Windows 7 Experiment

C

Condition

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 5, 2012
Messages
71
Has anyone messed with trying to run Windows 7 on the absolute minimum system specs. I'm talking bare bones here. I realize the installer prevent installation if you don't meet certain requirements, but could that be bypassed? Reason for trying is just for the nerd chills.
I'm not talking about running Win 7 on a 386, but you know maybe an old FX-51 or something.
 
Hmmm...anyone got a 486 setup? :D

Even CLI-only server Ubuntu wouldn't install on a 386 IIRC...granted on a 486 it ran like a turtle.
 
I installed it on an old 2002-ish Gateway. P4 machine with 512MB-1GB RAM, and a 20 or 40 gig IDE hard drive. Almost 100% positive it was a 20 gig drive though. Then I attached an external hard drive.

It ran like shit, and updates couldn't install, but it did install itself without having to perform any work arounds. I ended up installing a Linux distro since all I wanted was a file server.
 
BigJayDogg3 said:
I installed it on an old 2002-ish Gateway. P4 machine with 512MB-1GB RAM, and a 20 or 40 gig IDE hard drive. Almost 100% positive it was a 20 gig drive though. Then I attached an external hard drive.

It ran like shit, and updates couldn't install, but it did install itself without having to perform any work arounds. I ended up installing a Linux distro since all I wanted was a file server.
Click to expand...
P4.... damn you are a masochist.
 
Condition said:
P4.... damn you are a masochist.
Click to expand...

I'd be more concerned about the amount of RAM. I had a Windows 7 install on a 2.8GHz Northwood and it ran as smooth as butter. However I did have 2GB of RAM and a Radeon 9800 Pro for video.

You can install Windows 7 in a VM or a computer that satisfies the min. requirements, then clone the install to your target machine. I'd be surprised if you couldn't get Windows 7 to install natively on an FX-51 with the minimum RAM requirement (both x86 and x64 editions).
 
I installed Win7 on a machine then reduced it to 512MB. It idled at around 300 MB or so which really isn't that bad. The OS can really scale itself down.
 
I had win 7 running on an old HP dv4000.
Intel M 1.6ghz iirc
1.25GB Mem
60 GB HDD
Ran Okay, not as good as server 2003.
 
I have it running on a few P4s with ~1gb of ram. Runs fine, a little slow, but Office works, as do web browsers, updates, everything else.
 
I tried the Win 7 beta on a Thunderbird 3000+, NF2 system with 2 gigs of ram. Ran great, had issues with on board lan. Never found a stable driver for it. Tossed an intel nic in and the problem was solved. Load time were rather long, but surfing the web and such were just fine as long as you stayed away from HD youtube stuff..


http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1035229828&postcount=23
 
I've run it on my netbook which is probably slower than those P4s. Ran fine but was slower than XP so I reverted back.
 
ran windows 7 on a p4 northwood and 1G of ram for about a day until i realized it just wasnt going to be pretty once someone started to actually use it.
 
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