Will Window 8 install on XPS Gen 4?

What you should do is get a XPS Gen 5 motherboard and install and then get Intel Pentium D CPU 3.20 GHz and install. This will allow you to go to a 64-bit with 8GB RAM. The only adaption you will need to do is the power supply. The Gen 5 has an 8 plug and the Gen 4 has a 4 plug. If you search you should be able to do this for about $150 the new CPU will cost $100 plus.

Thanks, but that would be more effort and money than I wanted to put into this system. This system is now just a backup system. I was hoping to just purchase Windows 8 (32 or 64 bit versions) and install it. Windows 8 cost me $100.00+ I will probably try to return it. I would only be doing this because Microsoft stopped supporting Windows XP. I removed MSE and installed AVG free. It is nice having an extra system around for emergency internet access and as a Windows 8 machine it would be a system to learn Windows 8 on. A couple of years ago this system got so slow I was going to try to re-install Windows XP. As I started deleting stuff the system response became more acceptable.

Basic Answer is No. Many 10 year old pentium 4's with vacuum tube drive do not support NX. You will get an error Your PC needs to restart.  Error Code: 0x0000005d. To install Windows 8 on your PC, the processor (CPU) must support the following features: Physical Address Extension (PAE), NX, and SSE2.

This is Execute Disable Bit in the Security Section of the bios.

Getting an Dimension 9150/XPS 400 or Precision 380 with Pentium D or newer would be a better upgrade path.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=dell+precision+380+pentium+d

This is why even Optiplex GX620's will work with windows 8.

You need to go up to at least optiplex 755 before you can go to 64 bit windows 8.1

The purple disk pack Retail Windows 8.1 also includes both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of the OS. This with the free Classic Shell from sourceforge is fine.  Do not get this from malvertiser sites.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/classicshell/

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Windows-8.1/productID.288401200

 

 

 

 

64 Bit 8.1 has more requirements

8.1 needs the processor to support CMPXCHG16b,

PrefetchW, and LAHF/SAHF.

Coreinfo will tell you.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/cc835722.aspx

Users have the option of obtaining a 32-bit version of Windows 8 and updating to 32 bit windows 8.1

The issue seems to be more than just processors.  Some Motherboards don't work with it even though the processor supports it.

:emotion-3:

 
C:\Windows\System32>coreinfo

Coreinfo v3.21 - Dump information on system CPU and memory topology
Copyright (C) 2008-2013 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com



EM64T           *       Supports 64-bit mode
NX              *       Supports no-execute page protection
PAE             *       Supports > 32-bit physical addresses
SSE2            *       Supports *** SIMD Extensions 2
SSE3            *       Supports *** SIMD Extensions 3
CX16            *       Supports CMPXCHG16B instruction
LAHF-SAHF       *       Supports LAHF/SAHF instructions in 64-bit mode
PREFETCHW       *       Supports PREFETCHW instruction

Likely you are best to stick with Windows 7.

You need to go up to at least optiplex 755 before you can go to 64 bit windows 8.

By the I got Windows 8.1 64 Bit running on an OptiPlex 745 without any issues. Looks like others managed also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOEVgTri7Jw