Recycling old computers
So what is a slow PC? I'd say anything below about Passmark 1500. As a comparison the best machine around now is based on the Intel Core i9-9960X @ 3.10GHz which has a passmark of around 30,000 !
Old, slow machines probably had Windows XP but if the passmark is above 500 then it's worth loading Windows 10 to give the machine a new lease of life. It will be a bit slow but if you treat it kindly it will be very useable for basics email, internet and document production. Forget any on-line games or video activity although iPlayer downloads will be fine.
Here are some tips on getting the best out of Windows 10 on a slow machine.
- You probably don't want to shell out for an expensivel Windows 10 for an old machine but you can actually download a copy of Windows 10 from the Microsoft site and run it without activating it. You get nagged occassionally and loose a few features but nothing you can't live without. And there are workarounds anyway - search them out on the web!
- After installing Windows 10, connect to the internet and leave it to update everything
before using, it may take several hours!
- Find Updates in Settings and turn down update bandwidths to 5% to stop Updates hogging the machine
- Don't bother with extra Anti-virus/Firewall software, the built in Windows Defender does a good enough job. They will slow down your machine and not offer very much.
- Occassionally, leave on overnight to download any updates outside working time.
- Close down apps as soon as you've used them to avoid clogging the ram and hogging cpu power.
- Right click the Windows logo and open Task Manager. Select the Startup tab and disable non-essential programs.
- After switching on, don't rush to use the machine but open Task Manager and select the Performance tab and wait until the cpu is not too busy (below about 30%) before opening any program.
With a bit of patience your old computer can have a new lease of life running the very latest Microsoft OS for free!
Old, slow machines probably had Windows XP but if the passmark is above 500 then it's worth loading Windows 10 to give the machine a new lease of life. It will be a bit slow but if you treat it kindly it will be very useable for basics email, internet and document production. Forget any on-line games or video activity although iPlayer downloads will be fine.
Here are some tips on getting the best out of Windows 10 on a slow machine.
- You probably don't want to shell out for an expensivel Windows 10 for an old machine but you can actually download a copy of Windows 10 from the Microsoft site and run it without activating it. You get nagged occassionally and loose a few features but nothing you can't live without. And there are workarounds anyway - search them out on the web!
- After installing Windows 10, connect to the internet and leave it to update everything
before using, it may take several hours!
- Find Updates in Settings and turn down update bandwidths to 5% to stop Updates hogging the machine
- Don't bother with extra Anti-virus/Firewall software, the built in Windows Defender does a good enough job. They will slow down your machine and not offer very much.
- Occassionally, leave on overnight to download any updates outside working time.
- Close down apps as soon as you've used them to avoid clogging the ram and hogging cpu power.
- Right click the Windows logo and open Task Manager. Select the Startup tab and disable non-essential programs.
- After switching on, don't rush to use the machine but open Task Manager and select the Performance tab and wait until the cpu is not too busy (below about 30%) before opening any program.
With a bit of patience your old computer can have a new lease of life running the very latest Microsoft OS for free!
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