Tiny11 is out, promising to be Windows 11 without steep hardware requirements
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Windows 11 is known for having relatively high system requirements that make it unattainable for many PCs who are quite happy with Windows 10, but there’s a solution for that: a new version of the operating system called Tiny11, which not only raises the hardware bar for input significantly. , but also removes a lot of bloat.
Created by NTDEV, Tiny11 is essentially an ISO based on Windows 11 Pro 22H2, the release of which is being announced on Twitter, as highlighted by Newwin (opens in new tab). (Note that it stems from Tiny10, which is pretty much the same idea for Windows 10).
It’s finally here! Based on Windows 11 Pro 22H2, tiny11 has everything you need for a comfortable computing experience without the bloat and clutter of a standard Windows installation. https://t.co/yM1Ip2ljjB pic.twitter.com/Tg5PWUZU1QFebruary 2, 2023
As the developer states, it has “everything you need for a comfortable computing experience without the bloat and clutter of a standard Windows installation.”
This alternate take on Windows 11 has been in development for some time, with early preview versions available for download in the past, but this is the final release candidate and should hopefully run smoothly as a result.
The system requirements are just 2 GB of RAM (you’ll need a minimum of 4 GB for Windows 11 itself) and 8 GB of storage, plus Tiny11 waives security requirements like TPM and Secure Boot, which prove to be problematic for many PCs.
As mentioned earlier, with Tiny11 the operating system is very slimmed down, so you get core apps like Calculator, Notepad and Paint, but Microsoft Edge, for example, has been dropped.
Analysis: Security vulnerabilities are the biggest stumbling block
So what exactly is Tiny11? Basically a DIY project where the developer has tinkered and made his own Windows 11 ISO – with a bunch of stuff stripped out of it – that you can download to install this ‘lite’ version of the operating system. Note that this is not a pirated thing: you still need a valid license key to run the operating system, just like normal Windows.
The catch is that you have to trust that the developer hasn’t done anything shady since in the past some of these types of projects have been carriers of spyware or other even worse malware.
Of course, we’re not suggesting that Tiny11 is doing anything malicious, but the point is that we can’t really be sure what’s been done to the OS here – and even with a legitimate project run in good faith, there’s always the possibility that there are unintentional hiccups.
However, the main concern here is that Tiny11 is clearly less secure than Windows 11. It removes a lot of security measures, as noted above, and Microsoft put them in place for good reasons – generally – plus it could be less secure in other aspects that we don’t know (that could certainly be one of the potential problems we just mentioned).
In summary, we just don’t know how safe Tiny11 is, and for that reason, in our humble opinion, it’s best to err on the side of caution and give it a swerve. That said, it’s a nice idea, we can’t deny that, and no doubt some of the bravest denizens of the desktop computer world will want to give this a try on an old PC to see how it works.