Windows Vista laptop.....Obsolete?

[eid]

Just now, The Happy Nomad said:

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.

Agreed. Some of the laptops I've come across were barely capable of running the operating system when brand new!

[Tony Brooks]

hanging the old spinner hard drive for a solid state one (maybe £30 to £40 for one that will do the job) makes a big difference with apparent speed. On an old laptop it is often just a question of undoing a screw and sliding a caddy out.

[BilgePump]

4 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

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.

Apparently the minimum spec for Win '98 was a 66MHz 486 CPU and 16MB of RAM but that would have been like wading in treacle. It was much better on a 450MHz P2 with 128MB which was a good spec at the time

[Rickent]

2 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

hanging the old spinner hard drive for a solid state one (maybe £30 to £40 for one that will do the job) makes a big difference with apparent speed. On an old laptop it is often just a question of undoing a screw and sliding a caddy out.

Yes, I havecan old Acer laptop that runs windows 10, with the old hard drive replaced with a solid state drive, it works ok.

[eid]

4 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

hanging the old spinner hard drive for a solid state one (maybe £30 to £40 for one that will do the job) makes a big difference with apparent speed. On an old laptop it is often just a question of undoing a screw and sliding a caddy out.

I bought an old Dell Latitude E6430 on e-bay which had a small SSD and windows 7 installed. I happened to have a spare 500Gb SSD doing nothing so I put that in and installed Linux Mint on it. It works faster than a windows machine ever could and cost me ~£200 (not including the SSD).

 

I put the other SSD (128GB) into a friends laptop and installed Windows 7 on it and she was delighted with the improved speed.

[jetzi]

Noooo don't bin it whatever you do. It will definitely run Ubuntu Linux no problem, and actually despite what some are suggesting Windows 10 is actually a very resource-light operating system (if you turn off all the stupid graphics effects). Plus, not sure if the deal is still on but Microsoft was allowing people with older versions of Windows to upgrade for free, so it may well be free regardless of whether you choose Windows or Linux.

 

As with all tools, it will be sufficient for some jobs and not others. So see if you can do the thing that you want to do with it, if you can't, try wiping it and putting a new OS on it, and if you still can't, then decide whether you want to try to upgrade it or sell it - I'd probably give you a few quid for it if you really don't want it.

[David Mack]

1 hour ago, The Happy Nomad said:

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.)

I haven't tried with Vista but I successfully upgraded from W7 to W10 a few months ago. Followed some instructions online and it all went without a hitch, and all my stored data and installed programmes were unaffected (although I had backed up first). Can't say I like W10 though, even with a Classic start menu installed. And the laptop is noticeably slower than it was under W7.

[bizzard]

27 minutes ago, eid said:

I bought an old Dell Latitude E6430 on e-bay which had a small SSD and windows 7 installed. I happened to have a spare 500Gb SSD doing nothing so I put that in and installed Linux Mint on it. It works faster than a windows machine ever could and cost me ~£200 (not including the SSD).

 

I put the other SSD (128GB) into a friends laptop and installed Windows 7 on it and she was delighted with the improved speed.

From Del boy?

[jetzi]

1 minute ago, David Mack said:

I haven't tried with Vista but I successfully upgraded from W7 to W10 a few months ago. Followed some instructions online and it all went without a hitch, and all my stored data and installed programmes were unaffected (although I had backed up first). Can't say I like W10 though, even with a Classic start menu installed. And the laptop is noticeably slower than it was under W7.

There is a heck of a lot you can do to speed up Windows (and reduce battery power). Windows 10 should be at least as fast as Windows 7 if you make a couple of small adjustments.

 

First thing I'd suggest is the graphics stuff. Click "start" and type "performance" - click "adjust the appearance and performance of Windows". Click "Adjust for best performance". Personally I turn on "smooth edges of screen fonts" as that's the only one that I think really makes any difference - I'm not prepared to wait even one millisecond to have such things as "translucent selection rectangles" and animations.

 

 

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, David Mack said:

I haven't tried with Vista but I successfully upgraded from W7 to W10 a few months ago. Followed some instructions online and it all went without a hitch, and all my stored data and installed programmes were unaffected (although I had backed up first). Can't say I like W10 though, even with a Classic start menu installed. And the laptop is noticeably slower than it was under W7.

I liked Win 7 too. I had it on a laptop which has just died. Or rather I think just the battery has.

 

My favourite MS of all time though is XP. Always found it stable and reliable. Thats sat on an old desktop which Im considering putting Linux on.

 

Its tragic really just how quickly tech goes out of date when you are effectively forced to update OS's to keep things secure. My curent desktop is now about four or maybe five years old, has Win 10 on it and is just about hanging in there. It does take an absolute age to start up after an update though which when you are in a rush to do domething is pretty annoying.

[mrsmelly]

2 hours ago, The Happy Nomad said:

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.

I use a chromebook. Second one I have owned. Very quick for what I want.

[RichM]

Would definitely recommend not using Windows Vista especially now it's end of life and no longer maintained by Microsoft, that means no Windows updates, no patches etc making it vulnerable compared to more modern operating systems.

 

As people have suggested, putting Linux on it would be a great idea. You could also consider upgrading the hard drive to a solid state drive or SSD which may well give it a new lease of life in terms of performance as suggested. Worth checking compatibility though and it's possible a BIOS update will be required. If you're going to do that it's arguably easier to update the BIOS while you still have Windows installed but once it's done it's easy enough to switch. 

 

For what it's worth Canal World runs on Ubuntu Linux. Mint is also a good option. 

[Guest]

14 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I use a chromebook. Second one I have owned. Very quick for what I want.

I have gone through all the tasks I do on a computer and I reckon I could easily switch over too. All my documents are on Google drive anyway, so that I can access them on any of my devices. I can edit and create documents using Google Docs and Sheets. My storage demands are not actually that great and Google store high quality pictures for free, again allowing access from any device, even my iPhone.

 

There is now a half decent basic photo editing app. in the form of photoshop express.

 

Its possible to connect a Chromebook to a monitor using the HDMI port, even if the monitor does not have a matching port. A suitable adapter is readily available.

 

When my desktop does finally fall over I'm pretty sure I will be jumping over.

[jenevers]

Bl***y Hell! All these suggestions sound complicated to a tech dinosaur like me.?

maybe I’ll just have to take it to a tech shop and let them sort it out.

I’ll need them to get all my photos off it before I get rid.

[mrsmelly]

14 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

I have gone through all the tasks I do on a computer and I reckon I could easily switch over too. All my documents are on Google drive anyway, so that I can access them on any of my devices. I can edit and create documents using Google Docs and Sheets. My storage demands are not actually that great and Google store high quality pictures for free, again allowing access from any device, even my iPhone.

 

There is now a half decent basic photo editing app. in the form of photoshop express.

 

Its possible to connect a Chromebook to a monitor using the HDMI port, even if the monitor does not have a matching port. A suitable adapter is readily available.

 

When my desktop does finally fall over I'm pretty sure I will be jumping over.

For me its the fact that it doesnt need any virus protection and loads from switched off to fully working in about 7 seconds, non of the startup crap, no fans and remains cold at all times. I dont ever play games and dont work so no need of word or whatever. Its brilliant as now for tinternet and also has storage for photos on it, its great for you tube or tv watching type stuff also. All in all depending on what ya wants its fantastic for my useage. 14 inch this one and less than 200 squids new.

[restlessnomad]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

I use a chromebook. Second one I have owned. Very quick for what I want.

wow, you are more tech savvy than I thought, or chromebook is really simple.

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, mrsmelly said:

I use a chromebook. Second one I have owned. Very quick for what I want.

Probably great as long as you are happy for all/most of your documents and photos to be stored on your behalf by Google at places unknown to you and which could suddenly start charging for storage.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, restlessnomad said:

wow, you are more tech savvy than I thought, or chromebook is really simple.

Well they are nothing much more than android tablet with an attached keyboard. The more expensive you go the better the internals but its possible to pay more for spec that you dont really need, Android, even in its latest forms is not particularly demanding on hardware. Thats why lots of people consider Google's Pixel books a bit OTT.

 

Basically if you can use an Android phone you will be able to use a Chromebook. 

[eid]

Chromebooks also run on a linux based operating system (useless fact of the day)

Edited April 18, 2020 by eid

[mrsmelly]

8 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Probably great as long as you are happy for all/most of your documents and photos to be stored on your behalf by Google at places unknown to you and which could suddenly start charging for storage.

The photos are stored on the chromebook. I dont use and have never been on the cloud or whatever its called. A good bit of kit.

16 minutes ago, restlessnomad said:

wow, you are more tech savvy than I thought, or chromebook is really simple.

Dead simple lol. I just took it out the box and turned it on much like using my smartfone. they just work lol, Im as tech savvy as a dinosaur I am pleased to say. It does ask for this and that but just skip it all and at the end it just works ?

[Guest]

10 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

Probably great as long as you are happy for all/most of your documents and photos to be stored on your behalf by Google at places unknown to you and which could suddenly start charging for storage.

Depends how much you need to store. They (most) come with internal solid state drives allowing users to use them independent of cloud storage if they wish.

[mrsmelly]

3 minutes ago, The Happy Nomad said:

Depends how much you need to store. They (most) come with internal solid state drives allowing users to use them independent of cloud storage if they wish.

Mines got 32 sometts? Plenty for what I need anyway for fotos so far. I arnt 12 and take fifty four thousand fotos every time I go out.

[bizzard]

2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Mines got 32 sometts? Plenty for what I need anyway for fotos so far. I arnt 12 and take fifty four thousand fotos every time I go out.

Gorillabites.

[Tony Brooks]

17 minutes ago, eid said:

Chromebooks also run on a linux based operating system (useless fact of the day)

Agreed but got at by Google so its no longer proper open source  linux, a bit like android in that respect. You tend to be still tied to the one operating system and if/when updates stop hard luck

[bizzard]

During high pressure periods there often isn't any clouds at all, so you'd have to wait for low pressure and the clouds to return to get at your photos.