6 ms·
I have released a 69.0MB version of Windows 7 x86
- op00to 1y agoNice
- 0xd3af 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- thunderbong 1y agoFrom the thread [0] - > This was more of a fun proof of concept rather than something usable. Virtually nothing can run due to critical missing files such as common dialog boxes and common controls. [0]: https://x.com/XenoPanther/status/1983579460906487835?t=7jLSzS-sC1QQ9qnZvWCEMQ&s=19 https://x.com/XenoPanther/status/1983579460906487835?t=7jLSz...
- happymellon 1y agoIf it can't run Windows 7 software, is it really Windows 7?
- ronsor 1y agoIt almost certainly can run basic CLI apps linked only to kernel32.dll
- znpy 1y agoIf this was a linux container, it would be a base image. I wonder if this could be used to cobble together some duct-tape windows-7-based firecrackers vm thing.
- zokier 1y agoWindows containers are a thing, and MS has "Nano Server" base image. Back in the day, MS did even release Nano Server as a standalone OS, from what I gather it was generally <500MB. Pretty decent for a Windows you could actually run applications on.
- esseph 1y ago> Windows containers Are people using these in production? I assume so, with libvirt handling them on k8s for a vmware transition option.
- nikanj 1y agoYes, if by people you include Azure in-house engineering teams
- actionfromafar 1y agoI will allow it, once.
- tecleandor 1y agoAlthough I don't manage those, I've seen them at work. Running on EKS Windows nodes, for dotnet and SQL Server loads.
- p_l 1y agoOh Nano Server, that's a blast from the past. I worked on porting certain Software Defined Networking product to Windows platform, for use with Hyper-V. Nano Server was new and we tried to target it as one of the options, especially since it was implied to be recommended way to deploy Hyper-V hosts. And yes, IIRC it took less than 500MB, but it couldn't run most windows applications (for example, GUI was missing). So much was stripped out that at one point I ended up with reverse-engineered Windows Update packaging (unfortunately lost my notes) because the oldest form of Windows Installer, the one used with INF files for drivers, could not be used fully - specifically, we could not run any kind of action in our own DLL when initializing the drivers. And messing with the right registry keys was fraught with peril. Do not recall all issues, but essentially we were trying to create a package that could be applied with DISM.EXE onto Nano Server image.
- nxobject 1y agoOr perhaps applications that just need input and a framebuffer?
- znpy 1y agoYes. If you compile just enough linux kernel to just boot and launch a statically compiled init, it’s still linux. Similarly, this is still windows 7.
- ZiiS 1y agoLinux is a kernel, Windows is an OS; I don't think the same limits apply. [A static init dose not a Distro make]
- znpy 1y agoYou should tak a look at busybox
- bragr 1y agoThe post you are replying separately mentioned both the "linux kernel" and "linux" so the "Linux is a kernel" pedantry feels misplaced here. Besides this old debate is pretty silly because I doubt anyone could propose (and get a majority of us to agree on) a formal definition of an operating system that would allow us to unambiguously say "that's an OS competent", "that's an OS", and "that's just software that ships with the OS" across a suite of OS's.
- happymellon 1y agoDisagree. "Windows 7" brings a lot of connotations, including the ability to run Windows 7 software. Without that what makes it different to Windows XP?
- exe34 1y agowindows xp can run software for windows xp.
- ryao 1y agoIf you install the right software, Windows XP reportedly can run most Windows 7 software too: https://github.com/shorthorn-project/One-Core-API-Binaries https://github.com/shorthorn-project/One-Core-API-Binaries That adds various NT 6 APIs and even compatibility modes for various newer versions of Windows up to Windows 11. At a glance, it appears to have support for Vulkan, Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 11 through software rendering, with the option of using WineD3D to get hardware accelerated Direct3D 10 and 11. I assume old WineD3D-PBA binaries run very nicely on that. Interestingly, the developer suggests that installing graphics drivers from newer versions of Windows might be possible at some point, which I assume would provide native hardware acceleration for newer graphics APIs and support for recent graphics cards: > WDDM is not impossible, only very hard. Currently initializes and the subsystem runs, but every driver fails to communicate with it's internal hardware due 2000/XP/2003 doesn't have support for MSI/MSI-X interrupt, required to WDDM drivers works; https://github.com/shorthorn-project/One-Core-API-Binaries/issues/476 https://github.com/shorthorn-project/One-Core-API-Binaries/i...
- larodi 1y agoIs a working top notch OS and you can do a lot with this bare minimum actually.
- bhaney 1y agoA question that will truly haunt philosophers for centuries to come
- BobbyTables2 1y agoIf one replaces a few EXEs and DLLs at a time, at what point does it become Windows 11 ?
- actionfromafar 1y agoWhen you need to buy new hardware to boot it.
- abcdump 1y agoWithout new hardware, old hardware would eventually die. When that old hardware dies, it would likely be replaced with a similar design rather than more evolved hardware. This would mean we’d have to develop for longevity. Developing for longevity, could mean that software would flourish. Software flourishing could include malware and inefficient software sold to fight malware. Therefore, it is more secure and efficient to continually evolve operating systems to require new hardware, to reduce longevity and the flourishing of software.
- extraduder_ire 1y agoIs the a 32 bit version of windows 11?
- silisili 1y agoWhen it starts spamming you ads from the taskbar...
- devsda 1y agoIf that's the stop point, they'll only end up with Windows 8 and miss out on Recall.
- hulitu 1y ago
- zepolen 1y agoWindows 7 couldn't run Windows 7 software either.
- netsharc 1y ago> common dialog boxes and common controls. Ah, makes me reminisce installing Office 6.0 on Windows 3.1 and getting "3D" dialogs, from ctl3d.dll This post has screenshots of the dialogs: http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php?t=14706 http://www.win3x.org/win3board/viewtopic.php?t=14706
- ulfw 1y agoI have just releaser the 0MB version of DOS 5.0. It can't run anything as it's zero bytes but hey...
- SoKamil 1y agoThere is Recycle Bin and Folder icon. What a waste of space!
- lazystar 1y agoSide note.... one thing I wish all cloud provider websites would provide is a recycle bin in the GUI. its far too easy to bulk delete resources, and the cost of a misclick/tampermonkey script bug occurring while doing so can result in a huge qmount of time spent on restoring your service.
- brazukadev 1y agoThey want you bulk uploading resources, not deleting.
- anthk 1y agoIf they use webdav just use rclone or cadaver.
- AtlasBarfed 1y agoI wish Amazon making an unbridled billions per year, would make an actually usable and halfway decent web console. Okay fine. They have a lot of services and that would be hard. I'll be happy with ec2, S3, and the other core services.
- bombcar 1y agoPallet shifts save so many bytes!
- nxobject 1y agoWith some GDI (?) patches, I'm sure they could get rid or slim down some DLLs with resources ;)
- gdulli 1y agoThere used to be a much bigger scene around custom Windows installs and I hope it gets resurrected if/when the ability to create local accounts goes away. The desire for a tiny install is pretty niche at this point but I could see demand going up to preserve local accounts. Or perhaps that won't be necessary because certain enterprise customers will insist on local accounts and it will be easier for pirates to just tap into that install path? One way or another, if/when local accounts go away I hope there's some option to work around it.
- tapoxi 1y agoWhy not just invest in Wine?
- gdulli 1y agoI use Linux daily as a server/VM and hate using Windows as a server, but I've never been happy enough with alternatives to Windows as a desktop when I've tried them.
- ssl-3 1y agoWhy even do that? I don't want a better Windows than Windows so I can run Windows programs on my not-Windows computer. I want Linux software, instead. (I'm old enough to have once had a "better Windows than Windows" experience, with OS/2 Warp -- ~30 years ago. It was a very nice system that completely failed to thrive, with many back then blaming its quite good Windows compatibility for that failure.)
- ayaros 1y agoOr ReactOS...
- AtlasBarfed 1y agoIf AI had 1/10 of the promise it's marketed to have, I'd have faith in react OS actually catching up.
- layer8 1y ago
- etaioinshrdlu 1y agoThis is impressive and it also kind of demonstrates how bloated Windows really is. You can fit a ton more functionality into even 1MB.
- striking 1y agohttps://xcancel.com/XenoPanther/status/1983477707968291075 https://xcancel.com/XenoPanther/status/1983477707968291075
- MaiSck 1y agoWhat would be a use case for this? Or is it for the challenge?
- pizlonator 1y agoI think it's just a really cool flex
- AtlasBarfed 1y agoWhat is it that we use these days that wants small stripped down OS images that we talk about for days and days and days on hacker News? Squares? Pigeon holes? Cookie jars? Oh I remember VMs pods and containers
- wingmanjd 1y agoAssuming that one could get a functional networking stack up, could running `sfc /scannow` fix all the missing pieces, similar to a netboot deployment of Linux?
- vee-kay 1y agoUmm, I don't want to nitpick, but what's the purpose of releasing a hotpotch shell of an OS, that doesn't work in even basic functionality?! Meanwhile Tiny7, Tiny10, Tiny11 entered the chatroom.. And though they are 10x+ bigger in size, they are still barebones Windows OS (without all the clutter that Micro$oft tends to overload on Windows releases these days; I am looking at you Mr.Copilot) that work well for most use cases. I personally used Tiny11 to set up my home PC, it is compact and usable.
- embedding-shape 1y agoComplaining about "purpose" on a website dedicated to hackers, who famously do things on whims for fun, seems slightly futile.
- Sohcahtoa82 1y agoThere are an alarming number of people on this site who seriously believe that anything done purely for fun is a waste of time. They'd annoy me if I didn't feel so bad for them. They're the types who will lament on their death bed that they didn't allow themselves to do more things for enjoyment.
- pacifika 1y agoSee if it’s possible, learning about how windows works
- LeoPanthera 1y agoWhat's the smallest Linux distribution with a graphical desktop?
- shakna 1y agoDamn Small Linux is 50Mb, and comes with fluxbox, so already beats this version of Windows - but I expect there's some smaller distros.
- watermelon0 1y agoTiny Core Linux at 23 MB http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html http://www.tinycorelinux.net/downloads.html
- Grom_PE 1y agoI have experimented with Tiny Core Linux + Wine, that netted around 100 MB, would be a good starting point for running Windows software on a minimal OS. Certainly would run more software than any Windows cut and shrunk to that size.
- anthk 1y agoMuLinux did that in 2004. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MuLinux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MuLinux Also, it looks revived: https://ptsource.github.io/MuLinux/ https://ptsource.github.io/MuLinux/
- janci 1y agoIs it just a minimal set of unmodified files and Windows will gracefully degradate to this? Or did he need to patch everything to be able to strip it down?
- souenzzo 1y agoWindows 98 takes ~200Mb after a clean install Windows 95 takes ~50Mb after a clean install
- cyberax 1y agoI remember paring down Win98 to 17Mb. And pretty much everything still worked!
- ryao 1y agoI remember hearing about people doing that around the time that windows 98 was still current. It was really impressive. At the time, the idea of an operating system using a gigabyte of space was a fantasy to most people. Now, I wonder when Microsoft Windows will pass the terabyte threshold.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- asadm 1y agoWhats the barebones usable version of windows 7? Tiny7?
- alnwlsn 1y agoReminds me of when I first started learning computers, there was a version of Windows 3.11 that fit on a single 1.4M floppy. Some of them fit even more stuff by uncompressing the floppy into a ramdisk. You could even make your own, starting with the file manager from Windows 3.1 and some files from a Windows 95 CD (the installer for 95 ran a stripped down 3.1)
- sys_64738 1y agoWill it still be able to run malware properly? :)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ryao 1y agoThat is even smaller than minimal versions of Windows XP: https://archive.org/details/smallest-windows-xp-rtm-sp-0 https://archive.org/details/smallest-windows-xp-rtm-sp-0 I assume the minimal version of Windows XP still has components that were stripped out of this version of windows 7.
- pacifika 1y agoPretty cool. Always wanted the old skool look back in more modern windows
- TowerTall 1y agoSlightly related: Back in 2005 Mark Russinovich (Now Azure CTO) managed to disable almost all services in Windows XP https://web.archive.org/web/20060221142148/https://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/07/running-windows-with-no-services.html https://web.archive.org/web/20060221142148/https://www.sysin...