Support for Windows 10 ends on October 14, 2025. Microsoft wants you to buy a new computer. 🐧 Supercharge it instead🐧

[usonian]

2. Cross your fingers.

I have used really small Linux distros on very old and underpowered machines.

Linux Mint comes to mind, as does Kubuntu

Mint is light but not ultra light. It's very good, and I recommend it.

Kubuntu is really small.
https://techviral.net/smallest-linux-distros/

Well, Xubuntu uses the Xfce desktop environment to provide users a smoother experience. The great thing about Xubuntu is that it needs less than 256MB of RAM and 512MB of storage space to install on your system. The Linux distribution also offers a slew of features and applications that runs without affecting your device’s performance.

Features:

Xubuntu is built around lightweight software. So, it runs even on low-end machines.
The operating system works wonderfully with a wide variety of devices out of the box.
Xubuntu offers lots of pre-installed software’s to deal with daily tasks.


All that said, my brother, who is the least tech person you can imagine, got tired of having to reinstall drivers with each software patch, so he ended up with a Dell desktop with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed (order online only) and supported by Dell.

After helping him find replacement apps (mainly for organizing photos, and Libre Office replacing MS Office) he hasn't sent my a single computer question in years.

The WINE software (free and commercial versions) will run almost any windows application in Linux.

Again, all that said, good luck keeping your system running and out of harm's way.