Most PCs from the last few years will happily run Windows 7 when it is released thanks to quite low hardware requirements. But have you ever wondered if it’s possible to run the OS on a machine with a spec lower than the Microsoft minimum requirements?
One man going by the name of hackerman1 did and started experimenting with a very old PC. The result was Microsoft’s latest 2009 operating system running on an Intel processor from 1997. Hackerman1 posted on The Windows Club forum that he has been experimenting with Windows 7 running on a Pentium II machine with varying amounts of RAM.
The machine in question has a Pentium II running at 266MHz and a 4MB graphics card. He carried out three tests with the RAM in the machine, two of which were successful. The first saw the OS running with 128MB RAM. The second involved reducing the RAM to 96MB and it still ran, but the third test was a step too far and Windows 7 did not like the drop to 64MB of RAM.
The next step for hackerman1 is to attempt to run Windows 7 on an even older PC. He has a Pentium I running at 166MHz with a 1MB graphics card, but lacks a power supply. As soon as he has one expect some more tests.
