The maker of Tiny11, a third-party project that aims to make Windows 11 less bloated with unnecessary parts, released a new version of Tiny11 Builder, a special tool that lets you create a custom Windows 11 image tailored to your needs and preferences. The latest release makes it much easier to create a lightweight Windows 11 ISO without worrying about installing a system modified by unknown third parties.
↫ Taras Buria at Neowin
Perhaps you can make Windows 11 slightly more bearable with this. If there’s any interest from y’all, I could build my own debloated Windows 11 install and see if I can make this platform bearable for myself? Let me know in the comments.
I am forced to run a couple of Windows only VPN clients inside Windows VM guests and I will commend any effort to provide the smallest and slimmest Windows possible. Those crappy VPN clients don’t even allow parallel connections.
Compare that to the convenience of clicking on a single VPN connection in NetworkManager and to run as many VPN connections as you want in parallel on Linux. Its just sad.
Andreas Reichel,
I’ve encountered the exact same thing. The VPN took control of the entire networking stack/routes/firewall. It ended up blocking my access to my file server and became a royal pain to work with because I need that file server for work and the VPN only allowed either/or. What I ended up doing was using a linux VM to map in other networks that had gotten broken by the VPN client.
I don’t have the licenses to spin up windows instances, but assuming the VPN must run on windows then I suppose the best workaround for a linux user is to turn the entire VPN client plus windows into a linux application through an automatically provisioned virtual windows instance. VPN instances could be configured on the linux host and be applied to the windows file system at launch. The entire instance would use a temporary thin snapshot that would delete itself after running. This way all the limitations of the VPN would be isolated to the VM and it would effectively be compartmentalized. It really sucks that this is ever necessary at all though.
Good to know! I may give it a try on my Yoga 7i and see if I can squeeze more performance out of its limited 8gb of soldered memory.
The kids really want Windows, so I would be very grateful for a debloated Windows 11 for installing and running gaming platforms.
A debloated Windows 11 is tempting but I assume that unless you turn off Windows updates after “debloating,” an update would inevitably break the system?
Nope, and that’s the beauty of it! Tiny11 updates itself seamlessly (I’ve been running it for months now). Unfortunately you still get “feature” updates – it means I have Co-frigging-Pilot installed now. Games, drivers, apps (only those you actually want) run perfectly. At the time Tiny11 was just an ISO and I used Ventoy to boot it from an USB stick. Don’t forget to include the FireFox installer, if you remove Edge you’ll end up without a browser.
I wrote two books on it using LibreOffice, played Diablo II, III and IV, Steam, latest AMD drivers – it all just works. Thom, if you really want to review Tiny11 it will be boring – for you especially. It’s a better version Windows than Windows – but it’s still Windows 11 (taskbar still locked horizontally, etc).
Personally, when the next version of Mint gets released, I’ll shrink the NTFS partition just for Diablo and install Linux alongside it. It’s much smaller, faster and much more lightweight in terms of RAM (I’m running fine with just 32GB – no nagging Office365 ads, it’s still W11, but much better.
Good luck! 🙂
I’d be interested in a windows review tbh.
Windows 11 vs Tiny Windows 11.
Is it better for gaming? Work? Thin client?
Does the removal of the Bloat make Windows a great OS or is it an academic exercise alone?
I’d say it’s better for everyday use. Thin? Forget about it (even though Tiny removes TPM, MS-account only and RAM limitations), it’s still Windows. Gaming? Maybe marginally better because you don’t have so many processes running – but the standard version of W11 puts them to sleep anyway. It’s not a Great OS but it’s also not purely academic. It works and it’s 80% less annoying to use. (I miss the vertical taskbar!!!) In the end it depends on your needs: if you absolutely have to run Windows then go with Tiny (it still requires a legit license). If not then go with the distro of your choice. I love Mint because it’s got no SNAPs or FLATs, pure .deb – and it’s also green and black and very customizable for my needs and prefs.
Cheers! 🙂
I have read so many posts complaining about the bloat without being specific, can someone explain what exactly it is and why it is bothering you so much?
I might simply be using Windows differently., but all i really see are the applications that i choose to run. Sure if i actually went to read through the start menu i would find bundled apps that i don’t need or use, but it is not like they are running or popping up and stopping my workflow. So my question is genuine, i don’t understand why people care so much.
OneDrive, just to name the first one that comes to mind. It’s malware, it’s a virus and it takes over your files. All of them. Sure, you can uninstall the standard version, but if for example you you also purchased a MS Office 2021 Pro (not that 365 crap) you end up with a totally different version of OneDrive, which is still named onedrive.exe. The only way you got to disable this malware is to dig into Group Policies, the sooner the better. When I installed Tiny11 I stayed away from MS Orifice, Which I only bought on godeal24 for compatibility reasons. Ever since then everything is local (photos, music, docs, *Desktop* etc).
Bloat? Every single app that you uninstall from W11 is only removed from your account. Create a new one, say for your wife or whoever, and everything is back. This means IT DOES NOT GET uninstalled from your HD, merely hidden.
When I open Synaptic and uninstall VLC (first name that came to mind, I love VLC despite being Qt) VLC is wiped entirely, not just from my account but from the system.
Also, do you really enjoy the ads while wasting a few minutes on Solitaire?
Didn’t think so.