Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

web.archive.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 140 posts

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

#31

Post by zeusk »

azalemeth wrote: post #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…

It's still possible to customize .wim images and have post-install scripts to declutter stuff but straying from standardized edition components can cause future updates to lead to a corrupted state, which was the case with windows xp as well. It's just not a large enough use case to warrant support.

For repair/maintenance, there is WinPE (and now, live USB boot)

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

#32

Post by dividedbyzero »

hyproxia wrote: post #17
st_goliath wrote: post #15

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.

Never heard of Bochs before, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if Bosch AG had an emulator for some out-of-date PC hardware config, given the breadth of components (automotive especially) they do. I've found out about much crazier things than that on HN.

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

#33

Post by vmception »

azalemeth wrote: post #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…

These convenient Windows builds on torrent sites can be compromised with keyloggers, preconfigured remote desktop backdoors and crypto stealing packages now :(

It is interesting how the use of these underground builds are prevalent enough to be worthwhile to compromise

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

#36

Post by jsudi »

st_goliath wrote: post #23
hyproxia wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Siemens writes a lot of software. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bosch also did

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

#37

Post by marcodiego »

I remember how live distributions became popular among technicians in early 2000's. The main advantages they had over windows were could more easily pack lots of software, there was nothing to care about license and popular hardware usually worked out of the box without needing to install specific drivers.

If anyone is impressed by these 5MB, please remember this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28515025

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

#38

Post by hyper_dynamics »

jsudi wrote: post #36
st_goliath wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Siemens writes a lot of software. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bosch also did

They, indeed, do.

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

#39

Post by smusamashah »

azalemeth wrote: post #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…

Hiren's boot CD use to have both live Mini XP and Mini Windows 98 for all kind of diagnostics and running the repair tools. Back then it was mostly data recovery, bad sector and some password breaking tools.

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

#40

Post by cjdell »

exikyut wrote: post #21
cjdell wrote: 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

I've searched high and low for something like this. Will give this a try. Thanks
Post reply on HN