Lone developer shrinks Window 7 down to 69 MB, claims ‘virtually nothing can run’ but that it does actually boot

Remember when the prevailing wisdom of consumer tech was ‘smaller is better’? And then it turned out there was such a thing as too small, as we kept losing our toasty-but-tiny-tech? Confronted with the bloat of today’s Windows install, I do wish certain software peddlers had committed to a similar philosophy of ‘less is more.’ Pleasingly then, one tech tinkerer has pushed Windows 7 to its Lilliputian limits.

X user @XenoPanther shared a 69 MB version of Windows 7 x86 that just about boots (via The Register). Created more just to see if they could rather than as an actually usable OS, @XenoPanther writes, “Virtually nothing can run due to critical missing files such as common dialog boxes and common controls.”

The punchline, though? The Windows anti-infringement system still works, helpfully declaring that this copy of the OS is not in fact genuine. If you want to noodle around with the outrageously small OS yourself, @XenoPanther has uploaded the file list to Archive.org.

It’s only the latest in a long line of unofficial attempts to shrink Windows. Last year, we saw another software tinkerer shrink Windows 11 down to only 100 MB by making it throwback to its DOS era. A GUI? Who needs it!

As for something actually usable, the nano11 project smooshes Windows 11 into a somewhat trim 2.29 GB install by ‘aggressively’ removing bloat like Xbox integration and Windows Defender. With Windows 10 walking into the sunset last month, open source projects like nano11 offer more than just novelty.

For instance, if you’re not yet ready to say so long to an underpowered Windows 10 machine that doesn’t quite measure up to the new OS’s system requirements, there’s always Rufus. This free tool not only allows you to deftly sidestep a lot of Windows 11’s installation shenanigans, but it can even be used to pivot into a Linux install.

Anyone waiting on a SteamOS install for their rig should read Josh’s recent feature about his time with Bazzite on his gaming desktop. However, as Jacob unfortunately found out for himself at this year’s Gamescom, Linux is definitely not for everybody either (even if some mad lad does manage to get it running on a processor from 1971). But, with continued Windows 10 security updates coming with strings attached, now may be the time to explore other OS avenues.