Run Windows 11 on a crappy PC with the ultra-lightweight tiny11 core for ARM64

We've written about tiny11 on numerous occasions, and we're constantly impressed by what has been achieved in whittling Windows 11 to a bare minimum. Now the even lighter weight tiny11 core for ARM64 has been updated after months of radio silence; it is now based on Windows 11 23H2.

tiny11 core is seriously stripped back, meaning its hardware requirements are absolutely minimal. But it is also so bare bones that it’s not really recommended for daily use – it is designed not as a replacement for tiny 11, but as a "quick-and-dirty testbed or development platform".

See also:

• Windows 11 Moment 5 could land in February with the option to remove Microsoft Edge
• Microsoft edges nearer to simplifying Windows 11 repairs with 'Fix Problems using Windows Update' feature
• Windows Mixed Reality is the latest for the chop as Microsoft ditches VR in favor of AI

There is a lot that has been removed from or disabled in tiny11 core, and you should tempered your hopes and expectations in line with this. This is not a fully-fledged version of Windows 11, and there’s plenty that’s missing.

But this remains a staggering piece of work. What the developers behind tiny11 core have achieved is nothing short of incredible. Over on X, the team announced the launch of the update saying:

The team also says of the minimalist edition of Windows 11:

Tiny11 core brings everything you love about Windows and tiny11, in a much smaller footprint.

To achieve this, some significant changes had to be made, including (but not limited to):

- Windows Component Store (WinSxS)

- Windows Defender

- Recovery Agent 

- Microsoft Edge

- Windows Update

Also, some services like Windows Search and the Print Spooler have been set to manually, as it helps emulation speed. They can be reverted to their original state in services.msc

As such, I strongly recommend to exercise increased caution if you're trying to use tiny11 core on production systems, as it has limited security and NO serviceability.

It is not a replacement for tiny11! It has a different purpose: to be a quick-and-dirty testbed or development platform.

If you're interested in trying it out, you can download tiny11 core for ARM64 here.