Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

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Meow
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Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

Post by Meow »

I have slimmed down Windows 11’s Validation OS SKU by a lot.
By default, Validation OS weighs nearly 900MB from a fresh deployment.
I deleted the Users folder in the root of the C drive, and then every folder in Windows except for INF and System32.

This brings the Windows folder weight down to a grand total of 342 MB. Nearly a third of what it used to weigh.

Deleting various files in System32 would probably get this down below 200MB, and registry editing and driver removal could get it down to 175MB (rough estimate).

Doing this also allows the OS to boot on just 92MB of RAM. I don’t think this is the normal amount.

dixieLH
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Re: Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

Post by dixieLH »

RAM being so cheap, why bother...

Random_User
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Re: Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

Post by Random_User »

For the challenge, and proof of concept obviously.

Nguyen Thien Minh
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Re: Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

Post by Nguyen Thien Minh »

Well, I tried your methods, and.... there's some hiccups during the way:
- First of all, the boot screen is now completely black (probably using the old Vista bootscreen resources that had been blacked out since Windows 8).
- The Users and 3 folders in Windows are kept being regenerated, but you could delete them without any problems when Validation OS is running.
So yeah... still works, just some slight hiccups.

Meow
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Re: Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

Post by Meow »

Nguyen Thien Minh wrote:
Tue Jul 05, 2022 1:03 am
Well, I tried your methods, and.... there's some hiccups during the way:
- First of all, the boot screen is now completely black (probably using the old Vista bootscreen resources that had been blacked out since Windows 8).
- The Users and 3 folders in Windows are kept being regenerated, but you could delete them without any problems when Validation OS is running.
So yeah... still works, just some slight hiccups.
The first one is actually intended behavior. Windows boot screen resources are located in Windows/Boot, which was deleted. That does not include the Vista boot screen, as that is located in ntoskrnl. There is a bootloader flag to change the boot screen, but I did not apply that.

Nguyen Thien Minh
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue Jan 04, 2022 7:46 am

Re: Slimming down Windows 11 Validation OS

Post by Nguyen Thien Minh »

Meow wrote:
Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:27 am
Nguyen Thien Minh wrote:
Tue Jul 05, 2022 1:03 am
Well, I tried your methods, and.... there's some hiccups during the way:
- First of all, the boot screen is now completely black (probably using the old Vista bootscreen resources that had been blacked out since Windows 8).
- The Users and 3 folders in Windows are kept being regenerated, but you could delete them without any problems when Validation OS is running.
So yeah... still works, just some slight hiccups.
The first one is actually intended behavior. Windows boot screen resources are located in Windows/Boot, which was deleted. That does not include the Vista boot screen, as that is located in ntoskrnl. There is a bootloader flag to change the boot screen, but I did not apply that.
I also expected that anyway, so yeah...

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