Windows 7 Successfully Installed on a Pentium II
What are the minimum system requirements for running Windows 7?
When Microsoft made the Windows 7 RC available, it also issued an official list of system requirements for anyone hoping to install the OS:
- 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
- 1GB of main memory
- 16GB of available disk space
- Support for DX9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)
Not exactly monstrous and the same as what you needed to run Vista years ago. That said, one Windows enthusiast decided to push the limits and in a kind of “how low can you go” scenario, managed to get Microsoft’s latest OS running on a Pentium II at 266 MHz CPU, 96 MB of RAM and a 4 MB graphics card.
The user hackerman1 posted about his efforts on the Windows Club Forums for the world to see and his fellow posters we, like the other users on the forum, were suitably impressed. Hackerman1 said he did three different tests (128 MB, 96 MB and 64 MB of RAM). Of these, he had success with both 128 MB and 96 MB, while his 64 MB attempt returned error messages reading “insufficient memory.”
Hackerman1 went on to say that he also has a Pentium I with a 166 MHz CPU and a 1 MB graphics card and says if he can dig up the PSU, he’s going to test that next. Check out the screenshots below.
(via TECHSPOT)
*All pictures credited to the original poster (hackerman1) on forum.thewindowsclub.com.
- Report: Microsoft to Release Free Antivirus Tuesday
- DISASSEMBLED: The iPhone 3G S
- Patriot Memory's Torqx SSD Beats Intel's X25-M
- QOTD: Worst Thing to Ever Happen to Your PC?
- Bill Proposes Regulation of ISP Bandwidth Caps
- Super Talent SSDs Offer 128 MB DRAM Cache
- Intel Retiring Centrino Brand From Notebooks
- Microsoft Extends Windows 7 to XP Downgrade
- Lenovo's T400 Gets Run Over By Truck
- Cost of Blu-ray Players to Hit $50 in 2010
- QNAP Offers World's Smallest NAS
- Windows 7 to Make Your Ears Happy
- Microsoft Releases Windows 7 Upgrade Tool
- HRDs Faster than SSDs and HDDs
- Lenovo Makes Thinkpad T400s Official
- Gateway Launches Athlon-powered Netbook
- Steve Jobs Returns to Work
- HP's Web Enabled Printer Doesn't Need a PC
But how well does it run crysis.....
Seriously - kudos on getting it to work, you've got to wonder whether its any use for anything though - I bet even wordpad or calculator take an age to load ... i'd like to see some startup / app benchmarks
Wonder if i could install os 7 for my iphone. =D
sometimes it just works (like apple :?)
I had a 166MMX that I overclocked to 3x100MHz, 128MB RAM, ran XP better that pentium 3 at 600MHz 64MB, really smooth.
i likw these sort of tests, this is what puts me off upgrading from xp the system requirments for the new microsoft operating system is stupid.. i firmly believe most of it is bloatware and that the code is so inneficient it is just a waste of computing resourses... imo microsoft should only give the windows development team pc's that are 10 years old. so that when the os is run on a new machine it is very fast and sleek :-)
I have seen XP on a laptop powered by an AMD K5 350mhz and 64Mb of Ram.
It was as slow as an asthmatic ant crawling up a hill with heavy shopping but worked nonetheless.