Vista

If you feel you need to spend some money ask yourself what for? If you don't use it now what are your needs? Much better options such as an IPad or even a Microsoft Surface, the IPad being much easier to setup, use, and maintain. Personally I use my IPhone 6 Plus for most things and only use my Windows device for time I want a bigger screen or run an Office program.

I wouldn't spend much on any old laptop. New Dell laptops from $250 to $350 are ready to go.

Charlie D. wrote:
I have an old Dell laptop with Vista. Seldom use it but what can I do to install a newer operating system? I suspect buying an upgrade but the Dell is so old, slow and would like to spend a lot of money.

Why do you want to spend a lot of money if you seldom use a computer?
If you really do want to spend a lot of money, buy whatever you like. Call Dell, they will sell you a lot of upgrades. :)

Your Dell is a 32 bit computer and will not accept a Windows upgrade.

Your post is entertaining. If it's old and slow a new OS would just be worse. And of course you don't want to spend a lot of money.

You might be able to run Windows 10 if your PC meets the minimum requirements. Google "Windows 10 requirements" to find out what is required. Odds are your processor will be too slow, you might not have enough RAM or hard drive space. Your graphics card might not be up to par.
It is definitely not a free upgrade. I believe Microsoft charges around $120 for Windows 10. As others have said, the smart thing to do would be to go out and get a cheap laptop or tablet.

Thank you Fizz for the information. I suspected that would be the case.
I did not mention that I have another Windows 10 I use daily. The Dell has been sitting unused except when I occasionally need another. The current HP had some issues a few week ago when I needed to restore the entire operating system. Spent time chatting with tech support and several hours on the phone. They walked me through deleting everything on the drive and then sending me a link for downloading and installing on another computer, placing on a thumb drive and then reinstalling on my Hp. I DID tell them I had recovery disks the computer prompted me to create when new.. They continued to advise a thumb drive. Did try to install while on the phone but it would not recognize the thumb drive. Worked with several tech who insisted the thumb drive was bad, along with several other thumb drives. I learned enough from the attempted installation that I used the disks and brought the lap top back to new status. I did receive a call several days later from a supervisor who walked me through several steps to get the thumb drive to work. He said the lower level techs did not know that there were other steps to get the lap top to recognize the thumb drive during boot up. No kidding.

Had I not had the Dell sitting around to use for my daily activities to down load the 9+ Gig I would have been unable to restore my current one.
It works well enough to use in a pinch so I will continue to do so.

2oldman wrote:
Your post is entertaining. If it's old and slow a new OS would just be worse. And of course you don't want to spend a lot of money.

As is yours and I may add-useless.

Fizz wrote:
Your Dell is a 32 bit computer and will not accept a Windows upgrade.

Actually, there is a 32 bit version of Windows 10. Best Buy has it for $100. It would be better to get a different computer than to try and upgrade (if possible).

Charlie D...You might want to consider pulling out the hard drive, buy an external case for it, and use it as additional storage for photos or other files. Just a thought. I've done that with several old drives.