News Windows 11 Runs and Ups on 2006-Era Single-core Intel Pentium 4 CPU

[Admin]

Microsoft's system requirements for Windows 11 have become a hot mess, born from miscommunication, misinterpretation and misrepresentation. And now, a user has gotten the latest Microsoft OS to install and boot on a 2006 Intel Pentium 4 - whilst also receiving ups.

Windows 11 Runs and Ups on 2006-Era Single-core Intel Pentium 4 CPU : Read more

 

[King_V]

Pretty neat, though I'd dread running Windows 11 (or Windows 10, probably even Windows 7) on such a CPU.

That said, we had a "What's the cheesiest system you've run Windows 10 on" thread. And, while I don't see myself adopting Windows 11 anytime soon, I'd probably look forward to a new thread here of the same type, but with regard to successfully (and semi-usably) running Windows 11.

 

[DeepCool_Phoenix]

Given that I'd gotten the same processor running on Windows 10, and the similarities with 11, I'm not super surprised. Glad it isnt hard-locked out at least

 

[Krotow]

It is more a proof of concept. In reality such CPU is already too slow for normal work even in Windows 7.

 

[great Unknown]

Pretty neat, though I'd dread running Windows 11 (or Windows 10, probably even Windows 7) on such a CPU.

That said, we had a "What's the cheesiest system you've run Windows 10 on" thread. And, while I don't see myself adopting Windows 11 anytime soon, I'd probably look forward to a new thread here of the same type, but with regard to successfully (and semi-usably) running Windows 11.

I'm waiting for somebody to run it on a Commodore 64

 

[velocityg4]

Now to get it running on a 286 with 640K RAM.

 

[USAFRet]

Pretty neat, though I'd dread running Windows 11 (or Windows 10, probably even Windows 7) on such a CPU.

That said, we had a "What's the cheesiest system you've run Windows 10 on" thread. And, while I don't see myself adopting Windows 11 anytime soon, I'd probably look forward to a new thread here of the same type, but with regard to successfully (and semi-usably) running Windows 11.

Discussion - What's the oldest and/or cheesiest system you have Win 10 installed on?

Mine is a 2009 era Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955 Celeron 900, 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD. The only upgrade from stock was a warranty replacement of the original 160GB HDD to the current 250GB. Currently v1903, Build 18362.295 https://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba-satellite-l305-s5955/specs/...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[King_V]

Discussion - What's the oldest and/or cheesiest system you have Win 10 installed on?

Mine is a 2009 era Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955 Celeron 900, 2.2GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD. The only upgrade from stock was a warranty replacement of the original 160GB HDD to the current 250GB. Currently v1903, Build 18362.295 https://www.cnet.com/products/toshiba-satellite-l305-s5955/specs/...

forums.tomshardware.com

It must have been an interesting user experience if you ever hit a webpage . . lol

I remember Linux with a P4 3.6GHz with hyperthreading. A webpage had the cooler roaring like a jet engine, and brought the system to its knees. PGDN took something like 10 seconds or so to respond.

Ah, the joys of little video ads scattered about on a website...

 

[USAFRet]

It must have been an interesting user experience if you ever hit a webpage . . lol

Wasn't as bad as it would seem.
Was my original Win 10 test box, Day 1 of the original Tech Preview.

My current cheese wheel is an Asus Transformer T100HA.
Win 10 Pro, 4GB RAM, Atom proc, 64GB eMMC drive.
My travel device, fine for basic browsing or movies.

 

[Eximo]

Windows 10 on a Lenovo Ideacentre Stick 300, basically an Atom, 32GB of eMMC, one USB port, WiFi, and an HDMI out. I hardly use it, but it is an interesting toy for $90. If it didn't require a power brick it would be pretty neat as a little pocket computer, just add TV.

I tried to get Windows 10 onto a Pentium D H/T without success, missing one of the key instruction sets. Seems like they used a similar processor. I will have to double check which one I tried.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I have tried this.

Minimum Pentium 4 that works is an LGA775 Pentium 4 HT 631. Alternatively, Cedar Mill Celeron Ds also work. I only have a Pentium 4 630 which lasks the feature set to work. None of the PGA478 Pentium 4s will work, not even the uncommon 64 bit ones.

As for AMD side, I have done a fair bit of testing.

AM2 CPUs are the earliest that work.

Here is it running on my single core, single thread, Athlon 64 3800+. Its not exactly snappy.
https://ibb.co/m85MJm8

I tried getting it running on an original socket 462 Athlon 64 based Sempron and unfortunately they do not support an extension to x64 that is required for 64 bit windows versions past 8.0, so it just errors. I may be trying a workaround soon to see if I can disable the check for that, but it probably won't work.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

But is the fault on Windows 11 requirements with Microsoft

Well, yes. Their requirements are why dual core CPUs and 4GB RAM setups with sub FHD displays and a 64GB HDD can continue to exist in 2021. To them TPM 2.0, which won't protect anyone against a corporate or website data breach or from weak passwords, is the most important thing instead of ensuring a computer can actually run software decently.

And this is the same company who is attempting to push the Windows 11 exclusive Microsoft Store as a place where people can trust the apps on there and software developers can actually make money off of.

 

[USAFRet]

Well, yes. Their requirements are why dual core CPUs and 4GB RAM setups with sub FHD displays and a 64GB HDD can continue to exist in 2021. To them TPM 2.0, which won't protect anyone against a corporate or website data breach or from weak passwords, is the most important thing instead of ensuring a computer can actually run software decently.

And this is the same company who is attempting to push the Windows 11 exclusive Microsoft Store as a place where people can trust the apps on there and software developers can actually make money off of.

You know what is requiring you to run Win 11?

Absolutely nothing.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

You know what is requiring you to run Win 11?

Absolutely nothing.

Until 2025, then it's either Linux or Windows 11.

 

[USAFRet]

Until 2025, then it's either Linux or Windows 11.

Right.
And any PC in use today that is not natively Win 11 compatible will be a decade old by then. Time for replacement.
I have more than one of those, incl my current main system.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

Its very very easy to bypass the requirements. Download iso from Microsoft, open Rufus.

Select "Extended Windows Installation (No TPM/Secure Boot/8gb- Ram), and write it. Takes basically no more time than creating the USB with Microsoft's own tool.

Complaining about it probably requires more effort than bypassing the checks.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

If I'm being honest, there is no reason Win11 needs to be able to run on a Pentium 4 or any CPU from the 2000s.

By the time Win10 support runs out and people are forced to upgrade to 11, very very few people will be using systems from 2007 or something.

However I do think preventing systems from just a few years ago from running Win11 is a bit of an issue right now.

I don't even know if my computer can run Windows 11, since while it uses a Ryzen 3000 CPU, it uses a 1000 board. I am not really concerned for a few reasons. First I am content with windows 10. Secondly I do not want TPM and other things enabled anyhow, so I would disable those checks regardless.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I don't think anyone can top this:

But in all seriousness, I really don't like trying to make software submit. Not to say what happened here isn't amazing, but anyone going "see Microsoft? why can't you make Windows 11 run on my 20 year old PC?" can buzz off. That software wasn't designed for things the people implementing it didn't have or bother to test. There's plenty of alternatives out there for an OS and if the only reason why you're sticking with Windows is because you want to do PC gaming, there's nothing stopping you from having a dedicated gaming PC and having something else as a daily driver.

You don't make software developers change by complaining to them. That works sometimes. You make them change by making them irrelevant, because they know they'll have to act or continue to remain such.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

I don't think anyone can top this:

But in all seriousness, I really don't like trying to make software submit. Not to say what happened here isn't amazing, but anyone going "see Microsoft? why can't you make Windows 11 run on my 20 year old PC?" can buzz off. That software wasn't designed for things the people implementing it didn't have or bother to test. There's plenty of alternatives out there for an OS and if the only reason why you're sticking with Windows is because you want to do PC gaming, there's nothing stopping you from having a dedicated gaming PC and having something else as a daily driver.

You don't make software developers change by complaining to them. That works sometimes. You make them change by making them irrelevant, because they know they'll have to act or continue to remain such.

While I agree, I do think it is valid to blame MS for blocking installation of their software on hardware it can 100% work on.

My laptop has an I5 3337u. It's older, but still perfectly capable of running the operating system very well. But yet it can't because of an intentional lockout. Further proof is that win 11 runs fine when I bypass the checks.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

Right.
And any PC in use today that is not natively Win 11 compatible will be a decade old by then. Time for replacement.
I have more than one of those, incl my current main system.

The question is will GPUs advance enough by 2025 to make Intel 7th generation and Ryzen 1st generation setups show a distinct difference at high resolution, high detail gaming (4k max) to render them so slow as to mandate replacement for all those not in the "ultra elite every frame matters you suck because you play at 60 fps get a 5950X and 3090 you n00b" crowd. And for people like most of our parents and office users, Windows 11 and a modern setup don't give any advantages.

 

[USAFRet]

The question is will GPUs advance enough by 2025 to make Intel 7th generation and Ryzen 1st generation setups show a distinct difference at high resolution, high detail gaming (4k max) to render them so slow as to mandate replacement for all those not in the "ultra elite every frame matters you suck because you play at 60 fps get a 5950X and 3090 you n00b" crowd. And for people like most of our parents and office users, Windows 11 and a modern setup don't give any advantages.

I don't necessarily like it either.
But they had to draw the line somewhere.

How far back should they support? Give us where you think they should have made the cutoff.
And whoever is on the wrong side of that would be making these same comments.

Also, remember that this is just 2 weeks into the actual release. Things may change in the future.
Many things changed with Win 10 over the first couple of years.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

I don't necessarily like it either.
But they had to draw the line somewhere.

How far back should they support? Give us where you think they should have made the cutoff.
And whoever is on the wrong side of that would be making these same comments.

Also, remember that this is just 2 weeks into the actual release. Things may change in the future.
Many things changed with Win 10 over the first couple of years.

Well that depends on the goal. If the goal is to maximize revenue, reduce fragmentation, and increase general security, then Sandy Bridge and Bulldozer.

If the goal is the above plus ensuring performance is an actual factor, then Haswell and Zen, with the additional requirement of a quad core CPU model, 8GB RAM, and 128GB SSD.

 

[King_V]

Well, the goal is stated to be security... so I guess that's what they used to determine where the line is drawn.

 

[Eximo]

I have tried this.

Minimum Pentium 4 that works is an LGA775 Pentium 4 HT 631. Alternatively, Cedar Mill Celeron Ds also work. I only have a Pentium 4 630 which lasks the feature set to work. None of the PGA478 Pentium 4s will work, not even the uncommon 64 bit ones.

It was indeed a Pentium 4 630 that I tried, shame it is a compact little SSF Dell that, all things considered, is a robust machine.

 

[hotaru.hino]

While I agree, I do think it is valid to blame MS for blocking installation of their software on hardware it can 100% work on.

My laptop has an I5 3337u. It's older, but still perfectly capable of running the operating system very well. But yet it can't because of an intentional lockout. Further proof is that win 11 runs fine when I bypass the checks.

I will still go back to what the software developer wanted to do feature-set wise with it. Microsoft wanted to beef up the security subsystem with Windows 11 and make it standard (mostly for system builders, since that's the majority of where Windows users get their computer from). And disabling this security subsystem is all it takes to run it on older platforms. But then that's not standard configuration, so it's not "software on hardware it can 100% run on"

Because if we go down this rabbit hole, Microsoft should be chastised further by not letting us run Windows 11 on Pentium 4s since it's been clearly demonstrated you can run their OSes on it. If I wanted to go down another route, we could nag on id Software for not supporting Voodoo 2 cards on Doom 3, even though people have demonstrated you can run the game on such.

Also there's another point in this: the hardware manufacturer also no longer supports the hardware. Microsoft needs that hardware manufacturer's support in case something goes wrong. Granted yes, a 3rd gen i5 is nearly 10 years old at this point so they should be aware of the quirks, but either way Microsoft has other fish to fry and they would rather not try to spend their engineering hours troubleshooting hardware issues. And as far as I can tell, Intel recently stopped supporting 5th gen processors (https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000022396/processors.html).

Also, by the time Windows 10 reaches EOL, the minimum supported processors Windows 11 will have been 8 years old. Your i5 will be as ancient as this Pentium 4 is now. At which point I would argue if you still refuse to buy another computer, just throw Linux on there. You have options.