Thinking of installing Win10 32-bit on low-spec "laptop" (more like netbook)

[mikeymikec]

The specs:
https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04811884

Product Name
11-r007tu
Product Number
P4Y01PA
Microprocessor
1.6 GHz, up to 2.16 GHz GHz Intel Celeron N3050 with Intel HD Graphics
Microprocessor Cache
2 MB cache, 2 cores
Memory
2 GB DDR3L SDRAM (1 x 2 GB)
Video Graphics
Intel HD Graphics
Display
11.6" diagonal HD anti-glare WLED-backlit (1366 x 768)
Hard Drive
32 GB eMMC
Network Card
Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity
802.11a/b/g/n/ac (1x1) and Bluetooth 4.0 combo
External Ports
1 microSD media card reader
1 USB 3.0
1 USB 2.0
1 HDMI
1 RJ-45
1 headphone/microphone combo
Sound
Stereo speakers
Dual speakers
Keyboard
Full-size island-style keyboard
Dimensions
30 x 20.57 x 1.84 cm
Weight
2-cell, 37.69 Wh Li-ion polymer
Power
45 W AC power adapter
2-cell, 37.69 Wh Li-ion polymer
Camera
HP TrueVision HD Webcam (front-facing) with integrated dual array digital microphone

At the moment it is really low on disk space; I've managed to free up about 1.5GB through dism... /resetbase (currently about 2.4GB available), not much to clean up using the disk cleanup tool, the user profiles aren't using much, and there's one unnecessary app that's using about 1GB of disk space and a recovery folder using 3-4GB. Windows (10 1511) is currently saying that it needs 8GB in order to install a big Windows update.

My feeling is that even if I reclaim those paltry bits of disk space, it's not going to be enough (short or longer term). By default I'd clean-install Win10, and I'd take the opportunity to get rid of what appears to be a deliberately poor choice of the 64-bit version given the extremely limited resources. However, the HP site only lists drivers for the 64-bit version. Has anyone here gone down this sort of path before?

 

[JWade]

i have an hp stream 14" same processor and same built on the motherboard 32gb ssd. i put in a 4gb stick, windows 10 64bit and it works fine.

 

[Shmee]

A clean install of the latest windows version should help, but then for such a low end laptop a mid-weight linux distro might be best.

 

[VirtualLarry]

You can (need to) insert a USB Flash Drive / HDD, for those Windows Upgrades on those "little EMMC" Netbooks.

 

[kenzz]

The specs:
https://support.hp.com/gb-en/document/c04811884



At the moment it is really low on disk space; I've managed to free up about 1.5GB through dism... /resetbase (currently about 2.4GB available), not much to clean up using the disk cleanup tool, the user profiles aren't using much, and there's one unnecessary app that's using about 1GB of disk space and a recovery folder using 3-4GB. Windows (10 1511) is currently saying that it needs 8GB in order to install a big Windows update.

My feeling is that even if I reclaim those paltry bits of disk space, it's not going to be enough (short or longer term). By default I'd clean-install Win10, and I'd take the opportunity to get rid of what appears to be a deliberately poor choice of the 64-bit version given the extremely limited resources. However, the HP site only lists drivers for the 64-bit version. Has anyone here gone down this sort of path before?

I had a similar situation a year or so ago when I upgraded from W8.1 to W10 and thought of the W10 32bit version but no drivers available.

My knowledge is very limited so some of the following may be wrong but my comments;-
1. In Disc Cleanup have you tried the "clean up system files" option? Previous installs of Windows may take up a lot of GB's.
2. W10 allows system file compression using MS's CompactOS to reduce the installation size of W10 on these sorts of limited size EMMCs. Search for CompactOS and how to check if your installation uses it.
3. Your 3-4GB recovery folder probably includes a lot of HP bloatware. A fresh install of W10 usually results in a Recovery partition of only 500MB.
4. As a previous post, the process of major updating W10 with low drive space available should automatically tell you to connect a USB drive that is used as a temporary addition of drive space while the process takes place. I seem to remember I had to attempt a major upgrade 3 times before the process automatically asked me to connect a USB drive. After that the upgrade process went OK.
5. However what I ultimately found was that wiping the EMMC clean and installing a fresh W10 64bit resulted in a very usable 32GB EMMC laptop.

With all current W10 updates the laptop with a 32GB EMMC (which in W10 only shows as a capacity of 29GB because windows defines a GB differently) shows the C drive as 28.5GB and the recovery drive as 500MG. There is about 13GB used and 15.5GB free space on the C drive. The size of the W10 folder is about 10GB (size on disc is shown as 7GB presumably as a result of CompactOS) ... other stuff is about 3Gb so, with 13GB used and W10 fully updated there is a very usable 15.5GB free space available even with the 64bit version of W10.

 

[mikeymikec]

I used 'Disk Cleanup' with it checking for system files. I haven't bothered to run it for a pass because it had mere megabytes to clear up rather than GB. I suspect that when Win10 gets low on space it does a lot of this stuff already as /resetbase had very little to do as well.

I'd rather keep file system compression type options in reserve until absolutely necessary; baby celerons with lack of memory are likely to suffer in general performance.

The business of inserting a USB device to allow upgrades to proceed is interesting though. The computer has a MicroSD card slot that the customer inserted a 200GB card into, and I've formatted it as NTFS after finding that Win10 really doesn't want to have user profiles on non-NTFS volumes, so in theory I would have thought that Windows can use that volume as temporary storage?

 

[kenzz]

I may be wrong because I tried several different methods until I got it to work, but from what I remember it had to be a USB drive and not a microSD ... also it may have been that the process didn't recognize an existing USB drive but required a USB drive to be inserted only when prompted. However I think the only way I managed to get the Windows folder down to 10GB was to clear the EMMC and do a fresh install of W10.

 

[mikeymikec]

i have an hp stream 14" same processor and same built on the motherboard 32gb ssd. i put in a 4gb stick, windows 10 64bit and it works fine.

I have another HP Stream 11 in right now with 32GB eMMC with disk space issues. This time I went straight for doing a wipe-clean install of Win10 1607 64-bit (it had about 15GB of space available at that point), and it is running out of disk space when trying to install 1709. That's without me installing any software besides the OS from USB, any drivers, downloading anything myself, or even web browsing. All it has done so far was to install a few updates automatically then straight on to 1709.

Did you do anything unusual/interesting to your Windows install in order to make it use less space?

---

I'm attempting the install of 1709 again now with a USB HDD connected in case it can use it for temporary storage. I've already tried the disk cleanup tool including system files. After that I will try /resetbase again I guess.

I tried to install the 32-bit version of Win10 but the computer refused to boot from the DVD (EFI boot claimed that there wasn't a valid EFI image in there, and switching on legacy boot just acted like there wasn't a disc in the drive despite me setting the drive to the first device in the boot list to try).

Interestingly, this particular HP Stream 11 came in and apparently had never managed to install any feature update, it was still on build 10240 I'm pretty sure the other one had a newer version installed.

The HP Stream 11 apparently has non-upgradable RAM (2GB) too.

- edit - I've just remembered that after noticing that the system was reporting >15GB space available, I enabled system restore for 5GB of the drive, so I've just disabled that. I'm a bit astonished that only one restore point used up 5GB of space, but also that the feature update installer doesn't look at SR to see whether space can be reclaimed there, considering how aggressively Win10 disables SR I would have thought it would check it. I suspect now that the feature update is going to install without any further problems. I just wonder how much space can be reclaimed after the update.

 

[Billb2]

Perhaps Windows 7 Starter version?

Windows 7 Starter

Windows 7 Starter is the edition of Windows 7 that contains the fewest features. It is only available in a 32-bit version and does not include the Windows Aero theme. The desktop wallpaper and visual styles (Windows 7 Basic) are not user-changeable. Microsoft originally intended to restrict users of this edition to running three simultaneous applications but this limitation was dropped.[7]
This edition was available pre-installed on computers, especially netbooks or Windows Tablets, through system integrators or computer manufacturers using OEM licenses.

 

[mikeymikec]

Perhaps Windows 7 Starter version?

I don't think it would activate, and even if the customer wanted to pay for another Windows licence, they would have approximately two years until it stopped being supported with security updates. Admittedly otherwise it probably wouldn't be a bad fit for this laptop (assuming that drivers could be found for it, which is a pretty big if).

---

I'm still waiting for the laptop to get around to installing 1709, >4 hours later

 

[RossMAN]

I wonder if this would work on my tiny, ancient & underpowered Dell mini 9?
http://www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/dell-inspiron-mini-9-review/

• 1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom Processor
• 1GB DDR2 533MHz (1 DIMM)
• Ubuntu 8.04 Linux with Custom Dell Interface (Includes Open Office)
• 8.9" 1024 x 600 WSVGA glossy LED backlit display
• 8GB miniPCI SSD card
• Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi
• 4-in-1 Media card reader
• 1.3 Megapixel webcam, Dell Video Chat application, Dell Support Center
• 4-Cell 32Wh Li-ion battery (14.8V)
• Size: 9.2" x 6.8" x 1.3" (including feet)
• Weight: 2lb 5.5oz (with 4-cell battery), 2lb 11.6oz (with battery and AC adapter)

 

[mikeymikec]

Define "work" Win10 won't install on an 8GB storage device, I read that in the last 24 hours when reading about my problems. Win7 Starter may, but licensing is an issue. I don't know whether it would accept say a Home Premium product key. Is the RAM upgradable?

Presumably that SSD is upgradable, which would expand your options somewhat.

---

The laptop has managed to install 1709. It says it has 10-11GB of space available depending on which way the wind is blowing. It's still installing updates so I haven't tried Disk Cleanup again yet.

 

[mikeymikec]

So with all the current updates available, out of 28.5GB it has 10.5GB available. From what I've recently seen, IMO 2GB is the minimum size that a usable user profile can be, which barely leaves enough for another feature update (assuming it's a similar size).

I ran a command that MS recommended to query the compactos state (not enabled) and another one that said that Windows didn't think this computer would benefit from enabling it.

I think what I'll be doing with this laptop is to put in a MicroSD card and transfer the user profile to that and hope that the rest is enough for updates for the foreseeable future.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I don't understand why it's being stated that CompactOS wouldn't save space. On a vanilla install it saves about 3GB, and the more you update, the more it winds up saving. Given your space constraints, I can't fathom why you're even hesitating. Enable CompactOS. Windows does an assessment of your system to determine if it's a good "fit" for compactos (because there is a performance impact to accessing system files). 10.5GB would likely be more than enough for any casual consumer user of a Netbook. But if for some reason it's not to you, the only real choice is to enable CompactOS, and go from there.

 

[mikeymikec]

I don't understand why it's being stated that CompactOS wouldn't save space. On a vanilla install it saves about 3GB, and the more you update, the more it winds up saving. Given your space constraints, I can't fathom why you're even hesitating. Enable CompactOS. Windows does an assessment of your system to determine if it's a good "fit" for compactos (because there is a performance impact to accessing system files). 10.5GB would likely be more than enough for any casual consumer user of a Netbook. But if for some reason it's not to you, the only real choice is to enable CompactOS, and go from there.

I'm hestitating because I assume "compactos" is largely enabling file system compression. First of all this is a laptop with an anaemic atom-type Celeron N processor, then there's the lack of RAM. It just seems a good way to make a slow machine even slower. On one hand, making it even less suitable for its primary purpose (what the user wants to use it for, e.g. browsing), and on the other hand making it a little more likely to install updates without problems.

I think I'll hold off on compactos and see whether the customer has more space issues after this. If they do, I guess there's not a lot of choice in the matter then. I think in the long term that may become necessary given that a version of Windows does not get smaller as a result of updates (especialy feature updates, and even if disk-spacing tactics are employed, some of which Windows seems to do itself if disk space gets low enough), but perhaps it has enough to go on for quite some time.

I've dumped the entire user profile on a MicroSD card so at least the customer's day-to-day usage shouldn't affect how much space is on the system drive.

The other thing I wonder is whether HP's reason for building and configuring such a limited-spec machine with a more bloated version of Windows etc is incompetence or malice (ie. wanting to build a machine that the customer will want to replace when it runs out of space in 2-3 years time).

 

[kenzz]

I'm hestitating because I assume "compactos" is largely enabling file system compression. First of all this is a laptop with an anaemic atom-type Celeron N processor, then there's the lack of RAM. It just seems a good way to make a slow machine even slower. On one hand, making it even less suitable for its primary purpose (what the user wants to use it for, e.g. browsing), and on the other hand making it a little more likely to install updates without problems.

I think I'll hold off on compactos and see whether the customer has more space issues after this. If they do, I guess there's not a lot of choice in the matter then. I think in the long term that may become necessary given that a version of Windows does not get smaller as a result of updates (especialy feature updates, and even if disk-spacing tactics are employed, some of which Windows seems to do itself if disk space gets low enough), but perhaps it has enough to go on for quite some time.

I've dumped the entire user profile on a MicroSD card so at least the customer's day-to-day usage shouldn't affect how much space is on the system drive.

The other thing I wonder is whether HP's reason for building and configuring such a limited-spec machine with a more bloated version of Windows etc is incompetence or malice (ie. wanting to build a machine that the customer will want to replace when it runs out of space in 2-3 years time).

I have a small minix desktop with similar spec of 2GB/32Gb. 2 or 3 years old now but W10 installation size is still fully manageable ... fully updated W10 results in emmc ssd having 13GB used and 15GB free ... about 1.5GB of the 13GB used is for portable apps and other software, files etc. For normal everyday browsing, general word processing, minor spreadsheets etc it's more than adequate and fast enough for my purposes and I expect it to be OK for at least the next 3 or 4 years. Compactos really is not going to make any noticeable difference in performance to the sort of average person who is going to buy the cheapest laptop for this sort of casual use. The main issue is to keep cleaning up the System Files in the Properties box. Windows eventually cleans them up automatically after 30 days but it helps if it is done manually e.g. I have just cleaned up about 1.5GB of Windows update files.

According to my understanding, the background behind these 2GB/32GB 11.6" laptops is that microsoft supply manufacturers with very very cheap W10 licences for these specs ... exceeding 2GB/32GB results in much higher W10 licence fees. Also IMO these min spec laptops are acceptable because W10 does not require large OEM recovery partitions ... W10 can be easily freshly installed without a manufacturer's large recovery partition because even OEM versions have a digital key embedded in the bios .... therefore almost the whole of the emmc can be used for the OS and other software, files etc. The main point is to keep downloads and very large files on external drives when possible.

 

[B-Riz]

Do you *need* MS Windows? I picked up a quad core Atom notebook and put Mint on it, works great.

 

[mikeymikec]

Do you *need* MS Windows? I picked up a quad core Atom notebook and put Mint on it, works great.

I've got another one of this sort of laptop in at the moment, and attempting to install Lubuntu seems to remind me of this guy saying "I'll fight you for it":

 

[mikeymikec]

Despite the uphill struggle, Lubuntu is working pretty well now. The touchscreen needs sorting out yet, and hopefully the instructions I've found will do the trick first time, but it's a heck of a difference to see it chewing through tasks like a YouTube clip while doing other stuff and taking it all in its stride rather than complaining about being low on RAM like Win10 was doing. Also, 20% disk usage rather than >90%.... admittedly some of the latter on Win10 would have been down to a bloaty Lenovo install, but no amount of work IMO could have shaved Win10 down to the same footprint as Lubuntu.