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Windows Vista laptop.....Obsolete?


jenevers

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If its 5 years old it might struggle with a win10 upgrade, and Vista was a crap operating system, so put it in the bin. Get a Microsoft Surface Go, a lovely little boat computer!  (probably one of the few really good things that Microsoft have done).

 

................Dave

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To use as an every day laptop I would advise against it, I suppose you could do some upgrades but with the price of laptops these days not worth it, buy a new one... now if you're feeling particularly geeky you could wipe the os and install some linux flavour and use it for something else entirely, a NAS, a router, a media streamer, a settop box, an NVR.... the list is almost endless....

Edited by Quattrodave
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9 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

To use as an every day laptop I would advise against it, I suppose you could do some upgrades but with the price of laptops these days not worth it, buy a new one... now if you're feeling particularly geeky you could wipe the os and install some linux flavour and use it for something else entirely, a NAS, a router, a media streamer, a settop box, an NVR.... the list is almost endless....

You can also install Linux and use it as a laptop.

Edited by eid
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 I am with Eid. Forget Microsoft and put a Linux on it. I would suggest Mint or Ubuntu but there are loads more versions. Its free unless you decide to make a contribution. Also unlike what I hear about MS it does not force updates on you, it tells you when they are available and you choose what you download or if you just ignore it.

 

You can run many Widoze programs in Linux using a program called WINE.

 

Lockdown is a good time to get to grips with Linux.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Try and put a clean version of windows 10 on - easy to get activation keys off ebay or you may be lucky and it activate......

Have a go with Win10, nothing to loose except a bit of time (which is likely plentiful in the current lockdown), if it looks promising then get an activation key.

 

................Dave

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12 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

Try and put a clean version of windows 10 on - easy to get activation keys off ebay or you may be lucky and it activate......

 

I suppose you could get a full version of Windows 10, but most of the time people upgrade. You'd have to have a complete version of Windows 10, because you can't go straight from Vista to Windows 10. Upgrading is done in stages, through 7 and 8, and so on. I wouldn't bother, if the laptop was pretty bog standard. 

 

 

Edited by Higgs
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If you decide not to try and install a different operating system then it might be worth you looking at how much you can get for it from someone like Music Magpie or Cash Converters. 

 

There is still a bit of money in a surprising amount of old IT kit even if it seems outdated to us. It won't make you rich but it's better to get a bit of cash and recycle than to commit to landfill 

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28 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

To use as an every day laptop I would advise against it, I suppose you could do some upgrades but with the price of laptops these days not worth it, buy a new one... now if you're feeling particularly geeky you could wipe the os and install some linux flavour and use it for something else entirely, a NAS, a router, a media streamer, a settop box, an NVR.... the list is almost endless....

We have an old Sony Vaio and a Dell Studio lying around gathering dust, can you suggest any uses for them, and in which case, how to do it?

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Microsoft seem to be allowing free upgrades from earler MS products - I recently upgraded a desktop with W8 on it with no hassle and it runs well with W10 home. However, it did have 4Gb memory.

If 'you' have sper time and a resonable internet connection - speed and data allowance, then give it a go - you can always back it out within 14 (?) days.

 

W10 since the 2020 upgrades is a reasonable operating system - if you ignore all the 'apps' (I hate that term).

I have a 17" Dell laptop with norra lot of memory with a small disk and not much memory and  it runs OK.

 

ps: get Classic Start menu  (free) and the interface looks like W7, w8. w.h.y.

 

Edited by OldGoat
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57 minutes ago, jenevers said:

Dug out my old Vista laptop. Haven’t used it for 5 years. Apparently it won’t receive Chrome updates anymore?.

shall I bin it?

Do you know the specifications of the laptop: amount of memory, processor speed, hard drive size?

 

A lot of the advice on this thread really depends on it.

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If replacing - have a look at a Chromebook.

 

Great for browsing, less so though if you do a lot of stuff like detailed photo/video editing.

 

Primarily for use with internet access, but versions are available with 'on board' storage too.

 

My next lappy will almost certainly be one of these. Don't look too much at Google's own Pixel books which are over inflated in price for what they are.

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45 minutes ago, Higgs said:

 

I suppose you could get a full version of Windows 10, but most of the time people upgrade. You'd have to have a complete version of Windows 10, because you can't go straight from Vista to Windows 10. Upgrading is done in stages, through 7 and 8, and so on. I wouldn't bother, if the laptop was pretty bog standard.

That is surely not correct?

I'm sure I have done it in the past, and thee seem to be plenty of available articles that suggest you can go from Vista to 10 in one go.

Whether the hardware will be good enough for 10 is another matter, though!

Edited by alan_fincher
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I was using my old Toshiba Setallite untill it broke down a few weeks ago. It was Vista and worked well right up until the end, neither Microsoft or Firefox support Vista anymore. Tried Opera, very basic and not very good.  I bought another Toshiba Satellite from ebay, a refurbished one on W7 which was buy it now £65 or bid, I bid and got it for £45. Works beautifully, not really bothered about being online with it, got it mainly to watch DVD's and run train simulator. They are really well built and tough and have many things that budget laptops don't have these days, like the CD player, knob for volume, earphone and mic jacks plus the other usual sockets, and I have spares from the old Toshiba. For normal use I bought a Lenovo T450 refurbished ffrom ebay £169, like new and really really fast. I recommend refurbs. Lots of ex office refurbs still in perfect nick as they tend to renew them quite regularly.

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1 minute ago, alan_fincher said:

That is surely not correct?

I'm sure I have done it in the past, and thee seem to be plenty of available articles that suggest you can go from Vista to 10 in one go.

Whether the hardware will be good eough for 10 is another matter, though!

This three year old article suggests you can indeed upgrade direct to Win 10 from Vista.

 

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-upgrade-windows-vista-windows-10

 

(subject as you say to the spec.)

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17 minutes ago, Machpoint005 said:

 

If it's old enough to be running Vista, will it actually have the resources to run Windows X?

 

Unlikely. It would probably have a single core processor for starters (if my memory is correct).

 

ETA:

 

MS lists the minimum specs for Windows 10 as:

 

  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Are they talking about multi-core processors? Are there 1Ghz multi-core processors?

Edited by eid
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40 minutes ago, bizzard said:

I was using my old Toshiba Setallite untill it broke down a few weeks ago. It was Vista and worked well right up until the end, neither Microsoft or Firefox support Vista anymore. Tried Opera, very basic and not very good.  I bought another Toshiba Satellite from ebay, a refurbished one on W7 which was buy it now £65 or bid, I bid and got it for £45. Works beautifully, not really bothered about being online with it, got it mainly to watch DVD's and run train simulator. They are really well built and tough and have many things that budget laptops don't have these days, like the CD player, knob for volume, earphone and mic jacks plus the other usual sockets, and I have spares from the old Toshiba. For normal use I bought a Lenovo T450 refurbished ffrom ebay £169, like new and really really fast. I recommend refurbs. Lots of ex office refurbs still in perfect nick as they tend to renew them quite regularly.

I see, a man of culture... :)

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48 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

That is surely not correct?

I'm sure I have done it in the past, and thee seem to be plenty of available articles that suggest you can go from Vista to 10 in one go.

Whether the hardware will be good enough for 10 is another matter, though!

 

I'm happy with that correction, but it is what I understood was the case, but have never put it to the test. The other thing was, I also thought the upgrade had to match the level of the current version, ie, Windows Basic had to be upgraded with one at the same level. You have placed doubt in my mind. 

 

 

Edited by Higgs
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1 hour ago, Stilllearning said:

We have an old Sony Vaio and a Dell Studio lying around gathering dust, can you suggest any uses for them, and in which case, how to do it?

To be fair, it would be a long subject for this forum also not wishing to be rude, it may be a bit of a steap learning curve.  However if you are interested have a look at the following:-

 

Linux router / firewall - PFSense www.pfsense.org

Linux NAS (Network Attached Storage) - Freenas www.freenas.org

Linux Set top box - OpenPli www.openpli.org

Linux Media Server - Kodi www.kodi.tv

Linux NVR - Zoneminder - www.zoneminder.com

 

Thats just a few that i've used off the top of my head...

 

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Running Vista would suggest that the hardware is somewhere around 10-13 years old so I really doubt it originally had the power or has been upgraded to be capable of running Win 10. However, if it was running okay before retirement then it's a travesty to see working tech go in the bin to buy the new shiny just because the original operating system is no longer supported. As others have mentioned before, installing Linux can give you a perfectly functioning web surfing and emailing machine with plenty of open source software replicating familiar things like word processing and graphics editing. You will need to have an idea of the spec of the machine in order to install an appropriate flavour of Linux but it's easy now. Plenty of enthusiasts sell the distros on run live / install DVD / USB stick for a few quid.

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53 minutes ago, eid said:

 

Unlikely. It would probably have a single core processor for starters (if my memory is correct).

 

ETA:

 

MS lists the minimum specs for Windows 10 as:

 

  • Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

  • RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Are they talking about multi-core processors? Are there 1Ghz multi-core processors?

The problem I find with 'minimum required' specs. defined by Microsoft is they are very much the minimum. It can make for a very slow experience with lots of disk whirring, slow to load programs and browsing that takes an age.

 

Much better to go above the minimum spec. by as much as possible to make it a bearable experience.

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