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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)

#41

Post by LeSaucy »

marcodiego wrote: post #37

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

Hirens was a brilliant tool for cleaning malware infected systems. Most malware of the time would prevent opening task manager, regedit, services.msc etc. Often business systems of the era had so much manually configured or proprietary software that it wasn’t always possible to wipe and reinstall.

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

#42

Post by st_goliath »

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

Yes, indeed. And Siemens actually does have their own hypervisor: https://github.com/siemens/jailhouse

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

#43

Post by thejosh »

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…

There are still builds out there, but honestly 4gb isn't much when the thumbdrives are so cheap now. Still blows my mind how cheap they are!

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

#44

Post by jncraton »

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…

When I was in high school, I had a specialized CD like this. The computers in our labs were configured to prevent us from running arbitrary programs, but they weren't configured to prevent booting from a CD.

I created a stripped down Windows 95 live CD that had the default shell replaced by StarCraft. I could sit down at a machine, insert my CD, reboot, and the machine would boot directly into SC.

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

#45

Post by rpastuszak »

jncraton wrote: post #44
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…

When I was in high school, I had a specialized CD like this. The computers in our labs were configured to prevent us from running arbitrary programs, but they weren't configured to prevent booting from a CD. I created a stripped down Windows 95 live CD that had the default shell replaced by StarCraft. I could sit down at a machine, insert my CD, reboot, and the machine would boot directly into SC.

Hehe, neat! I remember doing something similar, albeit once accidentally. Instead of changing the shell (e.g. to LiteStep), I forced an old DOS game to be executed before windows. Exiting the game would result in shutting down the PC.

I was terrified that I removed my OS and replaced it with a shareware point and click adventure game.

It was a great learning experience though (esp. for my German: https://moorhuhn.fandom.com/de/wiki/Dunkle_Schatten)

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

#46

Post by IntelMiner »

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

Holy shit they remove Windows Update? That sounds like a great way to slide into madness as software breaks or malware rears its head

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

#47

Post by rkagerer »

vmception wrote: post #33
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

On reflection those random downloads altruistically shared back in the day by passionate geeks on otherwise sketchy-looking sites were never as harmful to me as the user-hostile, telemetry-sucking, ad-filled crap clogging up the modern appstore.

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

#48

Post by rkagerer »

exikyut wrote: post #20
m1el wrote: 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/

How long has it been around? Anyone here used it extensively enough to recommend?

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

#50

Post by Maakuth »

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…

They created WinPE (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Preinstallation_Enviro...) for this purpose. The full Windows "desktop experience" is not that well suited for this sort of stuff anyway.
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