NTDev ran Windows 11 with just 176MB of RAM, a fraction of the minimum recommendation. A feat obtained by reducing the system to the bare minimum.
In an amazing video, a developer known as NTDev managed to run Windows 11 on a system with just 176MB of RAM. This amount of RAM is only one-twentieth of the minimum recommendation from Microsoft: to work, Windows 11 needs at least 4 GB of RAM.
Record breaking: Windows 11 runs on an ultra-light system with pocket RAM
A video published by NTDev shows that despite the severe constraints, the system remains surprisingly usable, although its responsiveness leaves something to be desired. On the other hand, instead of starting on the explorer, the Tiny11 system starts in command prompt mode.
To achieve this feat, NTDev had to rreduce to the bare minimum at a time Windows 11 itself and its drivers. The developer explains that it took a lot of trial and error to figure out which drivers and services are absolutely essential for starting Windows 11.
In the video, NTDev presents drivers that have been started, stopped, and disabled during the boot process. To make these fine adjustments, the developer used NirSoft’s ServiWin tool on the system with 176 MB of RAM.
Previous NTDev projects such as Tiny11 and Tiny10 OS have also received attention. The developer had managed to run Windows 11 entirely within the VRAM of a graphics processing unit (GPU). He was also the one who managed to run Windows 11 with 196 MB of RAM.
