Is a configuration worthy of the 80s able to run Windows 7? Yes, but it’s slow and very limited.
He had already managed to run Windows XP on a configuration based on a processor clocked at 1 MHz, the developer and YouTuber NTDEV this time managed to launch the most demanding Windows 7 with a CPU displaying 5 MHz clock frequency. As a reminder, this version of the Microsoft operating system required at the time at least a 1 GHz processor according to the requirements communicated by the American group. NTDEV also settled for 128 MB of RAM, while Microsoft recommended at least 1 GB of RAM.
With such a configuration, you should obviously not expect a great user experience on Windows 7, which will have taken more than 28 minutes to start up, between startup and the appearance of the desktop. But the OS is almost unrecognizable, without a Start menu or background, and with a very minimalist interface in order to require fewer resources.
Windows 10 and 11 in the viewfinder
However, the developer manages to launch programs via the command prompt. At one point, we even see it with four processes open: the command prompt, WCPUID to show the characteristics of the processor used, Winver to display the version of the system in use, and the Notepad software, in which it managed to write text.
For the purposes of this little experiment, NTDEV used an Intel Pentium-S processor clocked up to 50 MHz, but which was underclocked to 5 MHz. He explains that he managed to run Windows 7 at only 3 MHz and 36 MB of RAM, but that the possibilities were even more limited and that he then had little to show for his video, hence his choice of back up to 5 MHz and 128 MB of RAM.
Another clarification, the test was carried out through a virtual machine running on the 86Box emulator, from Windows 7 Ultimate, which made it possible to implement the underclocking. The next challenge that the YouTuber has set himself is to successfully run Windows 10 or Windows 11 with a processor clocked at less than 1 GHz.
Source : Tom’s Hardware
