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Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

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Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#21
post #9

Love this. Now someone show me how to make a nano Windows 10 installation without all the telemetry BS. Essentially the kernel only with custom explorer.exe. Experimented with modding Hyper-V Server (the free one) with some success, but too many DLLs missing and multimedia functions don't work.

Windows AME (https://ameliorated.info/) is a bit extreme, but technically does do this

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#22
post #9

Love this. Now someone show me how to make a nano Windows 10 installation without all the telemetry BS. Essentially the kernel only with custom explorer.exe. Experimented with modding Hyper-V Server (the free one) with some success, but too many DLLs missing and multimedia functions don't work.

Maybe you could try by modifying WinPE images [0]. They're quite lightweight. WinPE has been around since Windows XP and it's updated regularly. The last version matches with Windows 11 incoming release.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Enviro...

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BOSCH emulator Do you perhaps mean Bochs[1]? I've seen it booting Windows 95 on an early PSP and similar stunts, so running Windows inside Bochs on a smartphone would IMO not be that much out of the ordinary. Or is there really a PC emulator from BOSCH[2] available somewhere? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bochs [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_GmbH

It's obvious that he meant Bochs, no need to play dumb.

At least over here (Germany & Austria) Bosch is a very common household name, as they not only are one of the larger employers around, but also have their logo on lots of common household appliances (e.g. dish washers, washing machines, ...) and tools, in addition to manufacturing ECUs for pretty much the entire German car industry.

I just found the idea quite funny that I could have a "BOSCH emulator" in my tool box, right next to my BOSCH electric drill. Especially since OP even used the capitalized spelling from the brand logo.

I'm not trying to be mean here, I genuinely found it funny and tried to point that out the way people usually do in social interactions, rather than rudely responding along the lines of "OMG you made a typo there". I guess that got a little "lost in translation" due to the textual medium and culture difference?

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#24
In the days when Windows was easier to crack, it was not uncommon to find very small, specialised ISOs of "miniature windows" designed specifically for running a certain task -- typically some form of data-recovery app, system repair/maintenance or similar -- and they would fit on a single CD-R, have almost no system requirements, and, if I recall successfully, be bloody useful to my school's computer administrators who otherwise just had to reimage machines all the time with Norton Ghost.

Nowadays it seems that a Windows ISO does not come up short of 4 GB and this tradition of "repacking" them into small, optimised, crap-free operating systems (albeit of questionable legality, but inevitably used on a machine that had a real windows license!) has been lost. I lament this.

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#25
post #2

I actually used this to run Windows in a BOSCH emulator on my first smartphone - HTC TyTN II. It was painfully slow and unusable for any practical purposes.

What's a BOSCH emulator? Or is this a "bochs" typo?

He meant "bochs"; I suspect an "autocorrect" miscorrection, my tablet does also include popular brand names as "helpful" suggestions. And when you don't see any red waves under the words before submitting, that miscorrection might go unnoticed when posting.

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#27

In the days when Windows was easier to crack, it was not uncommon to find very small, specialised ISOs of "miniature windows" designed specifically for running a certain task -- typically some form of data-recovery app, system repair/maintenance or similar -- and they would fit on a single CD-R, have almost no system requirements, and, if I recall successfully, be bloody useful to my school's computer administrators…

With Windows being componentized, this is often a lot easier than it used to be - there's official minimal editions like the forgotten Nano Server (or an attempt at remaking it like remin-core: https://github.com/replisys/remin-core), IoT, Factory OS and whatnot, but even adding the legacy GUI subsystem you can get somewhat small when building Windows PE variants like used for the default setup/recovery images.

At least a few years ago some of this trend was still alive making little PE images that could almost be used for real desktop use on sites like reboot.pro and other spin-offs, though it seems to be a lot less mainstream than the piracy heydays during the XP era.

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#28
post #20
post #8

I wish this was possible today. But I won't get a small Windows 10 distribution no matter how hard I try or how much I'm willing to pay.

You can, however, get Windows AME, which is kinda interesting. https://ameliorated.info/

Thanks, this seems like a good source of information!

Re: Nano98: Windows 98 that boots and runs under 5MB (2003)

#29
post #22
post #9

Love this. Now someone show me how to make a nano Windows 10 installation without all the telemetry BS. Essentially the kernel only with custom explorer.exe. Experimented with modding Hyper-V Server (the free one) with some success, but too many DLLs missing and multimedia functions don't work.

Maybe you could try by modifying WinPE images [0]. They're quite lightweight. WinPE has been around since Windows XP and it's updated regularly. The last version matches with Windows 11 incoming release. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Enviro...

Projects that build upon WindowsPE have existed since Win2k, several of those can be found on github, some updated over the years to use newer base images.

But I always wondered about the legality of using that approach to create a windows Image you could boot of a USB stick, or even a Boot-image server over network.

Afaik, WinPE is the engine under the installation system in older version, and can only be legally used in workflows peripheral to System installation/debug/repair.

Windows Embedded seems to be the MS-preferred approach these days if you need a custom-purpose Windows installation.

How to get/use Windows Embedded legally without an Enterprise agreement has be on my "look-into-it-some-day"-list, but since I don't have/use Windows-only tools in my daily workflows, the urgency has been somewhat steadily decreasing.

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