Reducing Windows 10 size to lower than 2 GB ???

[newsonline5000000]

I understand that Win 10 needs at least 20GB of hard disk space .

and I understand that most of that huge data space comes from art (pics and animations and effects files. and voice files (including Cortana and other voice files) and these are not really important for the functionality of the OS.

I wonder if there is a way to lower the windows size to lower than 2GB by removing all the Art and voice files and programs that I dont need , and by using old style simple colors windows without any eye candy effects at all and even using few colors and icons and voice files.

and add to it remove ANY utility that I dont use and I dont want. to make the OS as compact as possible ?

My aim is around 2GB of space. is it possible ?

 

[Math Geek]

not sure about final size but it is possible and rather easy to pull a ton of stuff from the install files.

check out a program called Nlite

https://www.ntlite.com/

let's you remove stuff and a whole lot more. the long database of drivers is one of the biggest space hogs but be careful as removing too many of those can make the nice plug n play feature useless.

 

[Peter Martin]

Hope you like to reinstall windows if you do

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

I'm not sure that is in any way possible. The last time Windows was sub-2GB was Windows XP. Those art and colors and animations are integrated into the UI and short of getting a custom UI version to run ontop of the base OS files I don't see how the system would function with them removed. You'd basically break Windows trying to do it.

You could look into embedded versions of Windows but I think those are pretty big nowadays anyways. Heck, the Windows 10 for phones was near the size you are looking at, but it only runs on ARM CPUs.

 

[USAFRet]

I understand that Win 10 needs at least 20GB of hard disk space .

and I understand that most of that huge data space comes from art (pics and animations and effects files. and voice files (including Cortana and other voice files) and these are not really important for the functionality of the OS.

I wonder if there is a way to lower the windows size to lower than 2GB by removing all the Art and voice files and programs that I dont need , and by using old style simple colors windows without any eye candy effects at all and even using few colors and icons and voice files.

and add to it remove ANY utility that I dont use and I dont want. to make the OS as compact as possible ?

My aim is around 2GB of space. is it possible ?

Reducing the final installed size to ~2GB?
No.
That data space is not only the art and audio.


Even at 20GB....that lasts only until the next update.


But...you can play with it.
See how low you can make it.

Drive space is cheap, though. Reducing it to "2GB" would point to a minimal system? And such minimal system would lack the CPU and RAM to actually make it work.

 

[Math Geek]

i have win 7 ultimate installer that is 700 mb. don't recall what the final install size is but it's not much more than the 2-3 gb you are looking for.

still tinkering with win 10 myself so not sure how small it can get, but i have the install files around 1.5 gb at this time and still have some things i can weed out.

of course you do have to make sure update is disabled or it'll put it all back and some the next time it updates.

still fun to mess with and see how low it can go. throw in blackviper's service disable list and you can get a low resource, smooth running win 10 without all the bloat

 

[sunder25]

are you aiming for some sort of network booting? why is the windows size so important?

 

[USAFRet]

The eternal question...

Why?

 

[Math Geek]

always reasons to debloat. makes it faster, uses less resources, saves space. hdd space is cheap but fast ssd's are not as much. saving 15+ gb on a small ssd could be rather useful.

like many people (including the op it seems) i don't like all the extra stuff in win 10. don't need/want coratana, all the apps and spyware that it comes with and so on. getting rid of it makes me happy.

may not be for everyone but for some of us, this is very satisfying and worth doing.

i debloat cell phones right away as well. hate having 32 gb internal memory only to have 25 gb of it filled with nonsense when i take it out of the box.

bloat will die in a fire if i can help it along

 

[USAFRet]

always reasons to debloat. makes it faster, uses less resources, saves space. hdd space is cheap but fast ssd's are not as much. saving 15+ gb on a small ssd could be rather useful.

like many people (including the op it seems) i don't like all the extra stuff in win 10. don't need/want coratana, all the apps and spyware that it comes with and so on. getting rid of it makes me happy.

may not be for everyone but for some of us, this is very satisfying and worth doing.

i debloat cell phones right away as well. hate having 32 gb internal memory only to have 25 gb of it filled with nonsense when i take it out of the box.

bloat will die in a fire if i can help it along

Debloat, yes.
Down to 2GB? Again...why?

Small drive? Depending on how small, that has other issues beyond space.
My Asus T100T Transformer works with a 32GB eMMC drive. Not well, but it works.
Any device with a smaller drive has other issues beyond the tiny drive size.

Or is this possibly some embedded device?
Then there are possibly other avenues to go down.

A vanilla Win 10 in 2GB?
Again...why?

 

[Math Geek]

why overclock? why install rgb lights everywhere? why mod a game? why install a browser other than edge windows comes with? why change background images? why upgrade for 1440p when 1080p is fine? why shoot for 100 fps when 50 is ample? why change the homepage of the browser? i could ask a million other why questions...

i may not do many of the things people come here to ask about, but that does not mean it should not be done. tom's just posted an article about booting into win 10 in like 4 second (or whatever it was). why bother? i rarely turn mine off so makes no difference to me. does that mean no one should ever bother??

sometimes it seems like we ask "why" when in the end it does not matter why. the op wants to know if it can be done. i gave the tool that can try to accomplish it. it's a question i also asked years ago and have worked on every version since. don't think 2 gb is realistic but under 5 gb is not out of the question if what i have already done is any indicator.

you may not want to do it, care if it is done, or even care if it is possible but discouraging others from going for it, is not really in the spirit of the game here. when i don't have an interest in what's being asked, i simply move on to the next thread i am actually interested in.

 

[sunder25]

Why is a reasonable question. When you know the purpose of something you can seek another solution, or change specifications.

 

[USAFRet]

why overclock? why install rgb lights everywhere? why mod a game? why install a browser other than edge windows comes with? why change background images? why upgrade for 1440p when 1080p is fine? why shoot for 100 fps when 50 is ample? why change the homepage of the browser? i could ask a million other why questions...

i may not do many of the things people come here to ask about, but that does not mean it should not be done. tom's just posted an article about booting into win 10 in like 4 second (or whatever it was). why bother? i rarely turn mine off so makes no difference to me. does that mean no one should ever bother??

sometimes it seems like we ask "why" when in the end it does not matter why. the op wants to know if it can be done. i gave the tool that can try to accomplish it. it's a question i also asked years ago and have worked on every version since. don't think 2 gb is realistic but under 5 gb is not out of the question if what i have already done is any indicator.

you may not want to do it, care if it is done, or even care if it is possible but discouraging others from going for it, is not really in the spirit of the game here. when i don't have an interest in what's being asked, i simply move on to the next thread i am actually interested in.

I often ask "Why?", because there is often a different pathway to what the asker wishes to end up with.
Classic X/Y problem.

 

[smorizio]

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4020089/windows-10-in-s-mode-faq
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_Mobile
i would contact microsoft see if the device your trying to use can run in those two modes for size.

 

[newsonline5000000]

why overclock? why install rgb lights everywhere? why mod a game? why install a browser other than edge windows comes with? why change background images? why upgrade for 1440p when 1080p is fine? why shoot for 100 fps when 50 is ample? why change the homepage of the browser? i could ask a million other why questions...

i may not do many of the things people come here to ask about, but that does not mean it should not be done. tom's just posted an article about booting into win 10 in like 4 second (or whatever it was). why bother? i rarely turn mine off so makes no difference to me. does that mean no one should ever bother??

sometimes it seems like we ask "why" when in the end it does not matter why. the op wants to know if it can be done. i gave the tool that can try to accomplish it. it's a question i also asked years ago and have worked on every version since. don't think 2 gb is realistic but under 5 gb is not out of the question if what i have already done is any indicator.

you may not want to do it, care if it is done, or even care if it is possible but discouraging others from going for it, is not really in the spirit of the game here. when i don't have an interest in what's being asked, i simply move on to the next thread i am actually interested in.

I often ask "Why?", because there is often a different pathway to what the asker wishes to end up with.
Classic X/Y problem.

We have hundreds of old tablets with only 32GB of SSD and we want to donate them for schools with win 10 on them.

and we need the extra space .

specs are good for win 10.

 

[USAFRet]

We have hundreds of old tablets with only 32GB of SSD and we want to donate them for schools with win 10 on them.

and we need the extra space .

specs are good for win 10.

And as evidenced by thousands of Asus and HP devices around, including one on the desk next to me...
A regular install of Win 10 will work within a 32GB eMMC drive.

It's not great, but it works.


Have you tried one as a test case?
That "20GB" listed in the requirements is the actual free space needed for the install. Not necessarily how much it consumes after it cleans up itself once the install is finished.

Or, as mentioned above, a Windows install that was designed for a small tablet.

 

[Peter Martin]

if you do get it trimmed down with ntlite, lol (I used to use that) but then you find you have a crippled os install... lol, like I said, from experience, good luck. it is NOT possible. 24GB, yes, 2 = impossible and still fully functional (users have NO IDEA what they need or what depends on what, lol)

the idea is really ludicrous and preposterous to be generous. as mentioned above--the first update makes it grow... lol

general rule of thumb. if you didn't write the installer--nor are the developer of said components in installer, don't mess with stuff you have no idea about.

 

[newsonline5000000]

if you do get it trimmed down with ntlite, lol (I used to use that) but then you find you have a crippled os install... lol, like I said, from experience, good luck. it is NOT possible. 24GB, yes, 2 = impossible and still fully functional (users have NO IDEA what they need or what depends on what, lol)

the idea is really ludicrous and preposterous to be generous. as mentioned above--the first update makes it grow... lol

general rule of thumb. if you didn't write the installer--nor are the developer of said components in installer, don't mess with stuff you have no idea about.

General rule : educate yourself and ask and learn and when you put your nose in something you finish it right.

 

[newsonline5000000]

We have hundreds of old tablets with only 32GB of SSD and we want to donate them for schools with win 10 on them.

and we need the extra space .

specs are good for win 10.

And as evidenced by thousands of Asus and HP devices around, including one on the desk next to me...
A regular install of Win 10 will work within a 32GB eMMC drive.

It's not great, but it works.


Have you tried one as a test case?
That "20GB" listed in the requirements is the actual free space needed for the install. Not necessarily how much it consumes after it cleans up itself once the install is finished.

Or, as mentioned above, a Windows install that was designed for a small tablet.

I am left with 18GB free space only which is not enough . I will try my best to lower the windows size.

 

[punkncat]

Is there some reason you can't wipe the drive and start with a clean install?
The drive size you mention is well large enough for that. So long as you turn on features to delete temp folders when you close browser, don't keep the install files and logs, etc. you may be able to get that installed and fully updated. The issue will come in when you try to install required productivity like simple Word 03, etc. It just isn't going to fit and update any more afterwards.

 

[Peter Martin]

if you do get it trimmed down with ntlite, lol (I used to use that) but then you find you have a crippled os install... lol, like I said, from experience, good luck. it is NOT possible. 24GB, yes, 2 = impossible and still fully functional (users have NO IDEA what they need or what depends on what, lol)

the idea is really ludicrous and preposterous to be generous. as mentioned above--the first update makes it grow... lol

general rule of thumb. if you didn't write the installer--nor are the developer of said components in installer, don't mess with stuff you have no idea about.

General rule : educate yourself and ask and learn and when you put your nose in something you finish it right.

yeah, best of luck with that....

 

[sunder25]

this will help you with a directory filesize overview.
https://windirstat.net/
-see what takes up the most space

 

[USAFRet]

I am left with 18GB free space only which is not enough . I will try my best to lower the windows size.

Your initial question was, IMHO, the wrong question to ask.
"Reducing Windows 10 size to lower than 2 GB ???"

What you are actually looking for is:
"I have a tablet device, with a drive size of XX, and other specs of X, Y, and Z. This will be used in a school environment.
What is the optimum OS that can be used with it?"


That may be some tablet Windows variant, regular Win 10, or even possibly Linux.
Why does it have to be "Windows 10"?

How do you determine that "18GB" is too much or too small? You've not stated any other requirements.
Do these tablets have a slot for a microSD card? Many do.

IMHO, you're asking the wrong question, and going down the wrong road.

 

[USAFRet]

I am left with 18GB free space only which is not enough . I will try my best to lower the windows size.

This is my Asus Transformer, 32GB eMMC drive.
Plain vanilla Win 10 Home 32bit. No real effort to make things smaller.

This machine also has a dozen or so applications installed:
VLC
IrfanView
TeamViewer
FireFox
Foxit Reader
OpenOffice
Macrium Reflect
etc...

Why is "18GB free" not enough, for a school device?

 

[smorizio]

just installed windows 10 student on test system on clean 120 ssd.