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This removes WinSxS. That's fine for embedded, since you'd just package the DLLs you need with any executables you want to run, but trying to run this as a gene
by Someone1234 4y ago
This removes WinSxS. That's fine for embedded, since you'd just package the DLLs you need with any executables you want to run, but trying to run this as a general purpose OS is a fools' errand. Calling WinSxS "bloat" when that "bloat" is allowing 30+ years of backwards compatibility (and a lot of stuff will break) is creative by the article's author for sure.
Nothing wrong with Tiny11 though, if you know what it is good at and use it for that. Namely, "offline" Windows for some appliance-like usage (e.g. factory controls, display screens, et al) when Linux won't do for whatever reason and licensing Windows IoT isn't possible (small business/personal project/etc).
- Semaphor 4y agoIn their defense, they also don’t recommend running it on anything that can actually run normal Win 11.
- causality0 4y agoCalling WinSxS "bloat" when that "bloat" is allowing 30+ years of backwards compatibility (and a lot of stuff will break) is creative by the article's author for sure. Taking up a lot of space on your drives for data to maintain backwards compatibility makes sense. Why, when not being actively used, does it need to occupy gigabytes of RAM?
- Someone1234 4y ago> Why, when not being actively used, does it need to occupy gigabytes of RAM? There's no need, which is why it doesn't.
- ninkendo 4y agoGiven that the premise of this discussion is how Tiny11 credits removing WinSXS as part of the reason they were able to free up the memory, it would appear the article (and OP) disagree.
- Dooflegna 4y agoThe article talks about memory savings and storage savings. Removing WinSXS is a storage savings play, not a memory savings play. Here's the relevant quote: > Moreover, removing the Windows Component Store (WinSxS), which is responsible for a fair degree of Tiny11’s compactness, means that installing new features or languages isn’t possible.
- ChuckNorris89 4y agoCaching frequently used apps for snappiness.
- 8note 4y agohow much backwards compatability do i neee nowadays? my laptop only needs to run a few things: browser vscode steam the microsoft drawing app some office stuff sublime discord which all update pretty regularly. the age of the desktop app has been replaced by the age of the browser and electron based apps. i can imagine businesses who built their own set ups back in the age of the desktop app being stuck with it, but for the most part i dont think i used windows' backwards compatability anymore
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Dalewyn 4y agoA lot more than you think: * Steam (the root process, not the subsequent Chromium child processes) is 32-bit, as are a lot of games. * Discord is 32-bit.
- pas 4y agoHow come people run these Electron apps separately when they run pretty well as tabs/windows in the browser?
- Ar-Curunir 4y agoBecause integration into the desktop is better as an Electron app. Eg sound and video calls, keyboard shortcuts, not having to worry about finding your Discord/Slack/whatever tab
- Dalewyn 4y agoI would't say Electron is better desktop integration. Discord for example is literally just a chrome-less Chrome; the zoom in/out hotkeys in Chrome still work in it. This is also not mentioning how no Electron program ever visually adheres to the desktop environment it's running in.
- 4y ago
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoUm. Where else do you need it to run in 2GB but embedded? I think the article is informative, fair and correct.
- djur 4y ago"De-bloated" implies that the stuff removed is "bloat", i.e. worthless. I wouldn't assume that a "de-bloated" install was any less suitable for general purpose computing tasks.
- demetrius 4y ago> Where else do you need it to run in 2GB but embedded? I use an eeePC laptop with 2 Gb or RAM as my home computer. It's quite usable with Linux. Not that I'm planning to install Win11 on it, but the assumption that 2GB is enough only for embedded devices is incorrect.
- JoeAltmaier 4y agoI stand corrected. Embedded is all over the map, but a brief search shows you have to get well above the $10 embedded SOC to get RAM like that.
- NikolaNovak 4y agoI have a media pc running windows 10 with 2gb ram. It's run great with media player classic, Netflix, and even steam installed. I certainly would not assume "debloated" means "completely crippled" I think that's the point - some people have assumption that 2g is meaningless whereas others see it as HUUUGE amounts of memory. Never mind historically, let us consider what a modern phone can do with 2gb ram.
- binarycrusader 4y agoThe idea that removing WinSxS saves space is generally misguided anyway. The vast majority of content there is actually the original file that was used to create a hard link at the destination. So obviously removing the file doesn’t really save any appreciable amount of space. The remaining content unique to WinSXS is either for cryptographic validation, app compat, or the driver stack.
- forgotpwd16 4y agoWinSxS also includes backups allowing to revert updates and disabled features. Cleaning up using dism has always recovered me a few GBs.
- binarycrusader 4y agoThe amount of backups in there is fairly minimal and is limited to a folder called “backups”. As for disabled features, the size of disabled features there is also relatively small, not gigabytes. Any space reclaimed using dism’s startcomponentcleanup is only from removal of superseded updates which normally happens automatically whenever the maintenance task runs after a certain period of time. Note that I explicitly consider backups separate from superseded updates. Superseded updates are kept for a period of time to allow the user to uninstall a newer update.
- asveikau 4y agoCame here to say this. WinSXS looks like a huge folder in explorer, because explorer's size estimates do not tell you about hard links. It's not that big. I need to question somebody who thinks removing it will remove a lot of bloat.
- kristianp 4y agoHmm, so how can you see the real size of winsxs?
- binarycrusader 4y agoBrute force? Get the size of every “file” in the volume along with the file id of each and then subtract the size of any files with a matching file id that are in the WinSxS. Then sum the size of the remaining files that were from the WinSxS. You can get the file id using https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/ns-winbase-file_id_info https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/... or fsutil, etc. You could also probably execute “fsutil hardlink list” for every “file” in WinSxS and then ignore any that list more than one result and sum the size of the remainder. There are of course more efficient ways to do this but those are some quick hacks.
- twelvedogs 4y agoit does more than that, it keeps a copy of every dll you've ever installed not just the ones in use. there's a reason it just gets bigger forever even if you don't install more programs