Old laptop upgrade

[O4L]

I have two older laptops that I haven't used in years because I have no internet or wifi at home.

One is a Toshiba and the other is a Dell. I got both of them used so I don't know exactly how old they are. Both have Windows 7 something.

I have a mobile hotspot device from work right now and it got me to thinking that maybe I might get a hotspot device of my own (that seems to be a whole different maze to navigate) so I can use one of my laptops at home.

At this time I would be using them mostly for e-mail, web surfing, watching videos, and streaming Prime rather than using my phone.

I don't remember the specs on either one and they are buried under a pile of stuff somewhere in my extra bedroom so it will take me awhile to dig them out if that is need to know information for any advice.

Anyway, I understand that there is still a way to upgrade to Windows 10 for free and I'm wondering if it would be a good idea to ""upgrade" one or both of these laptops to Win 10.

Should I just use them as is or do the upgrade?

Also any experience or advice on a mobile hotspot device and plan would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[SoonerP226]

If you're planning on using them on the Internet, you need to upgrade them to Win10. Windows 7 isn't getting any updates, so it has plenty of vulnerabilities that are now locked in.

You can still upgrade from Win7 to Win10 with your Win7 license key, but I'm pretty sure you have to stay in the Win7 channel--i.e, you can upgrade from Win7 Home to Win10 Home, but not from 7 Home to 10 Pro. I just went through this with an old laptop when we were getting folks set up to work from home; I downloaded Win10 Home and upgraded it from Win7 Home, then used the Win 7 Home license key on the sticker on the laptop, and it activated without a hitch. (This was booting from a USB key with the 10 Install ISO; if you start the upgrade from within Win7, it may pull the license key automatically. I'm pretty sure I've had that happen, but it has been a long time since I've done that.)

If they're XP machines, I wouldn't bother. They're going to be boat anchors.

 

[rc508pir]

Microsoft still supports windows 7 with updates so there is no need to upgrade. An upgrade basically only adds bells and whistles to Windows 10. I do like windows 10 myself over 7.

Your laptop on the other hand may not be good enough to run windows 10, so if you dont know how old they are, I wouldnt do it. It could REALLLLY slow your machine down if its that old.

Just saw that microsoft has indeed stopped supporting Windows 7..... oops

 

[Uncle TK]

go buy a chrome book very cheap but will work for what you want to do with it

 

[NightShade]

It all really depends. Anything that is dual core can still be used for websurfing and streaming though not likely with windows. I have an old Athlon 64 x2 5000 that was released around 2006-2007 that runs Windows 10 ok but is a lot snappier using Linux. So just because it's old doesn't mean it will not work for simple things. It will not be a powerhouse, nor will it run the latest applications with great speed but by all means it can still be used. With that said putting in at least 8GB of ram and preferably 16GB along with an SSD will make the experience much nicer no matter what OS you use. But you also need to decide if it's worth throwing money at, to be honest if it was running slow already and you spent 300 bucks on it 10 years ago you probably got your money out of it. Often I take things like that in and either throw linux on it and give it away or strip for parts to make other computers and do the same thing.

Officially Windows 7 is end of life. That means unless there is something major they are not going to issue security patches. https://www.howtogeek.com/469843/windows-7-dies-today-heres-what-you-need-to-know/ They did issue one on like the 23rd of January after ending support on the 14th but that will happen less and less as time goes by unless you are prepared to pay them directly or a third party for the updates.

With that said you can install and use Windows 10 WITHOUT a license key and it's legal. The one thing you can not do is change the personalization options, so you are stuck with the default background among other things but it will still work and update. https://www.howtogeek.com/244678/you-dont-need-a-product-key-to-install-and-use-windows-10/

One of the things I often tell people is give linux a try. If you can download an ISO file and burn it to disc you can set it up pretty easily. I actually have USB thumb drives that I keep with a full install of Linux on it. Just buy something at least 16GB in size and remove or disconnect the HDD in the computer so you don't have the option to mess with anything else. Then boot from the Linux disc with the USB drive inserted and install to it. Then if you have an issue or want to just try it out you insert the USB drive and either enter the boot selection screen or go into the BIOS/UEFI setup and change the primary boot drive. It's not super fast booting but it actually works pretty well for most tasks. I use it to do burn-in's on HDD's using BadBlocks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badblocks or to backup files to my network, or even to change forgotten windows passwords https://opensource.com/article/18/3/how-reset-windows-password-linux Plus if your computer is having issues you always have a spare OS to test things and see if it is the hardware messing up or the OS/software. I have done that multiple times when people swore that the internet access was an issue and not their computer, I used to work with an in house ISP and would take my laptop down to do checks. They would claim it's because it was my computer and not theirs so I would boot theirs into linux and show it was working and something wrong with their software.

And buying a chromebook when you have a computer already is basically going to net you something that is running a stripped down version of linux with google apps on it, before I spent money I would install linux on the laptop before shelling out money especially if it's just for a little bit of time while all the virus BS is going on. The one thing it will probably do is save you on power costs because the CPU will use less power but beyond that not be much different.

And with all the BS going on right now I will help members out for free if they bring me the computer, the only thing I can't provide is parts. I have a couple sitting here that I will sell for super cheap as well, you just have to provide a monitor, keyboard and mouse.

 

[O4L]

Thanks @NightShade!

I just remembered that I used Ubuntu years ago on a desktop and really liked it. I did the dual drive install and it worked well for what I needed.

Maybe that is the best way to go with one of my laptops.

Is there a Linux option better than Ubuntu for someone that's not a tech nerd?

 

[NightShade]

Linux Mint is pretty nice IMHO, and should just install and work. I don't care for Ubuntu anymore once they went to the Unity interface and KDE changed to the point where I don't care for it either. The Cinnamon interface that Linux Mint uses fits me and keeps with a flow similar to windows so it's pretty easy to switch back and forth.

https://linuxmint.com/download.php

Anymore I just use the 64 bit installer as long as the CPU supports it. And for really old hardware the XFCE edition is best.

To install right now the best option I have found is to go grab Easy2Boot http://m.easy2boot.com/download/ and a flash drive. Then all you need to do is copy the ISO's you want to have available to the flash drive and go from there. Just name the ISO file whatever it is you are using. You can also copy windows ISO's over to it and then have one drive to install them all, LOL.

Another one that some poeple seem to like is Zorin https://zorinos.com/download/#compare They have a paid version that adds a few bells and whistles as well as "support" but the free edition is just fine especially to try out. The Educational edition would be good for a child to use and have available on an old system.

And the last one I will mention is MX Linux https://mxlinux.org/ since it is at the top of the charts on Distrowatch I have not had a chance to mess with it but it may be worth a try.

And fell free to look around at https://distrowatch.com/ they have a ton of different stuff to look at and use to compare versions. Anything in their top ten list is probably worth taking a look at and if you have an old computer you don't know what to do with they have a lot of other stuff that you can read about for setting up some sort of server. If you take a look here https://distrowatch.com/search.php?desktop=WebUI#simple basically everything in the list is setup to act as some sort of server with a WebUI, though they all function differently with different purposes.

 

[harley128]

I trust NightShade on computer stuff for sure!

 

[NightShade]

I trust NightShade on computer stuff for sure!

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I will fully admit there is a lot I don't know. I am by no means a programmer but hardware has always been something I have been good with. I honestly wish more people would take me up on setting up a server of their own for backups and things of that nature. It only takes losing a drive completely once to really appreciate having something that can survive multiple drive failures.

Right now I have to start figuring out docker since a few things I have running use it and I only have enough of a grasp to get it running and certain basics but beyond that I am lost, LOL. I was able to get a caching system setup on it so that I can update certain things and the next time I need to do it rather than pulling the stuff directly from Steam, Blizzard or Microsoft it comes from my server though. But I also am not sure that if I update the container all the previously downloaded stuff will stay intact or be lost to the update void.