Windows 10 running amazingly well on old hardware

Jul 23, 2015 11:14 GMT  ·  By

Windows 10 will launch in less than a week and it is supposed to work flawlessly on devices already powered by Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, as Microsoft struggled to keep system requirements unchanged to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

Since Microsoft made so many changes to Windows 10 in order to make it work on the majority of devices out there, we performed a quick test to see how smoothly it can run on a 7-year-old Acer Aspire One powered by Intel Atom N450 processor clocked at 1.66 GHz, 1 GB of RAM, and a 320 GB hard disk.

The result is surprising to say the least, as installation not only went impressively fast but Windows 10 also works fast as long as you’re not launching a very demanding app such as Photoshop.

Basically, Windows 10’s system requirements are the following (note that additional hardware might be needed to use special features, such as Windows Hello):  

Processor 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC
RAM 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit
HDD space 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS
Graphics DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver
Display 1024x600 pixels resolution or higher
  This means that our Acer Aspire One more or less qualifies for the upgrade to Windows 10, but what’s worth mentioning is that this netbook previously ran Windows XP with a resolution of 800x600 pixels.

15 minutes for a clean install

Installation was performed via a USB drive and completed in approximately 15 minutes, plus a couple of minutes needed to set up the user account.

Once this came to an end, Windows 10 not only installed all drivers automatically but it also changed the resolution to 1024x600 pixels, which is actually the default resolution that the device supports.

So basically, Windows 10 makes the 7-year-old netbook work better than on Windows XP, which was clearly an operating system whose system requirements made it a bit more appropriate for such old hardware.

The only place where the Acer Aspire One feels old is the booting process, as Windows 10 needs approximately 40 seconds for a cold start. Otherwise, it feels just as fast as any other operating system, despite the ancient hardware.

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Windows 10 on Acer Aspire One (10 Images)

Windows 10 on Acer Aspire One
Windows 10 on Acer Aspire One
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