Windows 11 Could Run On 384MB RAM
A new, unofficial version of Windows 11 runs on older machines with extremely limited memory and storage. In practice, though, Tiny11 is more for enthusiasts than the average user.
Officially Windows 11 needs at least 4GB of RAM and 64GB of hard drive space. The specs are a big increase from Windows 10 following several previous Windows editions where the minimum specs either increased slowly or remained steady.
That prompted debate about what elements of Windows boost the memory and storage requirements and whether those elements are really necessary or desirable.
Now a Romanian tech enthusiast who posts as "NTDEV" has produced a custom version of Windows 11 that aims to answer that question. Tiny11's creator told The Register that this involved "removing as many features as possible while maintaining the core user experience." (Source: theregister.com)
2GB RAM Or Less
The creator says Tiny11 will work well with just 2GB of RAM and takes up only 8GB of storage. That implies many "unnecessary" features are eating up disk space. In particular, removing large parts of the Windows Store made a big difference, while the Edge browser also got the chop.
Perhaps predictably, some tech enthusiasts took it as a challenge to go even lower than the 2GB of RAM.
One user claims to have run the system on a machine with a mere 200MB of RAM. Others say that while this is technically true, 384MB is the lowest memory needed to make the system functional, albeit at a painfully slow pace.
No Automatic Security Updates
As fun as some enthusiasts find it, Tiny 11 is not meant as a replacement for Windows 11 as an everyday, main computer operating system. Removing the Windows Store means security updates have to be done manually and there's no guarantee they will continue to work. There's also a strong possibility that Microsoft will block the project for understandable legal reasons. (Source: pcworld.com)
Instead, it may find success as more of an experiment and discussion piece about exactly what a modern operating system needs and whether the drive for new features takes priority over working on as many computers as possible.
What's Your Opinion?
Are you surprised by these figures? Does it teach us anything about Microsoft? Would you like to see an official variant of Windows 11 designed to prioritize lower system requirements over extra features?
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Comments
Circumventing the OS
This sounds great but the reality is that when you hack away (or should I say, "chop away") at an operating system and remove certain components, it almost always results in breaking functionality somewhere else. In this case, it's Windows Updates.
So, if you want to run Windows 11 on low spec, be prepared to risk everything in terms of security. This isn't a good idea in my opinion.
Besides that, Windows 11 is a modern operating system requiring modern hardware with TPM (trusted platform module), which also implies that the processors associated with TPM are also going to be modern. Hence, if you already meet the minimum hardware requirements to run Windows 11, chances are you won't need such a low spec version of it.
Re Tiny 11
None of this is surprising.
After All Linux is a much stripped down OS and it works just fine without the bloatware.
Modular Options
I’ve always thought that Microsoft should make Windows installation modular.
First is the basic core OS with everything needed to run your computer and applications.
Then you should be able to install/not install everything else. Or, at the very least make everything else uninstallable or have the ability to disable it.
There hasn’t been a “feature” introduced since Windows 7 that I actually use and they have removed some that were useful.
I have a stripped down version of windows that is very stable
it is called
7
It was ever thus...
When I was running an Interdata 8/32 in the'70s, the OS installation allowed you to choose the modules/functions that you needed. However, when they became Concurrent and developed larger machines, eventually the minimum size OS was larger than the maximum memory for the 8/32.
TPM
so I have quite a few old pieces of hardware that I am running WIN10 on because it doesn't require TPM (Trusted Platform <Module). I "chopped" quite a few of those unneeded modules to reduce the size of the OPSYS and to eliminate the "bloatware" that is included.
Does this "cut-down version" of WIN 11 also "require" TPM to function? Or does a user have to go through all routines to "hack" that requirement? There is no chance in h*ll that any of these older devices will have a TPM module on the motherboard.
It is the unreasonable requirement of TPM that has prevented me from upgrading to WIN11 as I have no desire to purchase a new system just to have that OPSYS running. So it might be worthwhile to use this "cut-down" version of WIN 11 in my older machines, if it works without the TPM.