OldSteve:
my old machine couldn't run a newer OS, except maybe Vista
That's a bit of a weird statement. 
Windows Vista was pretty bloated, Windows 7 runs wayyyyyy lighter. And those Win compatibility checks are not worth much. They always tell "Computer says noooooo" if the PC is more then 2 year old. But if a PC was fine running Win XP it's fine running Win 7 as well. Only really weird hardware like Creative Sound Blasters are not always working fine.
AS for me, I run Windows 10 just fine on a machine that came out together with Vista 