XP On 8-MHz Pentium With 20 MB RAM

XP On 8-MHz Pentium With 20 MB RAM 410

Posted by kdawson on Sunday February 25, 2007 @01:55AM from the golden-hourglass dept.

swehack writes "The guys over at winhistory.de managed to get their Windows XP Professional running on a very minimal box: an Intel Pentium clocked down to 8 MHz with 20 MB of RAM. (The installer won't work with less than 64 MB, but after installing you can remove memory.) The link has plenty of pictures of their progress in achieving this dubious milestone. They deserve a Golden Hourglass award for 'extreme waste of time.' What obscure hardware configurations have you managed to get Windows running on?"

XP On 8-MHz Pentium With 20 MB RAM

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Search 410 Comments Log In/Create an Account

Comments Filter:

Imagine..... (Score:4, Funny)

by aneeshm ( 862723 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @01:57AM (#18140540)

....a Beowulf cluster of these!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

My Hardware (Score:5, Funny)

by abscissa ( 136568 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @01:58AM (#18140542)

What obscure hardware configurations have you managed to get Windows running on?

AMD Athlon 3000+ with 1 GB of RAM. A miracle... I know... and STILL I have to reinstall it every couple of months!!

Yes but does it run (Score:5, Funny)

by Timesprout ( 579035 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @01:59AM (#18140554)

Vista?

Reminds me of the time I compiled Gentoo on a 286 (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:01AM (#18140574)

Or rather, the time I started compiling Gentoo on a 286. It was 2004, and it's still going. I think KDE will be done by 2008.

Cruel. (Score:4, Funny)

by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:04AM (#18140586)

Isn't this against the Geneva conventions?

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

by loconet ( 415875 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:05AM (#18140598) Homepage

I for one welcome our new masochists overloards

Just like 'enemy combatants' (Score:5, Funny)

by Kadin2048 ( 468275 ) writes: <.ten.yxox. .ta. .nidak.todhsals.> on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:07AM (#18140636) Homepage Journal

Isn't this against the Geneva conventions?

Sadly, computers don't have rights, so moral arguments aside, I'm afraid it's quite legal to run Windows on them.

Let's try a different challenge... (Score:5, Funny)

by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:08AM (#18140640)

How about installing Windows 3.11 on a 64-bit system?

It's all about the Pentiums! (Score:5, Funny)

by Devil's BSD ( 562630 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:09AM (#18140648) Homepage

You're using a 286? Don't make me laugh. Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?

So..... (Score:5, Funny)

by Chas ( 5144 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:15AM (#18140686) Homepage Journal

It's roughly the speed of Vista on a Quad-Core C2 with 4GB of RAM and a 15K rpm RAID-0 array then?

=)

Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)

by saturndude ( 609090 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:16AM (#18140692) Homepage

20 Megs of RAM? I thought 640K was supposed to be enough for anyone!!!

Mac? (Score:5, Funny)

by duncanbojangles ( 787775 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:17AM (#18140698)

What obscure hardware configurations have you managed to get Windows running on?

iMac with an Intel Core Duo 2?

Re:Imagine..... (Score:4, Funny)

by kimvette ( 919543 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:29AM (#18140750) Homepage Journal

In Soviet Russia. . . uhh. . . they run XP on VIC-20?

Re:Imagine..... (Score:2, Funny)

by TheWanderingHermit ( 513872 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:36AM (#18140808)

It's hard enough to keep Windows stable on ONE computer. Why would anyone want a cluster of them? It's just more failure points to put up with.

Think again (Score:5, Funny)

by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:45AM (#18140862)

"They deserve a Golden Hourglass award for 'extreme waste of time.'"

Uh... I don't think they'd appreciate that - they probably see plenty of hourglasses already.

Re:It's all about the Pentiums! (Score:3, Funny)

by reezle ( 239894 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @02:59AM (#18140950) Homepage

"My new computer's got the clocks; it rocks, but it was obsolete before I opened the box"

Re:Let's try a different challenge... (Score:4, Funny)

by compwizrd ( 166184 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:00AM (#18140958)

I found out the hard way that Windows 95 wouldn't run on a p4 2.0, even in safe mode.

Re:Just not legal (Score:4, Funny)

by Barny ( 103770 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:12AM (#18141032) Journal

And if used for medical computers, its an illegal operation :P

Gotta love it... (Score:5, Funny)

by MooseMuffin ( 799896 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:19AM (#18141074)

As soon as a new Windows comes out, the old one is suddenly hailed as everything you would ever need, and a marvel of efficient resource usage.

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

by Null Perception ( 914562 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:26AM (#18141118)

Imagine a Beowolf cluster of Beowulf cluster jokes.

Worst I've seen (Score:5, Funny)

by Tawnos ( 1030370 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:29AM (#18141132)

When I worked at a computer repair shop, a woman brought in her system and said it was running slowly. I start the system up and expect there to be a bunch of virii. What I saw next shocked me.

After 30 minutes I'm looking at the default windows XP desktop. Immediately I know this is an illegal install, as the system had no sticker on it, and it looked too old to have had WinXP reasonably on it. I decide to see what service pack she's running, so I right click on my computer, click properties...and almost crap my pants. The system was running on a Cyrix M5 with 48MB of RAM. There were no service packs installed. She had about 30 worms installed and running on her system.

Sometimes, late at night, I wake up in a cold sweat thinking about the horror of such a system.

Re:It's all about the Pentiums! (Score:2, Funny)

by Adeptus_Luminati ( 634274 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:39AM (#18141178)

"If I ever meet you, I'll CTRL-ALT-DELETE you!!!!"
ROFL

Heh... (Score:3, Funny)

by rob1980 ( 941751 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:43AM (#18141198)

[an error occurred while processing this directive] The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

They weren't by any chance hosting their website on that box too were they?

Re:last time (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:44AM (#18141204)

just because its grease, it doesn't mean you are supposed to use it to help the little captain invade mr. whiskas through his back door.

apparently that system pulls double duty... (Score:3, Funny)

by hxnwix ( 652290 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @04:11AM (#18141350) Journal

It's also their webserver...

I already did that (Score:3, Funny)

by Ars Dilbert ( 852117 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @04:38AM (#18141462) Homepage

I have made a 3.5" floppy with DOS 5.0 and Win 3.0. (Most of it anyway; some extras like paint etc wouldn't fit.) There was even enough room left on the floppy for the sysinternals NTFS driver for DOS! I can boot off this floppy and access the HD.

I've originally planned to use it as a recovery disk for systems that won't boot. But I've since found a much better use for it: pranks. There's nothing like watching someone jump when Windows 3 boots on their brand new Dell.

n00bs (Score:3, Funny)

by alphamugwump ( 918799 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @04:38AM (#18141464)

All these n00bs talking about installing something on 64 megs crack me up. When I was a boy, I ran windows 3.1 on my TI-83 -- and was grateful, too!

Pffft (Score:5, Funny)

by Quiet_Desperation ( 858215 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @04:51AM (#18141526)

I got Linux running on a motorized abacus powered by squirrels.

Then I got Windows CE running on an ancient Mayan claendar.

Then, utilizing quantum states, I got Mac OS 9 running on a single electron.

I rule! Bow to me! Argh!

Re:Not too long ago... (Score:5, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @05:30AM (#18141728)

Probably because they took it to someone else the next time.

Seems like (Score:5, Funny)

by saibot834 ( 1061528 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @05:34AM (#18141746)

Seems like they are using it as their server...

So, were's the license then? (Score:5, Funny)

by CFD339 ( 795926 ) writes: <.moc.htroneht. .ta. .pwerdna.> on Sunday February 25, 2007 @05:43AM (#18141782) Homepage Journal

I'd like to see the license they bought for that. Can that thing pass the "WGA" test? Is it patched to SP2 and have the latest security patches? If not, it's just another spam sending zombie. ;-0

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

by laa ( 457196 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @05:49AM (#18141802) Homepage

The marvels of Internet...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Soviet_Russia [wikipedia.org]

What I don't get is, how come the entire planet seems to be packed with people who suffer from Acute Sparetime Overload Disorder?

Re:last time (Score:4, Funny)

by Nullav ( 1053766 ) writes: <[Nullav.gmail] [ta] [com]> on Sunday February 25, 2007 @07:27AM (#18142094)

i used thermal compound my cat had silver crap for weeks
Could someone explain how this was modded 1, Informative?

Re:last time (Score:5, Funny)

by AlHunt ( 982887 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @07:52AM (#18142174) Homepage Journal

>There's a warning on the thermal compound that you shouldn't take it internally. Now I realize it wasn't specific enough to mention cats..

Even if it did, who's going to teach the cats to read?

Re:Imagine..... (Score:2, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @08:47AM (#18142398)

You forgot to include the broken English of TFA...'Ah, but will it can run Linnux?'

Re:windows95 (Score:2, Funny)

by ParaShoot ( 992496 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @09:15AM (#18142498)

Eventually. You were pretty lethargic at first, but I found that running up to you, brandishing an axe and screaming "I'm going to cut your balls off!" did the trick.

Re:Imagine..... (Score:5, Funny)

by Xichekolas ( 908635 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @10:06AM (#18142718)

I dunno... Gentoo has been around for a long time... just welcoming them now?
(I run Gentoo)

Re:last time (Score:5, Funny)

by nateb ( 59324 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @11:22AM (#18143078)

Could someone explain how this was modded 1, Informative?

Well, you didn't know that before you read it, did you?

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

by junglee_iitk ( 651040 ) writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @12:03PM (#18143384)

Imagine a Beowolf cluster of Beowulf cluster jokes.

Hey! That's slashdot!

Re:last time (Score:2, Funny)

by UncleTogie ( 1004853 ) * writes: on Sunday February 25, 2007 @03:36PM (#18145022) Homepage Journal

Even if it did, who's going to teach the cats to read?

...Not to mention that roughly half of 'em will be dead when you open the boxes they're in...but only if ya look at 'em.

There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.

Imagine..... (Score:4, Funny)

My Hardware (Score:5, Funny)

Yes but does it run (Score:5, Funny)

Reminds me of the time I compiled Gentoo on a 286 (Score:5, Funny)

Cruel. (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

Just like 'enemy combatants' (Score:5, Funny)

Let's try a different challenge... (Score:5, Funny)

It's all about the Pentiums! (Score:5, Funny)

So..... (Score:5, Funny)

Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)

Mac? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:2, Funny)

Think again (Score:5, Funny)

Re:It's all about the Pentiums! (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Let's try a different challenge... (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Just not legal (Score:4, Funny)

Gotta love it... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

Worst I've seen (Score:5, Funny)

Re:It's all about the Pentiums! (Score:2, Funny)

Heh... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:last time (Score:2, Funny)

apparently that system pulls double duty... (Score:3, Funny)

I already did that (Score:3, Funny)

n00bs (Score:3, Funny)

Pffft (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Not too long ago... (Score:5, Funny)

Seems like (Score:5, Funny)

So, were's the license then? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:last time (Score:4, Funny)

Re:last time (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:2, Funny)

Re:windows95 (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:last time (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Imagine..... (Score:3, Funny)

Re:last time (Score:2, Funny)

Related Links Top of the: day, week, month.

Slashdot Top Deals