Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

So from my last thread it seems that there isn't a main thread for this so here's one.

If you've got some old hardware that will run Win10 and the will to do it, post about it here. Post screenshots to proove you've got it working. And no, Core 2 CPUs don't count as old, those are still usable

Well I'll start. Here's Win10 build 10130 running on a 10 year old Dell XPS M170 laptop (circa 2005). Fastest CPU option, max ram at 2GB.

Well, Windows 10 request the eXecute Dispable bit, or NX bit and the first NX bit capable CPU's were AMD Opteron's that shipped in mid-2003. So any hardware older than this won't run Windows 10 for sure.

The first Pentium's to support this were Pentium 4's in late 2004. These were the so-called "J" processors because they had J's after their model number.

Well, Windows 10 request the eXecute Dispable bit, or NX bit and the first NX bit capable CPU's were AMD Opteron's that shipped in mid-2003. So any hardware older than this won't run Windows 10 for sure.

The first Pentium's to support this were Pentium 4's in late 2004. These were the so-called "J" processors because they had J's after their model number.

Note quite. Win10 will use hardware execute disable but will fallback to software if the CPU doesn't have it. Its not a hard requirement according to this:

If my DEP settings indicate that my computer’s processor does not support hardware-based DEP, am I still protected?

Yes. DEP is a software-based feature of Windows. Some computer processors also provide hardware-based DEP under various names. These processors use hardware technology to prevent programs from running code in protected memory locations. If your processor does not support hardware-based DEP, Windows will use software-based DEP to help protect your computer.

That was in Windows Vista. In windows 8 (maybe 8.1, can't remember) NX was made a requirement. I believe the reason was security related. If you emulated the bit, then there was some attack vector that was possible, so they dropped the emulation support.

That was in Windows Vista. In windows 8 (maybe 8.1, can't remember) NX was made a requirement.

Oh haha, missed the 'Vista' in the corner.

So the first Opteron with NX bit was in 2005.

Opteron (90 nm SOI, DDR)[edit]
Single-core – Venus (1yy), Troy (2yy), Athens (8yy)

My Pentium M was also 2005 so I'm not far off from an age perspective. Maybe there's something older we're missing?

Actually, the Pentium M 780 was released in April of 2006, and didn't start shipping in equipment until mid-year.

Actually, the Pentium M 780 was released in April of 2006, and didn't start shipping in equipment until mid-year.

Wikipedia says released "July 25, 2005". Intel ARK doesn't have release date info.

Ahh.. I was misreading a different article, the processor had alrady been released, I thought the article was talking about the release. I stand corrected.

So by the sounds of the hardware, Windows 10 won't run on anything less than Socket 478 for Intel and ... Socket 939 for AMD?

So by the sounds of the hardware, Windows 10 won't run on anything less than Socket 478 for Intel and ... Socket 939 for AMD?

While true, it's not quite that simple. Not all Socket 478's work, since 478 was introduced with the Northwood cores in 2002. NX capable cores came in late 2004, and Socket 775 came out in 2006 (which by then all these had NX)