Cheap Windows 10 Hardware

[sengsational]

In the tax software thread I came to the conclusion that I'm finally being forced into a new operating system.

2025 Tax Software deals - For April 2026 Filing

I looked over last year's tax forms and yes, I can use Deluxe without any issues. The Premier version of TT asks 'What type of investment did you sell?' and offers ESPP (and RSUs) as an option, but since this is a disqualifying disposition, it's an easy short term capital gain/loss. Not sure how...

www.early-retirement.org

@Mike1968

For WIn 7 to Win 10 refer to the below link:
How to Upgrade Windows 7 to Windows 10

If upgrading to WIn 11, you can refer to my post #133 in this thread. In your case, I would upgrade to Win10 for H&R Block

I'm reluctant to put a new OS on this old machine. I'd rather just keep it running with what still works on it, for a while at least. I had the idea of buying a cheap Windows 10 machine and connect it to my 4 port KVM switch.

How far wrong would I be going if I went cheap with something like this: Mini PC Intel Celeron N4000 4GB RAM 64GB SSD Windows 10 Desktop Computer (GL01) | eBay

Are there better ideas? Any black friday deals?

@jim584672

You could download Virtualbox and run Windows 10 or 11 in a virtual machine.

Oracle VirtualBox

www.virtualbox.org

Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File)

www.microsoft.com

Download Windows 11

@stepford

I'd been doing that for Windows 10 for years but hardware limitations prevented me from doing that with 11 (and yes I tried several of the workarounds - all unsuccessfully).

That would be a safer plan, because if it didn't work, I wouldn't hose my working Windows 7 machine and whatever still works on it. But this machine is pretty wimpy...Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz and 8GB RAM and spinning 1TB drive.

And upgrading or running in a Virtualbox, I'd still need to pay for a Win10 license, right?

 

[Al18]

I would upgrade to Windows 10 on your current PC - it will run rings around that ebay junk. A US based Microsoft sells Windows 10 Pro for $59.99 or Windows 11 Pro for $69.99 at DigitalMaze.com

If you've got a little more money, you'll find a lot of miniPC's on sale at Amazon for about $200 with Windows 11 installed. For $189.99, Amazon has a GMKtec G3S Mini PC, 16GB RAM 512GB M.2 SSD Intel N95

The GMKtec machine CPU benchmark's about 10% faster than your current machine, and the 512GB SSD benchmarks a LOT faster. This computer will boot into Windows 11 in less than 10 seconds.

 

[jim584672]

In the tax software thread I came to the conclusion that I'm finally being forced into a new operating system.

2025 Tax Software deals - For April 2026 Filing

I looked over last year's tax forms and yes, I can use Deluxe without any issues. The Premier version of TT asks 'What type of investment did you sell?' and offers ESPP (and RSUs) as an option, but since this is a disqualifying disposition, it's an easy short term capital gain/loss. Not sure how...

www.early-retirement.org

@Mike1968


I'm reluctant to put a new OS on this old machine. I'd rather just keep it running with what still works on it, for a while at least. I had the idea of buying a cheap Windows 10 machine and connect it to my 4 port KVM switch.

How far wrong would I be going if I went cheap with something like this: Mini PC Intel Celeron N4000 4GB RAM 64GB SSD Windows 10 Desktop Computer (GL01) | eBay

Are there better ideas? Any black friday deals?

@jim584672


@stepford


That would be a safer plan, because if it didn't work, I wouldn't hose my working Windows 7 machine and whatever still works on it. But this machine is pretty wimpy...Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz and 8GB RAM and spinning 1TB drive.

And upgrading or running in a Virtualbox, I'd still need to pay for a Win10 license, right?

i5-4460 will easily run Win10 or 11. I have a i5-4770 that runs Win 10 on bare metal.

If the machine have ever run Windows it should automatically activate.

If it doesn't it doesn't matter because Windows still runs without activation but puts a nag on your Desktop.