A new version of a simplified installation of Windows 10 has been made available, and it might suit those running low-power PCs who might not otherwise get the operating system on their computer.
This will apparently be the latest incarnation of Tiny10, which is being discontinued in favor of the recently released Tiny11, the latter being the same idea: a tiny install of Windows 11 (hence the name).
If you have a very old computer, good news: tiny10 2303 x86 is now available! This new version is primarily aimed at aligning the features of tiny10 with those of tiny11 in one main area: maintainability. pic.twitter.com/IeAXDGplRDMarch 11, 2023
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These products consist of a modified Windows ISO with a full load removed, keeping only the essentials of Microsoft's operating system, with all that simplification meaning it can run on a lower-spec PC, as mentioned. In fact, Tiny10 was designed to run on a "really old computer" according to the developer, officially only requiring 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.
Retiring when the curtain falls for good, the new version brings some useful changes to Tiny10.
This includes the introduction of fully functional Windows Defender (now Microsoft Defender) as built-in malware protection, saving you from having to install third-party antivirus.
The developer also notes that the component store is back, allowing for the Tiny10 upgrade, and remote desktop is now integrated into the operating system.
Analysis: How low can you go?
If you want to get an idea of how resource-friendly these stripped-down Windows installations are, consider that Tiny11 was run on a Raspberry Pi 4. Sure, performance was very slow in many ways, but system operation ran on a compact computer board.
As a side note, Tiny11 can be booted with as little as a fifth of a gigabyte of system memory, although it cannot be used remotely in this case. But it's clearly remarkable that the operating system can even make it to the desktop with such a small amount of available RAM to keep up with its demands.
You'll no doubt have gotten the idea then, and Tiny10 will surely run on very old PCs that might not otherwise be up to running Windows 10. It will probably run just fine on a platform with only 1GB of memory. even less.
Just keep in mind that, as always with any type of modified setup file, you can't be sure exactly what tweaks have been made, so proceed with a fair amount of caution with projects like this. That being said, the developer seems pretty trustworthy and has released these ISOs for a few years now without complaint.
Note that you need a valid Windows 10 key to run Tiny10; It's still a Windows 10 installation, after all, just a heavily modified installation capable of bringing new options to very old PCs.
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Via Tom's Hardware(Opens in a new tab)