[Mini News] Windows 10 running on 256MB of memory

[You_are_a_cunt]

 

 

The picture above shows a computer running Windows 10. It is not any computer however, it contains a 12-year old processor, the oldest CPU, that can theoretically run Microsoft's latest OS. Anything prior to it will just throw error messages.

 

Microsoft's decision to have a common operating system blueprint that can run from an internet-of-thing device to a (super) computer means that Windows 10 has been built from the ground up to run comfortably on low-performance parts.

 

The most ancient processor that fits the bill is the AMD Athlon 64 3200+, a CPU first introduced to the market in September 2003, nearly 12 years ago. It's slow (about half the Passmark score of the Baytrail-based Intel Atom Z3735G found in many entry level, sub-£100 tablets) but I chose not to underclock it further.

 

The computer that housed it is a Mesh PC, one that comes with an Nvidia-powered Asus motherboard with onboard graphics, four 256MB DDR memory modules, a 40GB hard disk drive, a DVD ROM drive, a floppy disk drive and originally ran Windows XP.

 

 

I deliberately chose not to run benchmarks and/or making it perform any intensive task (getting Chrome to run 40 tabs for example). Next, I halved the system memory to 512MB (448MB available) and then down to 256MB (192GB available). 256MB RAM is what the first Raspberry Pi and the iPhone 3GS (launched in 2009) ran on.

 

sauce

 

 

Either this was pure luck or Win10 is optimized to the point where people having old machines don't need to upgrade to get rid of the limitation of (still) running Windows XP. Looks like I don't need to buy my mum a new PC just yet, since I can apparently just slap Win 10 on it and have it still work for another year or so (or until the ancient PC she's using decides it wants to finally die)

Slick move, there Microsoft. Slick move...

[techguru]

just cause you can do something....doesn't mean you should

[ZetZet]

1gb not 256 wtf... worst title ever.

[XTankSlayerX]

1gb not 256 wtf... worst title ever.

You didn't read the pictures.

 

Windows reports 1GB.

 

CPUZ Reports 256mb

[You_are_a_cunt]

just cause you can do something....doesn't mean you should

 

Let's face it: some people can't afford upgrading or buying a new PC. I'm not saying you should run Win 10 on a 10-12 year old machine, since the experience you might get would (most likely) be awful.

I'm pretty sure this would be used by people that have decent-ish old machines (which implies having more than 256mb of ram), but it's still pretty nice that Microsoft (probably unwillingly) gives you an option now. I am, however, unsure if the CPU limitations still apply (as they did on Windows 8), although I'm pretty sure they still do, so that still leaves out a considerable chunk of old machines.

 

Backtracking to my comment about mum's computer: she doesn't need something fantastic, just a basic computer that can run Office, a PDF reader and a browser. She's not keen on replacing it since "it still works fine for what she needs" and my paycheck isn't fat enough to accommodate buying her a new one as soon as possible (actually considering investing in a NUC or something similar, since that would be more than enough for her). I will eventually replace that piece of junk since the motherboard is about half-dead at this point (it's a miracle that the rig still works at all) and running anything more demanding than Win XP is just awful. Regardless of how much I'd try to convince her to get a new pc or a laptop, she blatantly refuses, so the only option I see fit is to wait for Black Friday and build her a decent PC and give it to her as a gift (she'd feel obligated to use it at that point, since it was a gift from me with my hard worked money)

[You_are_a_cunt]

1gb not 256 wtf... worst title ever.

 

 

You didn't read the pictures.

 

Windows reports 1GB.

 

CPUZ Reports 256mb

 

The test started with 1GB and later he removed 3 ram sticks to get to 256MB

[ZetZet]

You didn't read the pictures.

 

Windows reports 1GB.

 

CPUZ Reports 256mb

The computer that housed it is a Mesh PC, one that comes with an Nvidia-powered Asus motherboard with onboard graphics, four 256MB DDR memory modules, a 40GB hard disk drive, a DVD ROM drive, a floppy disk drive and originally ran Windows XP.

 

 

 

 

The test started with 1GB and later he removed 3 ram sticks to get to 256MB

well that makes sense

[You_are_a_cunt]

Updated with an extra paragraph quoted to avoid confusion

[TheProfosist]

I'm interested in installing it on my Dell 700m that has a Pentium M. I only fear that it doesn't have the required instruction sets. For something so new. I did get 7 installed on it at one point but with no GPU driver to be found I had to got back to Vista.

[Bogica]

I found that Windows 7 works much better than XP on old PCs/laptops that have at least 1GB RAM. That said, I found that certain Linux distros worked A LOT better, but due to the need for windows programs and the fact that running them in Vine on Linux took too many CPU resources I went back to Windows 7 on those old machines.

Now, what I'm interested in, can you put back 1GB and give us like an overall experience? Is it usable for some basic tasks?

Thanks and cheers!

[Mew]

Onboard graphics also takes a portion of the ram, so it may be running with even less in reality. 

 

Windows is kinda like Android where there are very low minimum requirements and doesn't really punish you for it- animations are simple, none of the graphically intense animations that Yosemite and iOS has. 

[WereCat]

Hmm. I dont know how much Windows 10 desktop and Windows Phone 10 have in common but Windows Phone 10 is supposed to be a lot like the desktop version if I am not wrong (regarding Continuum) and that is supposed also to run on older Wondows Phone devices with only 512MB or RAM. If that is really the case here I think it kinda makes sense that Windows 10 can run on such an old hardware.

[Swndlr]

Ayyye now I can comfortably upgrade my grannies PC, oh wait she uses a Mac nvm l0l

[StareX]

 

We live in a world where 256mb of memory is necessary, so necessary that we actually care.

 

Let me see Windows 10 run on a 20TB Computer.

[79wjd]

Too bad I threw out my Athlon 64+ 3000 system a year ago. 

[JAKEBAB]

Doesn't show how well it ran, imagine using chrome with only 256mb lul.

[Misanthrope]

This is nice but let's not forget that Linux can run on your watch literally, like on almost no resources at all for some distros and devices. And just like with Linux, the usability of said configurations would be severely limited like @techguru hinted.

[klopol]

just cause you can do something....doesn't mean you should

 Exactly, windows 7 with 2 gigs is not enough when you're doing updates. The 2 gigs are capped and it's painfully slow.

[Nowak]

I'm interested in installing it on my Dell 700m that has a Pentium M. I only fear that it doesn't have the required instruction sets. For something so new. I did get 7 installed on it at one point but with no GPU driver to be found I had to got back to Vista.

Windows 8 and above needs the (Execute Disable) bit to run. Pentium Ms from 2005 support the bit, but not ones from before then.

[Mooshi]

And then the PC exploded the moment you opened a couple of tabs in Chrome.

[TheProfosist]

And then the PC exploded the moment you opened a couple of tabs in Chrome.

Problem there is chrome, not the computer.

[You_are_a_cunt]

Seeing as there's some controversy:

The article is a proof of concept. That doesn't mean you should do it, it just means you could do it if needed.

 

Even my phone has more than 256MB or ram and it's in the low end spectrum of Windows Phones (Lumia 520)

[Dujun]

I got bored and got it booting at 128 MB RAM in a VM.

 

[Fred Castellum]

And then the PC exploded the moment you opened a couple of tabs in Chrome.

A couple of tabs you say?

[TheProfosist]

A couple of tabs you say?

And i'm the one that has 32GB of ram