Is it possible to create a "lightweight" version of Windows 7?

[Fortress]

I recently cleaned my old cabinet and found a very small PC (Mini ITX Slim PC). The specifications aren't really great, since it was created way back 2009. I tried installing Windows 7 Home Premium on it, since it was the only available OS I have, but it was too slow and was very sluggish on the computer. My question is, is there a possible way to turn a normal version of Windows 7 to a more lightweight, trimmed down version?

 

Hardware Specifications (Created on April 2010)

• Intel Atom D510 Processor (1.66 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)
• Intel Desktop Board D510MO (Intergrated Intel Atom processor)
• 1GB Kingston DDR2 RAM 
• Intel 60GB SSD 

 

Help would be greatly appreciated! I want to bring new life to this old computer!

 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Fortress said:

I recently cleaned my old cabinet and found a very small PC (Mini ITX Slim PC). The specifications aren't really great, since it was created way back 2009. I tried installing Windows 7 Home Premium on it, since it was the only available OS I have, but it was too slow and was very sluggish on the computer. My question is, is there a possible way to turn a normal version of Windows 7 to a more lightweight, trimmed down version?

 

Hardware Specifications (Created on April 2010)

• Intel Atom D510 Processor (1.66 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)
• Intel Desktop Board D510MO (Intergrated Intel Atom processor)
• 1GB Kingston DDR2 RAM 
• Intel 60GB SSD 

 

Help would be greatly appreciated! I want to bring new life to this old computer!

 

Windows 10?

[pckid]

1 minute ago, wra2000 said:

Windows 10?

Or even 8.1

[arranb1223]

I saw this, dunno if its helpful

http://ms-iot.github.io/content/en-US/IoTCore.htm

[linuxfan66]

What is your goal and workload

[needmorewood]

windows 10 or 8.1 i guess, I am not sure how the iGPU will handle them but give it a try

as a side note this would be an amazing time to try out light linux distros like lubuntu :D, I know that is not what you are necessarily asking but I am positive it would perform much better 

[LAwLz]

It sure is. Here is a guide.

If that doesn't help then I recommend some GNU/Linux distro instead (such as Lubuntu). There is only so much you can do to Windows.

[Fortress]

5 minutes ago, needmorewood said:

windows 10 or 8.1 i guess, I am not sure how the iGPU will handle them but give it a try

as a side note this would be an amazing time to try out light linux distros like lubuntu :D, I know that is not what you are necessarily asking but I am positive it would perform much better 

I'm probably gonna try Lubuntu if I can't find a way to trim down Windows 7, since I have used Lubuntu in the past. 

2 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

It sure is. Here is a guide.

If that doesn't help then I recommend some GNU/Linux distro instead (such as Lubuntu). There is only so much you can do to Windows.

Alright. I'm going to try it out.

[AlTech]

9 hours ago, Fortress said:

I recently cleaned my old cabinet and found a very small PC (Mini ITX Slim PC). The specifications aren't really great, since it was created way back 2009. I tried installing Windows 7 Home Premium on it, since it was the only available OS I have, but it was too slow and was very sluggish on the computer. My question is, is there a possible way to turn a normal version of Windows 7 to a more lightweight, trimmed down version?

 

Hardware Specifications (Created on April 2010)

• Intel Atom D510 Processor (1.66 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)
• Intel Desktop Board D510MO (Intergrated Intel Atom processor)
• 1GB Kingston DDR2 RAM 
• Intel 60GB SSD 

 

Help would be greatly appreciated! I want to bring new life to this old computer!

 

It's against Microsoft ToS to do that.

 

Just put Linux on it or get more ram for it. 

[GoodBytes]

Running a more "light weight Windows 7" won't help you a single bit.

Windows might have a lot of features and software that you never use, but these things don't run when you don't use them. So they consume nothing beside a few GB's.

 

What you can do, is simply use the Classic theme of Windows 7, because the Intel GPU of the Atom is crap, so using the CPU to render things might be better.

Or what you can do, is keep Aero, but wither limit yourself number of windows open, or don't use a high resolution screen, or disable the transparency part of Aero. Experiment and see. But that 1GB of RAM is really what kills you.  Not only it is 1GB but single channel.

 

Windows 8/10 is more lightweight than Windows 7, most due to optimization which really benefits slower systems, and the GUI is simpler for the GPU.

Windows 10 does have dynamic memory compression, which is nice, as you are nicely under 4GB of RAM.

 

Definitely install 32-bit version of Windows, if you really don't want get more RAM, as 64-bit Windows consumes more RAM by default (the addresses in the memory are longer, so automatically it consume more memory.

 

 

 

 

[linuxfan66]

Running a more "light weight Windows 7" won't help you a single bit.

Windows might have a lot of features and software that you never use, but these things don't run when you don't use them. So they consume nothing beside a few GB's.

 

What you can do, is simply use the Classic theme of Windows 7, because the Intel GPU of the Atom is crap, so using the CPU to render things might be better.

Or what you can do, is keep Aero, but wither limit yourself number of windows open, or don't use a high resolution screen, or disable the transparency part of Aero. Experiment and see. But that 1GB of RAM is really what kills you.  Not only it is 1GB but single channel.

 

Windows 8/10 is more lightweight than Windows 7, most due to optimization which really benefits slower systems, and the GUI is simpler for the GPU.

Windows 10 does have dynamic memory compression, which is nice, as you are nicely under 4GB of RAM.

 

Definitely install 32-bit version of Windows, if you really don't want get more RAM, as 64-bit Windows consumes more RAM by default (the addresses in the memory are longer, so automatically it consume more memory.

 

 

 

 

It should be pointed out old atoms are dreadful with modern Windows...light Linux has a much better chance as long as you aren't using anything heavy...

[GoodBytes]

Actually, now I remember, yea you are probably right.

 

My mothers old computer was an Nvidia ION platform (2GB of RAM (in 1 stick), GeForce 9300M, dual core 1.66GHz overclocked to 1.8GHz (although that really didn't help performance), and it was OK, if you were patient a bit.  Forget simple Flash based games on it, heck even YouTube HTML5 wasn't great. It was running Windows 7. I never tried Windows 8 on it thought.

 

Better advice for OP: If you want Windows, install it with whatever copy you have, but don't put in the product key when asked. It will go under trial mode. Try it, and see.

If you like it, and this is the Windows you want, and you don't have a license, and you really want to use it as system, then buy a new key, enter it, and your trial mode will turn into full. No re-install.

 

If it runs like crap, well... more crap then expected, than try lightweight Linux distro.

 

If you don't want to break your head, and want a system, then just get and install a lightweight Linux distro.