[SOLVED] Would upgrade to Win 7 do any good?

[mike the car guy]

Yes, I'm living in the dark ages. I just upgraded my desktop to Win 7 because too much stuff, mostly internet, wasn't working. And I like it! My surprise is because most of my experience with 7 was at work where they could **** up a wet dream. They had an XP machine, 4 core, 8G memory that took 10 minutes to boot in the AM. Win 7 was OK, but no better.

Anyway, I also have a much more humble laptop, a Toshiba Satellite M55-S1001 from 2005 or so that was actually pretty good for limited use until a couple of years ago. But now it hangs on everything internet related it seems. So, being as this is a 1.6 Celeron, 1.25G memory machine would 7 be an upgrade or just make things worse? Yes I have looked at the minimum specs and it fits, but you guys/gals know better what will really work and what won't.

I tried to replace it several years ago with a Win 10 Dell which I hated pretty much from the moment I booted it up, My wife ended up claiming it and I went back to the Toshiba. I'd just buy a new one except prices are sky high right now with everyone working from home so if I could limp another year or two out of it I'd love it.

 

[Colif]

The machine only goes up to Vista but that is fine since the differences between it and 7 are mostly skin deep - https://support.dynabook.com/support/modelHome?freeText=1311519&osId=3333635

If the machine has Vista drivers, it means its likely fine on Win 7 as well as it is actually less demanding than Vista was. Win 10 easier still but I not mad enough to suggest that on a machine that is running XP.

 

[mike the car guy]

Colif, you're everywhere here! Thanks again for your help on the other laptop, it's running better than ever.

But, what you didn't answer, is would it perform better, or is the hardware so old and slow it's hopeless? I know the real answer is something that isn't eligible for a drivers license, but I'm hoping to put that off until prices go down at least.

 

[Colif]

I haven't used a Celeron since I had XP, my 1st PC had one, makes your PC look fast, 300mhz - https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=27183 - there were only 2 Celeron models before mine.

realises after looking at Celeron list that 1.6 Celeron is both its speed and model name - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors

I don't know how well it would run as its 15 years or more since I used a PC with 1 core or XP. My Vista PC at least has 2 cores (still runs) and I used it for 8 years. Core count exploded since then.

I am pretty sure others will know that answer.

 

[Krotow]

Mentioned Toshiba Satellite M55-S1001 was good for the era when it was made. At today systems with single core CPU with RAM below 3 GB is very much outdated. No surprise why Internet browsing is slow too - Web pages everywhere now are built on frameworks with a plenty of JavaScript running behind pages and browsers itself slurp a gigabyte or more RAM instantly for page cache. I'm not saying that you can't use your laptop as typewriter, for monitoring and configuring industrial devices or similar. But alas for productivity it is long obsoleted.

 

[mike the car guy]

Mentioned Toshiba Satellite M55-S1001 was good for the era when it was made.

Really? While I always liked it for a vacation machine when I was on the road, at $400 it was hundreds cheaper than anything else back then.

I'm not saying that you can't use your laptop as typewriter, for monitoring and configuring industrial devices or similar. But alas for productivity it is long obsoleted.

I know it's horribly obsolete, but I'm trying to figure out if an Ebay Win 7 install might give me another year of service in a quasi functional manner, primarly on the road. Low expectations, just would it be a noticeable improvement or would it be worse?

 

[USAFRet]

I know it's horribly obsolete, but I'm trying to figure out if an Ebay Win 7 install might give me another year of service in a quasi functional manner, primarly on the road. Low expectations, just would it be a noticeable improvement or would it be worse?

An "Ebay Win 7 install " may come with all sorts of weirdness.

With WIndows, the thing you pay for is the license. Not necessarily the install.
Seeing as WIn 7 is no longer available from MS for either a new license or download....what you get from fleabay is guaranteed to be suspect.

 

[mike the car guy]

So you're not buying the "full license," tiny bit of hardware means you can transfer it routine? While I have heard of COA's being used and therefore unusable, I haven't heard of problems if it does install, though I am far from an expert. I'm sure you would know better then me, is "suspect" gray market and something MS would like to go away or actually counterfeit and not the full MS code?

 

[USAFRet]

So you're not buying the "full license," tiny bit of hardware means you can transfer it routine? While I have heard of COA's being used and therefore unusable, I haven't heard of problems if it does install, though I am far from an expert. I'm sure you would know better then me, is "suspect" gray market and something MS would like to go away or actually counterfeit and not the full MS code?

"ebay Win 7 install"

Are you purchasing just the license?
Or an actual DVD or USB with "Win 7" to install with, and an included license?

Either way can have serious issues.

 

[mike the car guy]

An actual DVD with license.

 

[USAFRet]

An actual DVD with license.

hahaha,....that install is almost certainly full of malware.
The license is almost certainly some variant of NotValid.
Especially if the seller has some hundred or thousand to sell.
And especially if it is "cheap".

Just put a Linux variant on this old laptop, and don't worry about it.
Just a travel system, right? Web browser, watch movies, email...done.

 

[mike the car guy]

Just put a Linux variant on this old laptop, and don't worry about it.
Just a travel system, right? Web browser, watch movies, email...done.

Pretty much, I might. Ironically there is one MS program I do use a lot, an old Streets and Trips which can be very helpful on the road. Google maps etc not so much, often I'm out of internet range.

 

[Krotow]

About those gray MS licences... Friend of mine some time ago bought two of these - MS Office 2013 Standard for two his office computers for like 15 € each. Obviously on activation keys turned out already activated elsewhere. He called local Microsoft support. They said something about volume licensing violation and recommended him to purchase proper retail copy. But friend was thorough guy. He went through phone activation with call to overseas. Didn't worked at first time. Turned out that due to changes in Microsoft web site friend installed Office though Office 365 installer so he obviously had wrong office version. At end friend got proper ISO file from local retailer - don't ask me how they gave it to him. These after Office reinstall activated successfully. I'm still convinced that first BSA visit in his office will turn into very expensive entertainment.