Will my pc run W7 32bit?

[neworldman]

Hello,

I have a old Gateway desktop that has Intel(R) Pentium(R)4 CPU 3.066 ghz with 2gb ram 500gb hard drive. Can I run W7(32bit) with this? It has XP Home on it now. It needs to have the OS reloaded on it ....has been a year or so since I have done this. I like to start over wipe drives and reload software once a year or every other year. This time I would like to put W7 if possible.

[Jim44]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/system-requirements

Your PC meets the minimum specs listed, so it should. Depending on your video card you may or may not be able to use Aero display features.

[bendixG15]

Suggest you check that you can download the Win7 drivers that you will need.

[jagabo]

Microsoft has a program that will analyze your computer and warn you of incompatibilities.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-24...46af15&pf=true

[dj234468]

Even though the specs may say that you can not put Windows 7 on a PC you still might be able to get it to run. I have an older Acer Laptop that did not meet the specs but I was able to find the drivers (with much searching on the internet) and now that laptop runs better than it ever has with Windows 7 installed.

The biggest problem that you are going to run into is the video card. You may have to purchase a new video card in order for Windows 7 to work? If you can find Windows Vista drivers for your system then you can use those drivers with Windows 7.

Hope this helps?

[redwudz]

W7 runs on somewhat older systems much better than Vista does. Most times the required MB system drivers are on the W7 disc. Not that often that you need to install outside drivers. For some video cards, you may get better performance with the video card manufacturers latest card drivers. I would suggest 1GB RAM minimum for W7.

Any missing drivers, check with the motherboard manufacturer. I would stay away from W7 64 bit OS for older systems as drivers can be a real problem. I recently resurrected a older AMD socket 939 MB with 1GB DDR RAM and it installed W7 with no problems. All the drivers were installed from the W7 disc. The video card I stuck in used a middle-of-the-road quality ATI chipset, with DXVA support, but the PC was surprisingly able to play a HD MKV with a single core CPU. Very happy with the results.

[roma_turok]

You can download Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial and check it.
Personally I think XP its best OS for this PC.