IN A NUTSHELL: The idea of installing almost every version of Windows from NT 4.0 to Windows 10 22H2 on an IBM ThinkPad T43 from 2005 sounds like an arduous task, but what made this feat even more remarkable was that the user achieved it without resorting to a virtual machine.
Redditor MatiHalek posted the results of the experiment to r/Windows, showing 26 years of Microsoft's operating systems running on the same bare-metal laptop. The gallery includes screenshots of the classic System Properties/About screens, taking viewers from the old NT era through to one of the final Windows 10 releases.
MatiHalek confirmed that no virtual machines were used during the process.
The experiment was not simply a case of repeatedly wiping the drive and starting again. MatiHalek said the laptop already had Windows XP installed when they got it, so they first added Vista as a dual-boot option.
From there, they followed the upgrade path from Vista to Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 RTM. Windows 10 22H2 proved more difficult and required a clean install through a Windows 10 1709 PE environment, followed by some workarounds.
