Early experiences running Win10 10130 on my T60 (TLDR: it works!)

[i336_]

Put some 2015 in your 2007!

My favourite part?

I can login at system boot and shoo the lock screen away... with the fingerprint reader. I don't have to touch the keyboard at all. It even works if the system is idling (not in standby) and the screen is off.

It *is* a little slowish, roughly about as fast than Win8.1, mostly because the hardware's, well, from 2007. You may find it a tiny bit faster...? Don't quote me on it.

First of all, as I type this post, build 10135 can relatively easily be "found" via Google, but I wouldn't recommend that version as it has a huge pile of regressions - fingerprint enrollment, OneDrive login, and Windows Update (!!!!) all didn't work for me. YMMV; these might've been backend systems that have been fixed now, but I'm sticking with 10130 myself.

Conveniently, because of some kind of internal autoupdate fail, Microsoft have had to bump the public ISO version for their insider preview up to build 10130 so people could get at this update. So, you can download the builds directly from Microsoft at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/preview-iso (you might need to signup/register, I have no idea, the page works for me but I did sign up).

First of all, **make sure you have the BIOS set to AHCI mode** (it's under SATA near the end of the hardware list). If you have it in Compatibility mode and switch it to AHCI after Windows is installed it basically asplodes when it next tries to boot. Some people have reported rebooting in safe mode automatically fixes this.

Next, since I don't have any DVDs, and my flash drives are all busy, I use the following technique to install the installer, from Linux:

• Partition the disk exactly how you want (Windows Setup's partition manager sometimes leaves 0.04MB holes between partitions, tools like cfdisk don't); at the same time create a ~4.2GB partition and make sure it's the only bootable partition
• Format this new partition as NTFS, I recommend mkfs.ntfs -fQv so it doesn't take 100 forevers
• Mount the ISO and copy its contents to the new partition's root directory
• Run grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/partition /dev/sdX, where /mnt/partition is where the NTFS partition is mounted, and /dev/sdX is the disk (not partition), 99.9% going to be /dev/sda
• Reboot and input

  set root=(hd0,msdosN)
  ntldr /bootmgr
  boot

  msdos here refers to the distinction between DOS-style MBR and EFI, not partition type; the N in msdosN is the same number as when you mounted the disk as in Linux (eg /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2), and the 0 in hd0 corresponds to the a/b/c/d etc in /dev/sda. The TL;DR is "type the opening bracket, then hit <TAB>".
• Setup is now running; when it finishes Windows' bootloader will be on the MBR of course, and it will reset the correct bootable partition

FWIW, I used this technique with great success because I have a 6GB swap partition at the start of the disk so Linux suspends more quickly (the read head moves less for partitions at the top/start of the disk since these are in the center of the platter).

Win10 Setup is very similar to Win8.1; make sure you select the right partition to install on, then after about half an hour of copying you'll get asked a pile of privacy questions and you can login.

Once the disk stops chewing itself...

1. Open Settings > Accounts
2. Select "Sign in with a Microsoft account"

I think doing this as early as possible may or may not improve things slightly, I honestly have no idea though.

Next, install the ThinkPad's native Intel AHCI controller:

1. Download https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... io10ww.exe from http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds003127, run it.
2. Hit Win+Pause. (Keyboards with a Pause key FTW!)
3. Click Device Manager (top-right)
4. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
5. Select "SATA controller" (What does it say here? I don't know now )
6. Right-click, Update, Browse, C:\DRIVERS\WIN\IMSM64, "Next"
7. Shoo Device Manager (and all its reboot dialogs) away for now.
8. Congratulations; you now won't get KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERRORs every 2.5 hours.

Now speed up the graphics (which you've probably noticed are trying really really hard, but... just not managing very well):

1. Download https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... d533ww.exe from http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds004138
2. Run it, navigate to C:\DRIVERS\WIN\VIDEO and run Bin64\Setup.exe
3. Select Custom Setup... and forget about the configuration utility, sadly it does not work. I've reinstalled 10130 about three times; every time, the utility freaks out and thinks I have the wrong version of the driver installed. This is a Win10-specific glitch, the GUI works fine under 8.1 but not 10. So just select the driver.

Now for some Windows 10 fun.

1. Open Settings, Accounts
2. Select Sign-in Options
3. Select "Add a PIN"
4. Run through that; I seem to have good success (see below) with a 4-digit PIN and I'm not touching it
5. As soon as you have registered your PIN, sign out, or better, now would be a good time to follow up on the AHCI driver reboot.
6. Are you being asked for your PIN at your next login? Look for the "sign-in options" button if you aren't; in any case try hard to login with your PIN this time. This whole system seems to be incredibly fragile in this build, I broke it twice, this is why I recommend rebooting or at least logging out and back in.
7. Once you're back up, go back to Sign-in Options.
8. NOW, under Windows Hello, enroll your fingerprint(s).
9. Once this is done, logout (or hit Win+L)
10. ...does biometric authentication like you?

A couple last random things:

• Settings > Time & Language > Region & Language; make sure Country is set to "United States" exactly. Now Cortana will work: any other location will make it say "not available in your region".
• Settings > System > Power & Sleep; you probably want to kill auto-sleep when plugged in.
• Settings > Update & Security; chase down any updates that are available. Also, open Advanced Options and configure this too, at the very least select "Fast" (although apparently it doesn't work at the moment, not sure).
• Open the Store; you should see a down arrow with a number next to it near the search box. Click that, click "Update All".

Definitely interested to hear about people's experiences!

I'm also happy to try experimenting with stuff people might want tested on Win10 on a T60. ^^

- i336_

[ohitsanazn]

Everything worked on my T430, until I installed UltraNav drivers with scrolling support. It refused to boot afterwards. Back to 8.1 for now.

[theterminator93]

Haven't played with it too much yet, but I put it (10130) on my spare T61p a couple nights ago. I'll preface this by saying up front that it runs Windows 7 just fine - so there is nothing at all wrong with the hardware.

First time it booted after setup it didn't give me a shell after 30 minutes of waiting at the bootup screen (had to alt+tab to get to it after a hard reset). Third time it didn't let me get past the lock screen (hard reset). Fourth time Explorer locked up - hard - after loading up Project Spartan (hard reset). Fifth time it seemed okay, but when I hit shut down it hibernated instead. Sixth time it behaved normally.

[precip9]

Does Lenovo PM work?

Does FN+F5 work for radio on/off?

[theterminator93]

Lenovo PM works for me (haven't tried Fn keys yet) after I installed it in Win7 compatibility mode.

[daveA]

Awsome help with SATA and video. Add this: No boot with internet enabled until clock set to manual, and no changing clock(or anything else) to manual without internet enabled. Disabling defender also hangs updates.

[Temetka]

Glad you got it working on such and old machine. T60's are nice laptops.

I'd offer my setup and install experience with Windows 10 on my T410, but I just booted off my install USB and the system did the rest. No issues whatsoever. Everything works great and my fingerprint login works perfectly. I love this computer.

[daveA]

Disable a ton of auto-updating gadgets, and the fake-shutdown(fast boot option) for less problems having to put it to sleep once, at boots-to-blackscreen, before using.