Pentium 4's and Windows 10

Just wanted to do an Windows 10 upgrade on a Intel D915GUX system.  System was Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.  Failed because the PreFetchW instruction is missing from the Pentium 4 660  processor.  In fact that instruction is missing from all the Pentium 4's that are not the series 9xx dual core.   Of course the Intel 915 and 925 chipsets do not support dual core processors.    Only option for Windows 10 support would be 32 bit, which isn't all that bad just not the best choice.

For a power user, 32 bit mode would be a downgrade for sure.   I can understand why some people are saying 32 bit mode is fine if you have 4gb or less of system memory.  Didn't say I agree with them, just that I understand their reasoning.    For the record, stick with 64bit.

If you are using older hardware (talking 10 year old hardware or even older) time to upgrade that mainboard and processor!  Seriously, you'll save more buying new than you would trying to upgrade the hardware.  New hardware is cheap, course some of the systems are cheaply made as well.  Use caution.   You would be amazed at the performance increases you will see with modern hardware.

Replaced the mainboard and processor with Intel D945GTP mainboard and Intel Pentium D 945 processor we had lying around.  Used the same case, disk drive, DVD drive and system memory.  However did add more memory, I know Intel says mainboard only supports 4gb of DDR2 memory but I think that is wrong since the chipset supports 8gb.  Memory is setup as one 2gb, two 1gb's and a single 512mb.  (I know 512mb but we still have a bunch lying around and even more useless 256mb's!)   Figured every little bit of memory is good and might as well test a theory at the same time...  It worked :)

Saving a little space

After my Windows 10 desktop system has been up and running for a few weeks, I decided to remove the old Windows 8.1 install that the Windows 10 upgrade created.  Found out it will save (gain) me about 20gb in storage space... big deal if you you want to port over to a smaller sized SSD drive.   I have 112gb's in use and wanted to use a 120gb SSD.  Makes sense to remove the old install.  I used the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup tool  (right click on drive and click properties)

I usually use CCleander for nice clean up but decided on using the built in to see how well it works.

Another utility from the Piriform folks is Defraggler.  It will move files that normal Windows Defrag will not.   Just had an issue yesterday where Windows Defrag was complaining about unmoveable files that Defraggler moved for me :)  This product works well and is fast.   IOBit's Smart Defrag is also a good choice but I think Defraggler out performs.  (personal opinion)

Windows 10 on netbox

Did a Windows 10 upgrade thru Windows Update on an FoxConn NT-535 Netbox a few days ago.  Slow.  Disk drive was only a 5400 rpm Western Digital 160gb SATA-1. Yes, SATA one! Do not recommend this setup for any sort of disk I/O speed!  Processor is an Intel Atom D525 dual core 1.8GHz.  System has 4gb DDR3 so-dimm memory and was already running Windows 8.1.  Video is VGA or HDMI running on Intel HD 3150 controller. This was the longest install I have done, almost an hour and a half.  Yes, 5400 RPM SATA-1 drive needs replaced badly!   Performance of the CPU and memory are fine, actually pretty impressed with that Atom processor, bottleneck is disk I/O for sure.  Disk Cache software helps but still feels slow.  I installed an Intel 802.11N miniPCI wireless board, only one antenna connector in case but signal strength is still very good. 

This netbox case is pretty cool, very small and love how it snaps on to the back of any VESA mount monitor or TV.  Case bracket screws to the VESA mounting holes and case just snaps into the bracket.  Supports both the VESA mount standards too.   With USB on top and bottom of the case, access is not an issue when adding flash drive or replacing any USB device.  Slick setup, not a fan of the piano black but once behind a monitor you don't see it.  I think it shows finger prints too easy.

Had no install issues other than slloooowwwwww disk I/O.  All necessary drivers were found and installed by the update.  Highly recommend this case setup, add SSD drive and this thing would fly and be perfect for HTPC or ultraSFF.

More Windows 10

Upgraded my D945GCL system to Windows 10 Pro tonight.  It has an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor (2.4) and only 3GB DDR2 memory.  No SSD, traditional Seagate 7200 RPM 120GB SATA.  Installation was thru Windows Update and worked without any issues.  AVG Internet Security 2014 was installed before the upgrade started and it stayed 2014 afterwards (figured it would but was hoping since Microsoft re-installs AV products they might have updated for me). I downloaded and installed AVG Internet Security 2015.  No issues.  The graphics driver is same version as in Windows 7 just a few builds newer.  System runs same if not slightly faster than when it was Windows 7 Pro.  Needs more memory, will replace the 1GB stick with a 2GB stick soon and see if there is a slight boost.  Main bottleneck seems to be disk drive related but since it is for my daughter, and she isn't a power user yet it will be fine.

My Acer Aspire 5732 notebook installed Windows 10 last night.  It was smooth, about an hour.  It needs an SSD drive.  It is a Intel Pentium T4300,   It has 4GB of DDR3 memory.  Over all system speed is great for the age of the hardware.  Had no installation issues.  Windows 10 upgrade was thru Windows Update.  No driver issues with touchpad, audio or network.    This system had Microsoft Office 2007 on it and it runs fine as well still.  This system is for one of my sons, so no need for mega speed yet.


Adding an SSD drive in the near future will bring major life into these systems.  Installed Classic Shell 4.2.4 on both systems and changed start buton icon to look like Windows 7.

Windows Start Menu

For those of you who don't like the 'hybrid' start menu in Windows 10, install Classic Shell.  Change the start button and you can have the traditional looking Windows 7 Start Menu back or go retro and get a XP style menu or even Windows classic start menu.

Some people like StartMenu8 from IOBit.  Basically the same as classic shell.  Both utilities are free and have been around for awhile so they are very stable.  

I personally prefer Classic Shell when I was working with Windows 8 and 8.1.   So I decided to install it on Windows 10.  Downloaded the latest beta which talks about Windows 10 features.  Worked fine from the start.  Did my normal tweaks inside the settings and looks slick. I turned it off after a few hours.  I am using the Windows 10 start menu just to get used to it, might switch back to Classic Shell later.

Classic Shell Home Page
IOBit StartMenu8

 

More Windows 10s

Upgraded a Windows 7 Ultimate system using Intel DG965GF mainboard with Intel E4500 processor.  All thru Microsoft update.

Even with the slower processor, Windows 10 responds quickly.
Had two issues with this system, gave two 'Other Devices' with the dreaded exclamation mark in device manager; 'PCI Serial Port' and 'PCI Simple Communications Controller'.   (Just like all the other OS's have done for these devices, easy and simple fix.)

To correct the 'PCI Serial Port' needed to install the Intel AMT driver (Active Management Technology).

To correct the 'PCI Simple Communications Controller' needed to install Intel Desktop Utilities.

Both of the downloads came directly from Intel.com.  Needed to run both as Vista and admin to get them to install properly.   Desktop Utilities is working fine.  AMT says disabled but that is because it is in the BIOS as well.

Thinking about trying it under a Pentium 4 HT or Pentium 4D just what it does.  Stay tunned

UltraVNC still works under Windows 10 using the Vista mirror driver.  Not seeing any screen issues.  Seems to be about the same speed as before.  Tried various methods and options.  Everything seems normal as with Windows 8.1 or before.



Make sure you check the new notification center from time to time, click the note icon in the system tray.  

You guessed it...

another Windows 10 upgrade.

This time Windows 10 upgrade on a MSI G41M-P23 mainboard system with Intel E6550 processor and SSD drive.  This one completed in about 35 minutes.  It was bare bones with only AVG Internet Security 2015 and ASC 8.3 Pro installed.  SSD drive must have cut the time down a lot.   Update was done thru Microsoft update.


WinSAT numbers are all the same accept for Direct3D scores.  The Direct3D scores have been 9.9 on all systems checked.  This seems odd to me, must be a bug in WinSAT.  Regardless, the video system appears to be much better in Windows 10.   The response time for start menu appearing, windows moving around the desktop, etc just seems faster.

My first Windows 10 upgrade....

My first Windows 10 upgrade was July 29th around 11pm on my Asus X555LA notebook with Intel i5-4210 processor.

It worked pretty well, better than I thought.

Had to do a few things after Windows finished upgrading.

• Installed Microsoft C++ 2012 redistributable to get AVG Internet Security 2015 to come up and then had to re-install AVG (which AVG did automatically).  
• Installed new version of ASUS SmartGesture to get touch pad to automatically turn off when external USB mouse plugged in. 

On all the other Windows 10 upgrades with AVG installed, I have not had to do the C++ 2012 redistributable.  Microsoft must have made a change in the upgrade installer or I've just been very lucky.   All of the other upgrades have been this week.

More Windows 10

Another older hardware system upgrade to Windows 10.  This time it was an Dell OptiPlex 380 Windows 7 Pro system to Windows 10 Pro.  No issues, effortless.  Took about an 1 hour.  Intel E7500 processor.  This upgrade was done using Microsoft update.







Newer hardware upgrade this time.  Upgraded HP 19-2113w Windows 8.1 system to Windows 10.  No issues, effortless. Took about 45 minutes.  Intel Celeron J1800 processor.  This upgrade was also done thru Microsoft update.





Being part of MSDN we get Microsoft products way before released to public, alpha, beta and pre-releases.  I knew 10 was going to be good but didn't realize how well it works on various models of hardware.  Very impressed with how well the upgrade installer works.

Windows 10 upgrades

Today we did some Windows 10 upgrades.  Two Windows 7 Ultimate systems with older 'not compatible' video cards and one running Windows 8.1.  Upgrade process finished after about an hour for each.  Of course the standard video driver and resolution was horrible on older hardware.

For the Nvidia 7300/7200 system just download the Windows 7 64bit driver and everything worked perfectly.  Intel DG33FB using E8500 processor.

For the ATI Radeon X1550 system just downloaded the Vista 64bit driver and ran under compatibilty mode and everything worked perfectly.   Intel DQ35MP using Q9400 processor.

One system was using the Microsoft Wireless Keyboard/Mouse 700 receiver and of course that didn't come up properly after the upgrade.  Had to manually change the USB driver to 'USB Composite Device' instead of 'Microsoft Wireless 700 Receiver'.   Odd, but works.
 
For the Windows 8.1 system, upgrade was effortless and had to do nothing special.  Intel DG33FB using E8600 processor.

All systems had AVG Internet Security 2015 installed and only need to reboot after the installation finished to restart the firewall.

Impressed with Windows 10 so far.