rehabilitating an old but working Dell Optiplex 755 DCCY desktop

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A family member has asked me to rehabilitate his old Dell Optiplex 755 desktop PC.  There is a note on it saying that the warranty expired in 2011, so we may safely assume it is about 12 years old.  The Microsoft tag on the case shows that it originally came with Vista Business OEM, and there is a Product Key for that.

He tells me that he updated it to Windows 10 after that OS was available, and realized that he accidentally installed the 32-bit version of the OS although its a 64-bit machine.  But it worked,  the MS Office version that he had worked OK, and he is used to Firefox instead of IE.

Then he put the PC in the closet until now.   So he does not have any important data on the hard drive.  He knows that his old version of Office may not survive the update, and can use Office 365 or Google Docs.

I am wondering if we can convert to  64-bit OS, and if we should try to install the 21H1 version of Windows.

Any guidance is very much appreciated.

 

 

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Make a full disk image first, so you will have something to go back to if it fails the upgrade.
Then download the MCT from the MS Win10 download site and create an ISO for 64-bit Windows 10. Burn it on a DVD+ DL or on a bootable Flash Drive (8 or 16 GB). You will need to do a clean install b/c you can’t upgrade 32-bit with 64-bit. Then reinstall the Programs.

Go with the latest version, and do the install OFFLINE if you want a LOCAL ID. If you do it online, you will be forced to create a Microsoft ID. Go through the settings to control Windows Update before you go back online, as the ISO doesn’t have the latest update and you will have to run WU.

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AlphaCharlie

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Depends. If it is a small form factor, the mb only goes up to 4gigs of ram. Otherwise, the max is 8 gigs of DDR2 ram (4 slots for max 2 gig sticks each).

While you could probably get the latest version of W10, on it, you’ll need to max ram AND replace the old hard drive, (as that drive is well past it’s life expectancy) with a fast SSD. Even then, you have a really old processor (likely a Celeron or Intel Core Duo), so it will run like a sloth at best. Oh, and you’ll need to purchase a license for W10, since the original Vista licence won’t upgrade.

I’ve had success convertIng these old guys to Linux, using a lite version (Linux Lite or MX Linux 19 xfce…Mint is good, but you would need Max ram as it’s a bit heavier graphically). If your friend is using just the browser, and Google office or MS Office online, he won’t notice the difference. And it’s unlikely he’ll use that Dell for Photoshop or desktop publishing, lol!

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AlphaCharlie

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I’ve got Linux Mint running on 4 computers. One has 1 GB RAM and 3 have 4GB RAM. The 1GB machine is slow but usable for email surfing and video and pic viewing. The other 3 are just fine. The newest is from 2016 and is my daily driver. The other 2 are from 2009, one has a celeron the other an AMD (don’t remember which). Both would be fine for a daily use machine. All of these computers had become sluggish when running Vista or Win 7, almost to the point of being frustrating. I’d say it’s either time for a new computer or try your hand at Mint (or some other distro to your liking)

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AlphaCharlie

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