Windows s?

[Spacekitty]

I'm a Mac user and realise that most Astronomy apps and drivers can only be used with Windows. So I'm looking at a cheap laptop just to use for Astrophotography. So im currently looking at an Asus F402WA-GA019T 14-inch Laptop but it says it has Windows S on it which can only buy apps from the store. Can I install what I need on this computer? Also it has only 64GB storage. I dont want to buy the wrong computer. Any advice would help. Thanks

[LewisM]

Sounds very "low end" - you may hae USB hang ups etc. Don't worry so much storage capacity, worry more about RAM and CPU.

Win10 S will NOT run ANYTHING installed elsewhere other than the Windows App store, so unless the AP programmes are in Windows Store, you are stuck (but you CAN upgrade to Win10 Pro for a fee, naturally - currently $50 USD - and then you can actually install whatever you like)

I use an 8 year old ASUS laptop, but it was high end back then with an i7 processor and 12GB RAM. It works superbly for astrophotography, running WIN7, MaxIM DL6 and not much else - keep it lean, keeps it clean and fast.

[skysurfer]

You can run VirtualBox to run Windows on a Mac, amd most hardware drivers do run in a virtual machine.

[LewisM]

I wouldn't recommend the steps involved to get a VM running on a Mac to an obvious computer novice.

[vlazg]

I use bootcamp on my Mac, works well.

[Wavytone]

I use windows 7 and 10 in Parallels on my MacBook Air (2014 i7, 8GB RAM and 512GB SSD). Windows runs fine and stuff on USB ports etc work as expected no issues. Sure it’s not free, but it works beautifully no issues.

There’s no need to use bootcamp as the Astro programs are not particularly demanding in any respect.

[Zuts]

If she's looking for a cheap laptop then I wouldn't recommend a mac...

[pluto]

To answer the original post:
You can convert Windows S to a proper Windows very easily, see here (https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/help/4456067/windows-10-switch-out-of-s-mode).

It has a 64GB eMMC which should just fit Windows and a few astro programs but it will probably be quite slow so I wouldn't plan on doing any planetary imaging directly to that drive. Perhaps you could get better speeds with a fast SD card in there but you'd have to test. For deep sky imaging I can't see why it wouldn't work fine.

It's certainly not an amazing computer by any stretch but it's pretty impressive what you can get for under $300!

[LewisM]

Indeed - found that out last night too, though it seems SOME installations that were installed as S WON'T unlock to Pro without an extra-paid license...https://www.theverge.com/2017/6/13/15789998/microsoft-windows-10-s-upgrade-windows-10-pro-guide

Seems the OP's cheap laptop/notebook fits into the "You must pay" category.

[pluto]

Yes you'll need to pay to upgrade to Pro but upgrading S to just a standard Win10 license is free. For a basic astro lappy, and for most other stuff*, you don't need Pro.

* In practice, I've only ever needed Pro to run a multiprocessor box as the normal license only supports one physical processor. I had a normal, non-Pro, license on a lappy which I used to use for astro stuff, as well as everything else, and never found any reason to upgrade to Pro.

[Icearcher]

How about a second hand one from gumtree/facebook market place?

Something like a dell latitude E6430 should be around the $200 mark, 3rd gen core processor will run anything without issues, they usually have 2 usb3 ports for astrocams and such and they get battery life around 5 hours, they often have win10 installed but iv seen plenty with win7 and they are built like tanks.

Just an idea