Updating a Lenovo T400S

[bob prohaska]

I've been given a Lenovo T400S in very nice condition. It's running
Windows 7 service pack 1 now. 4 GB RAM, "core duo" cpu.

Both the machine and its OS are officially EOL'd, are there any
unofficial/unsupported upgrades possible to any later version
of Windows?

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

[Marco Moock]

Am Mittwoch, 29. Dezember 2021, um 01:27:43 Uhr schrieb bob prohaska:

> I've been given a Lenovo T400S in very nice condition. It's running
> Windows 7 service pack 1 now. 4 GB RAM, "core duo" cpu.
>
> Both the machine and its OS are officially EOL'd, are there any
> unofficial/unsupported upgrades possible to any later version
> of Windows?

It should be capable of running Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 64 bit.
I read it contains a Core 2 Duo and not a Core Duo (the Core Duo does
not support Intel EM64T, Core 2 does).

[bob prohaska]

Yes, it's core 2 duo.

While downloading a Win10 installer ISO it was suggested to use 32 bit.
Any thoughts on relative merits of 32 vs 64 bit systems? My only
experience has been with Raspberry P, the 64 bit systems seem to
put larger demands on memory with no obvious benefit. I realize the
world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?

The installer USB drive looks set to go, are there any traps to
look out for? The only product key I have is for the OEM license
stuck inside the battery compartment, along with the product ID #
from the control panel. I'm wondering if it'll check the keys before
overwriting the old system.

Thanks for replying!

bob prohaska

[Marco Moock]

Am Mittwoch, 29. Dezember 2021, um 20:48:15 Uhr schrieb bob prohaska:

> While downloading a Win10 installer ISO it was suggested to use 32
> bit. Any thoughts on relative merits of 32 vs 64 bit systems? My only
> experience has been with Raspberry P, the 64 bit systems seem to
> put larger demands on memory with no obvious benefit. I realize the
> world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?

4 GiB is enough for Win 10 64 bit, but don't expect that you can use
that laptop for virtualization or other memory-consuming stuff.

> The installer USB drive looks set to go, are there any traps to
> look out for? The only product key I have is for the OEM license
> stuck inside the battery compartment, along with the product ID #
> from the control panel. I'm wondering if it'll check the keys before
> overwriting the old system.

If it is a Win 7 OEM key you can activate Windows 10 with it, just make
sure the edition fits. Win 7 Prof --> Win 10 Pro, other Win 7 editions
--> Win 10 Home

[bob prohaska]

Marco Moock <mo...@posteo.de> wrote:
> Am Mittwoch, 29. Dezember 2021, um 20:48:15 Uhr schrieb bob prohaska:
>
>> world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?
>
> 4 GiB is enough for Win 10 64 bit, but don't expect that you can use
> that laptop for virtualization or other memory-consuming stuff.
>

>> from the control panel. I'm wondering if it'll check the keys before
>> overwriting the old system.
>
> If it is a Win 7 OEM key you can activate Windows 10 with it, just make
> sure the edition fits. Win 7 Prof --> Win 10 Pro, other Win 7 editions
> --> Win 10 Home
>

It's a Win7 Pro key and Win10 Pro download. I will stick with 32
bit for now.

Thanks for all your help!

bob prohaska

[bob prohaska]

The upgrade worked on the third try. It seems quite lethargic, but
it's using only about half the RAM and about 10% CPU when idling.
The disk is an SSD, so I doubt it's the bottleneck.

If there are any obvious things to tweak it'd be good to know. I'm
a novice to recent Windows versions. It seems to do things without
being asked, for example open new windows to show off features. At
this stage it's confusing.

Thanks for your help!

bob prohaska

[Marco Moock]

Am Freitag, 31. Dezember 2021, um 19:12:57 Uhr schrieb bob prohaska:

> If there are any obvious things to tweak it'd be good to know. I'm
> a novice to recent Windows versions. It seems to do things without
> being asked, for example open new windows to show off features. At
> this stage it's confusing.

Win 10 has a lot of bloat with the included apps. Uninstall them if you
don't need them. If you don't need apps at all, have a look at Win 10
LTSC.

If you want less disk usage (not consuming real
space), disable the shadow copies.

[rtr]

On 2021-12-29, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>
> [...]

>
> While downloading a Win10 installer ISO it was suggested to use 32 bit.
> Any thoughts on relative merits of 32 vs 64 bit systems? My only
> experience has been with Raspberry P, the 64 bit systems seem to
> put larger demands on memory with no obvious benefit. I realize the
> world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?

Running 64-bit on a Thinkpad T400 is alright. But if you're running a
64-bit machine on it you might as well upgrade the memory to 8GB.

32-bit is a legacy architecture nowadays. You should really move to
64-bit if the computer can support it.

>
> The installer USB drive looks set to go, are there any traps to
> look out for? The only product key I have is for the OEM license
> stuck inside the battery compartment, along with the product ID #
> from the control panel. I'm wondering if it'll check the keys before
> overwriting the old system.

You can pirate it you know.

>
> Thanks for replying!
>
> bob prohaska
>

--
Give them an inch and they will take a mile.
--
gemini://rtr.kalayaan.xyz

[bob prohaska]

rtr <r...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
> On 2021-12-29, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> While downloading a Win10 installer ISO it was suggested to use 32 bit.
>> Any thoughts on relative merits of 32 vs 64 bit systems? My only
>> experience has been with Raspberry P, the 64 bit systems seem to
>> put larger demands on memory with no obvious benefit. I realize the
>> world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?
>
> Running 64-bit on a Thinkpad T400 is alright. But if you're running a
> 64-bit machine on it you might as well upgrade the memory to 8GB.
>

AIUI the BIOS only supports 4 GB as-is. Seems best to leave well enough
alone for the little use it'll get. So far the machine has worked fine,
but it's taken a lot of housecleaning to remove unwanted "features".

> 32-bit is a legacy architecture nowadays. You should really move to
> 64-bit if the computer can support it.

I agree that's the trend, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea. 64
bit makes sense for supercomputers and servers (maybe) but laptops?

bob prohaska

[Marco Moock]

Am Dienstag, 25. Januar 2022, um 18:56:14 Uhr schrieb bob prohaska:

> I agree that's the trend, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea. 64
> bit makes sense for supercomputers and servers (maybe) but laptops?

It makes sense if you like to address more RAM.
Also, i386/i686 will be abandoned in future. Win 11 doesn't support it,
most Linux distributions dropped support for it.

[rtr]

On 2022-01-25, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> rtr <r...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>> On 2021-12-29, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> [...]
>>>
>>> While downloading a Win10 installer ISO it was suggested to use 32 bit.
>>> Any thoughts on relative merits of 32 vs 64 bit systems? My only
>>> experience has been with Raspberry P, the 64 bit systems seem to
>>> put larger demands on memory with no obvious benefit. I realize the
>>> world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?
>>
>> Running 64-bit on a Thinkpad T400 is alright. But if you're running a
>> 64-bit machine on it you might as well upgrade the memory to 8GB.
>>
> AIUI the BIOS only supports 4 GB as-is. Seems best to leave well enough
> alone for the little use it'll get. So far the machine has worked fine,
> but it's taken a lot of housecleaning to remove unwanted "features".
>

Are you sure about that? I believe all T400 models can be upgraded to
8GB. I am typing this on a T400 and I've upgraded mine to 8GB.

>> 32-bit is a legacy architecture nowadays. You should really move to
>> 64-bit if the computer can support it.
>
> I agree that's the trend, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea. 64
> bit makes sense for supercomputers and servers (maybe) but laptops?
>

It's a good idea. Unless you want to maintain an old OS on that computer
you will need to upgrade to 64-bit. I don't think even OpenBSD actively
maintains a 32-bit version anymore.

[bob prohaska]

rtr <r...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
> On 2022-01-25, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>> rtr <r...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 2021-12-29, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> [...]
>>>>
>>>> While downloading a Win10 installer ISO it was suggested to use 32 bit.
>>>> Any thoughts on relative merits of 32 vs 64 bit systems? My only
>>>> experience has been with Raspberry P, the 64 bit systems seem to
>>>> put larger demands on memory with no obvious benefit. I realize the
>>>> world is going 64 bit, but with only 4 GB of RAM is it a good idea?
>>>
>>> Running 64-bit on a Thinkpad T400 is alright. But if you're running a
>>> 64-bit machine on it you might as well upgrade the memory to 8GB.
>>>
>> AIUI the BIOS only supports 4 GB as-is. Seems best to leave well enough
>> alone for the little use it'll get. So far the machine has worked fine,
>> but it's taken a lot of housecleaning to remove unwanted "features".
>>
>
> Are you sure about that? I believe all T400 models can be upgraded to
> 8GB. I am typing this on a T400 and I've upgraded mine to 8GB.
>

I'm not sure, merely read it somewhere on the Internet 8-)

>>> 32-bit is a legacy architecture nowadays. You should really move to
>>> 64-bit if the computer can support it.
>>
>> I agree that's the trend, but I'm not convinced it's a good idea. 64
>> bit makes sense for supercomputers and servers (maybe) but laptops?
>>
>
> It's a good idea. Unless you want to maintain an old OS on that computer
> you will need to upgrade to 64-bit. I don't think even OpenBSD actively
> maintains a 32-bit version anymore.
>

The only reason I got the Lenovo was to run a Windows-only firmware
updater. It's also useful as a sanity check for some hardware, USB
devices for example, so mine is a fairly obscure use case.

bob prohaska

[rtr]

On 2022-01-26, bob prohaska <b...@www.zefox.net> wrote:
> rtr <r...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>>
>> Are you sure about that? I believe all T400 models can be upgraded to
>> 8GB. I am typing this on a T400 and I've upgraded mine to 8GB.
>>
>
> I'm not sure, merely read it somewhere on the Internet 8-)
>
>>

>> It's a good idea. Unless you want to maintain an old OS on that computer
>> you will need to upgrade to 64-bit. I don't think even OpenBSD actively
>> maintains a 32-bit version anymore.
>>
>
> The only reason I got the Lenovo was to run a Windows-only firmware
> updater. It's also useful as a sanity check for some hardware, USB
> devices for example, so mine is a fairly obscure use case.
>
> bob prohaska
>

You do have a very particular use-case. If the current setup works for
you then that would be job done. :-)