Question Concerning RAM Memory

From where? It isn't on the drive and you have no Windows 7 DVD.

You would have to buy something in order to "reload" Windows 7.
Check prices
https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Professional-Old-Version/dp/B002DHLVII

You might do better saving money and getting a modern computer with Windows 10. I don't advise Windows 11 until it is at least 6 months old and drivers for things like printers are out. Otherwise, you other hardware won't work.

If all you have on the hard drive in the Dell computer is linux, then imaging/cloning/restoring is not going to work. You can not magically get Windows 7 back on a computer if it is not currently installed. You could get it back if it were installed as part of a dual boot.

 

That would probably create more problems.
If you go to the support page for the Optiplex 780
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/optiplex-780/drivers
and look under drivers, you'll see drivers for XP, Vista and 7. If there are no drivers for the hardware, you might have problems with video, audio and possibly getting on the internet.

The problem is not the RAM. You have an almost 12 year old computer with a 12 year old CPU and a 12 year old graphics chip. You aren't going to get old hardware to run faster by installing a version of Windows it was not designed to run. Even the models currently selling (I saw several Optiplex 780's, have Windows 7 and not Windows 10).

 

Let's do a recap here.
1) The machine was slow. John thought he didn't have enough RAM He said hit has 8 GB RAM. That's good, RAM isn't the problem.
2) Machine is still slow. We removed items from startup. That helped greatly.
3) Machine was thought to be good, but the opinion has changed. He says it's still slow.
4) Maybe it's the hard drive. The hard drive is nowhere near capacity. We rule out it's a full hard drive.
5) He runs disk cleanup and defrag weekly. We can rule out disk defragmentation.
6) Hard drive is old. It could have just slowed down. He wants to try another hard drive. He has another drive. It has Linux on it.
We tell him he can image his current drive onto the Linux drive. That will wipe out the Linux install and make the spare drive look exactly like the one that in the machine now.
** I don't think we verified the 'other Linux' drive is of the same or larger capacity of the original drive **
- John can you verify that for us please?

** Note: We haven't ruled out hidden software issues on the drive. **

My approach is:
1) Post scans for malware in our malware removal help forum at https://computerhelpforums.com/forums/malware-removal-help.59/.
Instruction for doing so at https://computerhelpforums.com/threads/preparation-for-malware-removal-help-all-windows-os.41927/

2) If after malware is ruled out the machine is still slow, image the current drive onto the 'other Linux' drive. We don't know the state of the other drive. It may be in same/worse condition than the current drive. It's worth a try.

 

No, the site is a scam. If the price is extremely low, you can be sure it is not legitimate!

At best, you'll be given a key that doesn't work and perhaps the download contains malware. At worst, they have your credit card info and will use it. You'll have to stop payment on the card then get a new credit card.

 

Here's a free option: turn that computer into a chromebox. That means it will run ChromeOS and you'll be able to use the chrome browser on the internet.

Your model is supported until August 2022 so you will get 6 more months out of the 12 year old computer.
https://guide.neverware.com/supported-devices/#DellOptiplex780

Here is the installation guide and what is required:
https://www.neverware.com/freedownload#intro-text

 

I don't know. I'm not familiar with that software. In early versions of ChromeOS the Chrome browser was tied into the OS. Once ChromeOS was no longer supported, websites would tell you that you need an updated browser because the browser could no longer be updated.

I have a Chromebook but it allows me to install another browser so when it stops being updated in June 2024, I can use another browser to surf. It has googleplay on it so I can install the apps I want. I'm not sure this software from neverware has googleplay in the ChromeOS emulator they provide.

Actually, your safest bet is to install linux. Though linux can be hard to figure out at times.
You do know you can not simply take a hd out of one computer, put it into another computer with different hardware and expect it to work. That isn't an option.

We are using Windows 7 computers (2 desktops and 2 netbooks) even though they stopped being patched in January 2020.

You also need to go back and address some of Tony's post who carefully mapped out some things.

 

Windows can't read Linux hard drives but Linux can read Widows hard drives.

 

I would.

 

The disk has been wiped. You need to create a partition and format it. Format it NTFS.

You can do that in Disk Management. I don't recall all the steps because it's pretty straight forward.

When creating the partition, you may be asked for a partition size and presented with a kinda drop down menu to select the partition size. I think it's a counter kinda thing. Make the partition as large as it allows.

 

It has to be initialized first. When you plugged it in you should get a message asking to initialize it. Here is a video showing how to do it
hope it helps.