get back to Win7.  I guess I could install something like Puppy Linux...

will it run?  barely.   Even if you do everything possible to improve performance  (RAM to 2GB, SSD swapped in place of SSD), it won't run acceptably well.

Some low impact Linux is the best bet.

[Hawkmoon]

I would do it.

I wanted to have an inexpensive tablet for taking some reference documents into the field with me (work-related). After an Android tablet from Staples failed miserably (wouldn't load the rather large PDFs at all), I went to Amazon and picked up an 8" NuVision brand tablet. It has 1 GB of RAM, runs on some version of the Atom, and it came with Windows 10 Home (full version, not "mobile") installed. Performance is entirely acceptable.

[WLJ]

I would do it.

I wanted to have an inexpensive tablet for taking some reference documents into the field with me (work-related). After an Android tablet from Staples failed miserably (wouldn't load the rather large PDFs at all), I went to Amazon and picked up an 8" NuVision brand tablet. It has 1 GB of RAM, runs on some version of the Atom, and it came with Windows 10 Home (full version, not "mobile") installed. Performance is entirely acceptable.

Safe to say I have a somewhat difference opinion of what acceptable means in this case. Maybe hitting the power button and actually being able to use the machine in 5 seconds from a cold boot has spoiled me 

[Hawkmoon]

Safe to say I have a somewhat difference opinion of what acceptable means in this case. Maybe hitting the power button and actually being able to use the machine in 5 seconds from a cold boot has spoiled me 

I would have to agree. I have never had a computer that would go from a cold start to ready-to-rock in 5 seconds. Even on my newest desktop, it's more like maybe two minutes (not sure, I've never timed it).

I converted an Acer Aspire 1 from Windows 7 Starter Edition to Windows 10 before I sold it -- it wasn't any slower with Windows 10 than it was with the native Windows 7 Starter Edition.

[Hawkmoon]

Thanks!  Looks like it will work.  I don't care if it's actually useful for anything :)   I should see if this is the one with an SSD or if it has a HDD.  SSD would really help.  But I need to get 10 activated first...

I waited until Windows 7 had been beyond end-of-service by a couple or three months before finally drinking the Kool-Aid biting the bullet and "upgrading" to Windows 10 on four older notebooks. The time window for the free upgrades to Windows 10 was supposedly long since past, but they all went through with no problem. Like it or not, my entire fleet is now running Windows 10 (in various incarnations). I think Microsoft really REALLY wants everyone on Windows 10.

[WLJ]

I would have to agree. I have never had a computer that would go from a cold start to ready-to-rock in 5 seconds. Even on my newest desktop, it's more like maybe two minutes (not sure, I've never timed it).

I converted an Acer Aspire 1 from Windows 7 Starter Edition to Windows 10 before I sold it -- it wasn't any slower with Windows 10 than it was with the native Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Got W10 installed on a Samsung Evo 970 M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. M.2 PCIe means direct interface on the motherboard, no cables.
3,500 MB/s baby!
Reg cabled non PCIe SSDs usually max out at 600

Gigabyte Motherboard is 4.5 years old.
i5 6500
16 GB ram. 8 vs 16gb ram makes zero difference in boot speed.

Edit: And I should note that to get those speeds the M.2 PCIe needs to be of type NVMe. There are others but they're usually limited to 600MB/S

[zxcvbob]

After I pull all the old files off of here that I might want to keep, I will upgrade to 10.  Then make sure it's activated, then do a scratch install.  Don't know yet if I want to put even $25 into it for a 2nd-tier brand SSD.  (it has a 240 or 250 GB SATA hdd) The battery seems surprisingly fine (last time Windows update was run was in 2012) but the keyboard is a little flaky, and the max screen resolution is only 1024x600.  The keyboard may get better with use -- knock the cobwebs and dust out of the contacts -- but the display res is not going to get any better.

I'm using the netbook right now to post this.  On battery.  It still has 92% left after a half hour of surfing with the screen brightness on high.  It predicts over 7 hours of use left.  Of course it might suddenly drop from 60% to 0...

[zxcvbob]

I found hundreds of pictures on here, taken by me and another guest at a nephew's wedding back in 2009.  Gonna burn a DVD and send it to them :) 

I got Windows 10 Home 32-bit to install.  It took a couple of tries for no obvious reasons (bizarre errors and hangs)  And it's activated.  I had to get a Windows 7 display driver from Asus and install it because the MS driver was defaulting to 800x600, but I think the other drivers are okay; they look okay in Device Manager.

Performance on the thing sucks, of course.  I haven't done anything about that yet; it might get better with a few tweaks.

Not sure if the next step is a clean install of '10, or Linux now that I know I can get back to '10 because it's been activated once.

[WLJ]

I found hundreds of pictures on here, taken by me and another guest at a nephew's wedding back in 2009.  Gonna burn a DVD and send it to them :) 

I got Windows 10 Home 32-bit to install.  It took a couple of tries for no obvious reasons (bizarre errors and hangs)  And it's activated.  I had to get a Windows 7 display driver from Asus and install it because the MS driver was defaulting to 800x600, but I think the other drivers are okay; they look okay in Device Manager.

Performance on the thing sucks, of course.  I haven't done anything about that yet; it might get better with a few tweaks.

Not sure if the next step is a clean install of '10, or Linux now that I know I can get back to '10 because it's been activated once.

When you install linux it should ask if you want to install it along side W10. That way you can have it boot to either at start up. Handy if you want to keep W10 on hand for those times you may need it for compatibility reasons