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Back in Windows 98 days there was 98lite project, that allowed to customize Windows 98 components, even replace explorer.exe with one from Windows 95. Smallest

by butz 7y ago

Back in Windows 98 days there was 98lite project, that allowed to customize Windows 98 components, even replace explorer.exe with one from Windows 95. Smallest version was just under 50MB. I wonder how much Windows 10 can be shrunk? And probably hardest thing of all - keep updates working after that.

agumonkey 7y ago
Yeah probably impossible IMO but it would be fun to hack into and see how much can be trimmed
fyfy18 7y ago
There was an unofficial build of XP called TinyXP that I used to like to use for VMs. It would use under 200mb of disk space, yet somehow be fully functional.
- zamadatix 7y ago
  Ah that brings back memories. I don't know if I was just crazier or if it was just easier to trim things without breaking them back then. These days I don't even dare try to remove some of the built in Appx packages on Windows for fear it silently breaks some feature you'd never think was part of that.
tyingq 7y ago
WinReducer and NT Lite both appear to still be active and support Windows 10. I don't see any quick info how how much they help. https://www.winreducer.net/ https://www.winreducer.net/ https://www.ntlite.com/ https://www.ntlite.com/
- agumonkey 7y ago
  fun to see ntlite still kicking
jaclaz 7y ago
WIndows 10 can, roughly, be around 4 GB, using quite a few tricks (VHD and Wimboot). There are a few projects/ways but I doubt that updates work on such a minimal setup. Here is one, if you are interested: http://reboot.pro/topic/21977-vhd-wimboot-apply-and-capture-of-wim-files-for-os-in-vhd/ http://reboot.pro/topic/21977-vhd-wimboot-apply-and-capture-...
shakna 7y ago
You've got a few responses spelling out a few ways it can be done. Almost all of them are based off something called "WinPE" or the Windows Preinstallation Environment. [0] This is a similar OS, used when installing your OS. It usually shares the same kernel, but with everything stripped away, including useful things like the desktop, etc. You can add some, but not all, of these things back. As WinPE uses the Fat32 file system by default (you can change it with some difficulty), most of these installations will be less than 4GB. Building a WinPE-based environment is a fun weekend project. Totally against the license agreement to make it into a useable OS, but that shouldn't matter if you never share it and are just using it to get to grips with how WinPE works. [0] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-intro https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufactur...
- WorldMaker 7y ago
  Microsoft also today has containers and images that they themselves streamline as much as possible, for certain use cases. The two most common I've seen referenced: 1. Windows IoT Core [0] designed for IoT devices and embedded scenarios. The RPi build of Windows 10 IoT Core is around 800 MBs. (The Raspberry Pi build is an interesting one to note because you can explore yourself easily in a weekend project.) 2. Windows Nano Server [1] is a fascinating Windows 10 build intended for among other things Docker containerization [2] and virtualization projects. I've heard some images of Nano server are as small as about 400 MBs. Given its intent for containerization/virtualization, it's pretty amenable to experimenting with in weekend projects, too. Microsoft has seemed quite interested in the last few years with how small and modular they can make Windows under the hood. It's not always apparent at the consumer level because of backward compatibility and all of the required "modules" (like Win32) that folks think of "as Windows". [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10iotcore# https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10i...! [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/getting-started-with-nano-server https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/... [2] https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-windows-nanoserver https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-windows-nanoserver

by butz 7y ago

agumonkey 7y ago

Yeah probably impossible IMO but it would be fun to hack into and see how much can be trimmed

fyfy18 7y ago

There was an unofficial build of XP called TinyXP that I used to like to use for VMs. It would use under 200mb of disk space, yet somehow be fully functional.

zamadatix 7y ago
Ah that brings back memories. I don't know if I was just crazier or if it was just easier to trim things without breaking them back then. These days I don't even dare try to remove some of the built in Appx packages on Windows for fear it silently breaks some feature you'd never think was part of that.

tyingq 7y ago

WinReducer and NT Lite both appear to still be active and support Windows 10. I don't see any quick info how how much they help. https://www.winreducer.net/ https://www.winreducer.net/ https://www.ntlite.com/ https://www.ntlite.com/

agumonkey 7y ago
fun to see ntlite still kicking

jaclaz 7y ago

WIndows 10 can, roughly, be around 4 GB, using quite a few tricks (VHD and Wimboot). There are a few projects/ways but I doubt that updates work on such a minimal setup. Here is one, if you are interested: http://reboot.pro/topic/21977-vhd-wimboot-apply-and-capture-of-wim-files-for-os-in-vhd/ http://reboot.pro/topic/21977-vhd-wimboot-apply-and-capture-...

shakna 7y ago

You've got a few responses spelling out a few ways it can be done. Almost all of them are based off something called "WinPE" or the Windows Preinstallation Environment. [0] This is a similar OS, used when installing your OS. It usually shares the same kernel, but with everything stripped away, including useful things like the desktop, etc. You can add some, but not all, of these things back. As WinPE uses the Fat32 file system by default (you can change it with some difficulty), most of these installations will be less than 4GB. Building a WinPE-based environment is a fun weekend project. Totally against the license agreement to make it into a useable OS, but that shouldn't matter if you never share it and are just using it to get to grips with how WinPE works. [0] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-intro https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufactur...

WorldMaker 7y ago
Microsoft also today has containers and images that they themselves streamline as much as possible, for certain use cases. The two most common I've seen referenced: 1. Windows IoT Core [0] designed for IoT devices and embedded scenarios. The RPi build of Windows 10 IoT Core is around 800 MBs. (The Raspberry Pi build is an interesting one to note because you can explore yourself easily in a weekend project.) 2. Windows Nano Server [1] is a fascinating Windows 10 build intended for among other things Docker containerization [2] and virtualization projects. I've heard some images of Nano server are as small as about 400 MBs. Given its intent for containerization/virtualization, it's pretty amenable to experimenting with in weekend projects, too. Microsoft has seemed quite interested in the last few years with how small and modular they can make Windows under the hood. It's not always apparent at the consumer level because of backward compatibility and all of the required "modules" (like Win32) that folks think of "as Windows". [0] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10iotcore# https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10i...! [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/getting-started-with-nano-server https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/get-started/... [2] https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-windows-nanoserver https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-windows-nanoserver