Windows 11 working with a tiny quantity of system RAM is one thing we’ve seen earlier than, however it is a new low for the OS (in a great way).
NTDEV, the developer liable for the stripped-back version of Windows 11 called Tiny11, has bought Microsoft’s working system functioning in a PC with solely 176MB of system reminiscence.
How is that this doable? By eradicating just about every thing the dev might, and utilizing an “in depth trial and error” course of to see which companies and drivers Windows 11 required besides (then eliminating every thing else).
Tiny11 has previously been run in as little as 196MB of RAM, the catch with that being that the OS was extremely sluggish. You may do issues, nearly, however at glacial speeds.
With NTDEV’s profitable try at firing up Home windows 11 in simply 176MB, the system runs comparatively responsively, and for instance Activity Supervisor is introduced up in just some seconds. (No, that isn’t snappy, however evaluate it to the 15-minute anticipate Activity Supervisor to seem with the 196MB demonstration).
It’s an eye-opening distinction, for positive, however there’s an enormous catch right here, which we’ll talk about subsequent.
Evaluation: A powerful feat with a twist of a cheat
The cheat NTDEV has used to do that is that they’ve trimmed Tiny11 down even additional and eliminated a significant ingredient – File Explorer – permitting Home windows 11 to run sooner as a result of it doesn’t need to deliver up the desktop.
That’s proper, as you possibly can see within the video clip above, there isn’t a desktop, with the system booting to a command line. You then need to kind guide instructions (in textual content) to run totally different apps and features, which is hardly ultimate. Certainly, it’s a really clunky manner of working, but it surely does enable for the OS to be a lot sooner.
To place this achievement in perspective, usually Window 11 requires 4GB of RAM to run, which is 4096MB. That’s 23x the quantity the OS is seen working in right here.
What’s the purpose of this? Nicely, it’s a enjoyable train and nothing extra, as no one sane would wish to function Home windows 11 on this method. Very similar to big overclocks on GPUs and CPUs which might be fully impractical – and occur for seconds, solely due to unique cooling with say, liquid nitrogen – these are feats undertaken simply to show it may be performed. Though on this case, the objective isn’t huge numbers, however small ones – as tiny as doable.
Is 176MB a world-record low for working Home windows 11 (functionally)? We predict it could possibly be, however then, technically, are you working Home windows if there’s no desktop? There are nonetheless home windows, after all – introduced up by way of the command line – however with out a desktop and icons, the core graphical interface, this isn’t actually Home windows, is it?
Nonetheless, hats off to NTDEV for what stays a formidable achievement.
Through Tom’s Hardware
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