So the laptop comes with an Intel Pentium M 750 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 30GB hard drive. I know for a fact that 2GB RAM is enough for Windows 10, but that hard disk might need an upgrade. Took out my screwdriver, and guess what? It's still using the old PATA interface. All my spare 2.5" HDDs are SATA, so no upgrade. Next step is to check the processor compatibility with Windows 10 using this page. But, but the Dothan processor is not even listed there! No harm in trying, right?
Power on the laptop. Press F12 when you see the Dell logo to get into the one-time boot sequence selection. I can see the option for USB external storage, but the directional keys on the keyboard don't seem to work. Booted up again, and pressed F2 to get to the BIOS setup. Again, keys don't work. Fortunately, I've got an extra USB keyboard lying around, so issue fixed.
Laptop starts reading from the USB stick and the Windows 10 logo comes up on the screen. Five seconds later, I get a blue screen with a sad face emoticon and some error message. I guess it's just too much to hope for, so I didn't even try to investigate or fix the error.
Moving on to Windows 7. The installation took longer than normal, but eventually the thing booted up just fine. Only issue is the drivers are the default ones. That means low screen resolution, no audio, no WiFi, no hotkeys, no sleep/hibernate, etc. And when I got to the Dell drivers and downloads page, there are only drivers for Windows XP and Windows 2000.
Why not just install CloudReady and be done with it? D410 is not on the Certified Models List, but I still pushed through. USB installer starts up then quits. Looks like I'm stuck with Windows XP. No issues installing Windows XP SP3. And after installing the drivers from Dell support page, everything is running properly.
My only concern is the software support, given the age of the OS, specifically the browser and the antivirus software. Most modern browsers don't support XP anymore, and Microsoft Security Essentials stopped support for XP long time ago. After a bit of research, I settled on Firefox ESR 52.9 (Basilisk is another option) and Malwarebytes 3.5, the last/final MB version that is compatible with XP/Vista. Hopefully this should be enough.
Laptop boots up nice and quick. CPU goes to 90% when watching videos on VLC, but can't really complain, given this is almost 15 years old!
