Super tiny Windows 11 OS that fits inside your 4GB thumb drive gets a big update — Tiny11 2311 shrinks 20% and allows cumulative updates

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Tiny11 gets even smaller!

Tiny11 by NTDev
(Image credit: NTDev)

NTDEV, the developer behind Tiny11, has released a new update for its miniature Windows 11 operating system, called Tiny11 2311, that adds Microsoft's latest feature update, 23H2, into the OS and introduces a plethora of bug fixes addressing issues in the outgoing version of Tiny11. On top of this, the new update also shrinks Tiny11's install size by a whopping 20%, making Tiny11's renowned footprint even smaller.

The update to 23H2 gives Tiny11 users access to all of the latest features Microsoft has integrated into the regular version of Windows 11, including access to Microsoft's AI-assistant Copilot, WDDM 3.2, and more while retaining its ultra-small footprint. These additional features can be installed as options with Tiny11 to keep its footprint small. For instance, if you want to install Copilot, you need to install Microsoft Edge first — which comes in the full-blown version of Windows 11 by default.

According to NTDEV, many of the "nagging issues" plaguing the outgoing version of Tiny11 have also been addressed by Tiny 11 2311, giving it even more stability and functionality. One of these issues was Windows update functionality, which was broken in previous versions of Tiny11. Now, with 2311, NTDEV reports that Tiny11 is fully updatable to the next set of cumulative updates, bringing the OS's security and stability more in line with the official version of Windows 11.

Tiny11 is an alternative version of Windows 11 that reduces the amount of "bloatware" and applications the OS typically comes with to a bare minimum. Windows 11 usually ships with an install size of over 20GB, but with Tiny11, that install size can be reduced to just 3GB (or smaller). In addition, Tiny11 can also be configured to bypass Microsoft's CPU and TPM restrictions if desired.

This makes Tiny11 a great OS for running on older systems and machines that cannot run Windows 11 in its complete form. If you wanted to, you could run Tiny11 on just 176MB of RAM, and it would work. NTDEV has several methods of using Tiny11, including a Tiny11 Builder that allows you to pre-configure what applications and features you want installed. We used it significantly to make a custom Tiny11 ISO that ran on just 2GB of RAM.

Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ekio
    Hey Microsoft, if you want to make your name mean it, could you follow the example??
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    ekio said:
    Hey Microsoft, if you want to make your name mean it, could you follow the example??
    I'll just point to my post about the last time Tiny11 was mentioned: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/tiny11-core-shrinks-windows-11-iso-to-2gb-installation-to-3-3gb.3825000/#post-23125809
    But if you want the tl;dr
    The core OS components, including the 32-bit subsystem, total around 2.35GB.
    Windows 11, macOS, and Ubuntu are all within 10-20GB when installed
    Most of the size of the Windows folder comes from the application library repository
    Windows is not unique in this. A large portion of Ubuntu's size comes from application libraries.And considering how cheap even 256GB SSDs are, if you're really hurting for ~10GB of space, you probably shouldn't be using Windows anyway.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    hotaru.hino said:
    I'll just point to my post about the last time Tiny11 was mentioned: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/tiny11-core-shrinks-windows-11-iso-to-2gb-installation-to-3-3gb.3825000/#post-23125809
    But if you want the tl;dr
    The core OS components, including the 32-bit subsystem, total around 2.35GB.
    Windows 11, macOS, and Ubuntu are all within 10-20GB when installed
    Most of the size of the Windows folder comes from the application library repository
    Windows is not unique in this. A large portion of Ubuntu's size comes from application libraries.And considering how cheap even 256GB SSDs are, if you're really hurting for ~10GB of space, you probably shouldn't be using Windows anyway.
    How dare you defend Windows?
    Don't you know that everything that comes out of Microsoft is de debbil?


    But yes....running Windows (or any other mainstream OS) in a minimal footprint is easily doable.
    Now, go actually use it for something.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    This makes Tiny11 a great OS for running on older systems and machines that cannot run Windows 11 in its complete form.

    No it doesn't, because you can throw 128GB of solid state storage to a machine running Windows 98 (Compact Flash with IDE adapter), but it doesn't mean that the resulting machine is capable of or should ever think about running Windows 11.

    There are uses for a very compact, very lite version of Windows (ATMs, POS machines, things that already use Windows XP Embedded or Windows CE), but Tiny 11 to me isn't even a technical exercise since it's not a fully functioning version of Windows 11.
    Reply
  • TheBeastFromOz
    Iso link is broken anyway. Gives a "The item is not available due to issues with the item's content." error, even though the directory listing shows that file as existing.
    Reply
  • YouFilthyHippo
    Yes, you can install Tiny11. What happens when you actually try to do something beyond opening notepad? The error messages start cropping up. There is a reason Windoze 11 is 30GB and not 4GB. Yes, I know there is a bunch of leftover useless bloatcode from previous OS revisions, and other defunct features/themes/whatever. Ya, Windows 11 could use a trimdown. But trim it down without removing any of its functionality, and it would still easily be 15GB. If it's only 4GB, so much has been removed, that there is just enough to boot the OS and do basic tasks, but that's about it. I don't see this as practical. SSDs 128-256GB are dirt cheap, especially on used marketplaces. You can get those things for mere pennies. Tiny11 is completely impractical. I don't see the point of this other than to cripple your OS
    Reply
  • coromonadalix
    you have other links floating around ...

    we should have in W11 the possibilities to do a full app cleanup whatever they are, going over the locked ones normally instead of using dsim commands or other tricks

    remove all un-needed drivers etc ... to slim it down ....
    Reply
  • hotaru.hino
    coromonadalix said:
    you have other links floating around ...

    we should have in W11 the possibilities to do a full app cleanup whatever they are, going over the locked ones normally instead of using dsim commands or other tricks
    The problem is if you give the layman a button to push, they'll push it. And they will likely do something that they think is a good idea, forget that they did it, and run into a problem that was caused by what they did. By making such actions require a deliberate amount of effort, you discourage muggles from breaking their system.

    coromonadalix said:
    remove all un-needed drivers etc ... to slim it down ....
    Drivers don't even take up that much space in the system. Looking at the driver store folder in my system, sure it sits at 2.2GB, but 1.7GB is from the graphics driver. And how do you know if a driver is un-needed? If you plug something in that actually needed that driver... well now it won't work because that device was probably expecting the "unneeded" generic driver.

    My Windows install is currently sitting at 21.8GB. 12.7GB of that is the WinSxS folder (which is for application libraries). You could complain to Microsoft that they need to trim this down, but this is what gives Windows its backwards compatibility.

    If you want things to slim down, tell everyone else to get with the times and update their software to use updated libraries. But good luck with that.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    coromonadalix said:
    remove all un-needed drivers etc ... to slim it down ....

    Which is an argument for 2010, in 2023 where 256GB SSDs are $20 and 256gb SD cards are $15, a very mature Windows 11 install with a Windows folder of 40GB, which includes memory.dmp is only a big deal on the $200 ultra mega low end should-be-illegal-they're-so-garbage Windows laptops with a 64gb eMMC drive.

    Is there room for optimization in Windows? Sure, they're working towards it, like being able to remove useless preinstalled programs that nobody uses and replacing antiquated code with new, more efficient code, but someone taking an axe to the core and saying LOOK WHAT I CAN DO WHY CAN'T MICROSOFT!!!!!!!! while also breaking said OS all in the name of trying to cram as much code into as little space is not the way to do it.

    Heck, you want to reduce the size of Windows, just tick the box to enable compression, that'll axe several GB off the size of Windows without breaking anything and without a speed penalty on modern systems.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    And beside of all the above…. I would newer trust 3rd party modded Windows to be safe to use… in Linux, many eye will look the code. In here one user/croup make changes that you can not verify…
    If you really want small windows for some reason, official windows S is the way to go… and to most people. The normal windows is the way to go…
    Reply