Tiny11: A Game Changer in Lightweight Windows 11 Systems and Compatibility

According to previous reports, developer NTDEV introduced a lightweight Windows 11 system called Tiny11, which only requires 2GB of memory and 8GB of storage space compared to the original system’s 4GB memory and 64GB storage requirements. Tiny11 is based on the modified Windows 11 Professional Edition 22H2, eliminating the mandatory requirements for TPM 2.0 and UEFI secure boot. The lower configuration requirements allow the system to run in more environments, and recently, NTDEV successfully ran Tiny11 within the video memory of a GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop graphics card.

The GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop graphics card has three versions. The initial version is equipped with 2048 CUDA cores and 4GB 128-bit GDDR6 video memory. Later, NVIDIA introduced two additional versions with 2560 CUDA cores, featuring 6GB 96-bit GDDR6 and 4GB 64-bit GDDR6 video memory, respectively. NTDEV utilized the 4GB 128-bit GDDR6 video memory version of the GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop.

Using the GpuRamDrive software, NTDEV created a 3550MB memory disk within the video memory and installed the system using a virtual machine. After installing the system, NTDEV conducted a CrystalDiskMark test, with sequential read speeds of 1960MB/s and sequential write speeds of 2497MB/s, performance not exceeding that of high-end PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 solid-state drives.

Installing operating systems in memory has been attempted in the past, but it is relatively rare to install them in video memory. To showcase the streamlined nature of Tiny11, NTDEV specifically chose the GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop with a smaller video memory capacity for demonstration. However, it is worth noting that such “RAMOS” configurations may result in data loss upon power loss, and it is recommended to ensure proper data backups when using them.