Windows 10 Compatibility Problems w/ Older Model Computers

[EggsMSBacon]

I have 3 10-year-old computers that I picked up as used over the last 7+ years. It's the money, and I don't game, not a power user, and spent the last 36 years 1985 (Tandy DOS 2.11) to Present (Win 10 & Win 7 on one device) forgetting things about computers. I told the Cust. Rep. that I wanted as a minimum 16GB & a computer 5 yrs old or less. I asked what age the computer was. "I dunno." Liar!. After buying & nothing in writing, I found out my new used computer was as old as my old used computers but with 16 GB. It had Win 10 & the 16GB seemed to do the trick. A few months later my microphone stopped working. Looks like hardware and covered by warranty. No, it is a software problem. Overnight it just stopped working. My  old Dell computer was never tested on Win 10 & folks are having trouble all over. Who changed my driver? Anyway, how about a comprehensive website on old PC & new Windows OS's? Anyone? I'm a Windows Insider technically, though I shut off the monitoring as it slows my antique computers down bigtime it seems. My big time problems with Windows these last 7+ years since Win 7:

1. Windows Explorer hangs up accessing a folder, or hangs up on download in apps where mini explorer windows pop up. Lot's of people seem to have this problem. Long & tedious fix recommendations that don't work. My Fix: Change the name of the Folder from Folder to Folder1, then Folder2, Folder[X.] Hey, it works for me.

2. After fixing my microphone by vendor with some complicated fix & a references to blog fixers, my SD card reader doesn't work, unless I uninstall & reinstall, OR (God save), I simply disable & enable controller in Device Manager. I must do this every time I boot up. A drag!

Those are my two tips as a reward for anyone who has the Bible URL on Old PC/New MS OS.

Regards, 

[#2]

Hi,
can you explain more about this part please?
"though I shut off the monitoring as it slows my antique computers down "

also could you mention which Windows 10 build/version are you using right now?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/see-which-version-of-windows-10-you-have-12d35019-4da9-0...

[#3]

I have two computers using Win 10. The computer being used right now recently went to 20H2, but I only recently bought this several months ago. The vendors had a version of Win 10 that I do not remember. I believe that I was upgraded to 1909, then to a developer version by MS. I think I briefly turned Insider info on this with 16GB & still noticed some slowing & turned it off. Not sure which version I recently tried Insider with, and have not tried with 20H2. My other computer is a desktop with a maximum 4GB that I used with whatever was downloaded as the developer upgrade (can't remember version #). That computer started out with Win 7, to Win 8 to Win 10. It was running 1909 badly; it would not upgrade to 20H2, and I upgraded to the developer version recently. That would be Build 21332_rs_prerelease.210306-1859. I briefly tried turning on Insider on that, slowed down, and turned it off. To install anything on that  new, I removed all but MS apps for all practical purposes, removed my antivirus & ran Defender, and plan to only use it to read stuff (PDF, etc) as a supplement to my primary PC. I will not download or browse as Defender is not up to par (Are any of them?). Not only is the computer cramped for memory, a slower processor, but all programmers always make older computers sluggish to keep up with the latest stuff (if not conspiratorially for planned obsolescence across the industry.) Most likely MS will disenroll me. I believe it was not my idea to join but thought what the hell, maybe they will make my computer run better, get the bugs out, etc.  @HotCakeX 

[#4]

Thanks for the info,
there are a few things i want to mention,

you won't be automatically taken out of the insider program because of your hardware specs.

enrolling into insider program doesn't necessarily boost performance, unless there is a specific new feature that's known to do it. they usually have more bugs than the stable build of Windows, specially the Dev channel builds.

Windows Defender being bad or not good enough is a myth today, I've been using it as my only security solution for the past few years, never have got any malware or virus. it's not the same Windows Defender of say 5 or 10 years ago :)
it's on par with top of the list AV solutions now. it has many options you can turn on too, like controlled folder access, core isolation, Windows Defender application guard, potentially unwanted apps/download blocking etc.
the other AV solution I'd recommend is Kaspersky, due to its great history and performance.

if you haven't already, please check your power plan in Windows settings and make sure its set to high performance, i sometimes forget to do it when i reinstall Windows.

[#5]

Power Plan to High Performance? Meaning? So that your computer never goes into sleep mode? Wouldn't the install override any sleep controls? I don't know what High Performance means in this context. My laptop is plugged in during installs.

[#6]

Power plan defines each hardware's limitations, how much power they can draw and so how fast they can get. in affects CPU, GPU, Hard disk, network adapters etc. you can see the details of each Power plan too.

Control Panel\Hardware and Sound\Power Options\Edit Plan Settings
(in advanced power settings)

the sleep timeout and screen timeout are separate options.