What operating system should I put on my quite old computer

lonestarfan

Following a few difficulties when we needed emergency docs etc I need to improve our old computer I think. It’s Windows 7 vista home premium service pack 1. 32 bit. 3GB RAM. Dell dimension. AMD 64 x 2 Dual core processor 4000+. 2.10 GHZ.
It does always seem very slow.  Not sure what browser we use. It’s hasn’t got Microsoft office. It did have that once but I can’t remember what happened to it or where our product keys are now. 

giraffe69

It might be Vista. It might be Windows 7. They are two different things. You can always use one of the free products instead of Office like Libre Office. You might find your computer is a bit past it but you don't need to spend a fortune to get something serviceable.

lonestarfan

If they’re 2 different things what do you think about it saying when I right click on computer and select properties it tells me it’s windows 7 vista home premium? I didn’t know they’re 2 separate things. Is my computer corrupt?   

lonestarfan

Thank you. How do I install windows 10? Is it free? 

HereToday

lonestarfan said:

Following a few difficulties when we needed emergency docs etc I need to improve our old computer I think. It’s Windows 7 vista home premium service pack 1. 32 bit. 3GB RAM. Dell dimension. AMD 64 x 2 Dual core processor 4000+. 2.10 GHZ.
It does always seem very slow.  Not sure what browser we use. It’s hasn’t got Microsoft office. It did have that once but I can’t remember what happened to it or where our product keys are now. 

SSD is needed; otherwise it will soon slow again, even with a clean install.

From as little as £16: https://www.mymemory.co.uk/memory/data-storage/ssd-drives.html?dir=asc&order=price

Then you can clean install Windows 10, 32-bit or 64-bit is up to you, then purchase an inexpensive product key via eBay.

Total cost under £20.

You need not touch the existing slow HDD within. You can add the SSD as the new Windows Boot drive; keeping the old one connected for storage with access to existing files.

sweetgirl2015

If you're not using it for the internet, I'd install Windows XP,  it was the best by far. 

wongataa

lonestarfan said:

Thank you. How do I install windows 10? Is it free? 

It is free.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/windows10

onomatopoeia99

sweetgirl2015 said:

If you're not using it for the internet, I'd install Windows XP,  it was the best by far. 

It surely was not, there were some serious fundamental architectural problems with XP and the other NT kernel operating systems that preceded it.

molerat

lonestarfan said:

If they’re 2 different things what do you think about it saying when I right click on computer and select properties it tells me it’s windows 7 vista home premium? I didn’t know they’re 2 separate things. Is my computer corrupt?   

It does not show that.  W7 and W Vista are completely different operating systems.  It will be one or the other, home premium is a sub version of either.  If it is W7 then a simple free upgrade to W10 is available.

CoastingHatbox

Probably best not to encourage people to do things that are illegal.

"You are authorized to use this software only if you are properly licensed and the software has been properly activated with a genuine product key or by other authorized method."

You could try Linux. I'd recommend Debian with the Cinnamon desktop on old hardware. Look for the unofficial 'with non-free firmware' ISO for the least painful installation experience. You could also look at Ubuntu or Fedora. You might hit a couple of snagging issues which might require a bit of research to resolve, however your experience with it could be the total opposite of that. I've had older relatives using it (temporarily*) with no issues at all.

*I'd never force anyone onto it, but I've leant them laptops running Linux whilst repairing their own computers.

poppellerant

Personally I would upgrade the RAM to 4GB at the bare minimum, but consider upgrading to 8GB to make life more comfortable and future proof the computer.  If you do upgrade to 4GB of RAM or more, change to 64 bit Windows as this supports more than 3.5GB of RAM.  64 bit won't cost you any money and as you're probably clean installing Windows 10 anyway, it won't cost you any time or effort!

As others have pointed out, definitely consider an SSD drive at the very least, which has no moving parts compared to hard drives (spinning rust).  The SSD on its own will make the machine feel like new and the extra RAM will improve your experience as you browse and have several things open.