- The developer of Tiny11 has released Nano11 Builder
- This makes it possible to cook a serious little Windows 11 installer
- However, some core components are removed, which makes this unsuitable for the average PC owner
The Tiny11 tool that facilitates a severe streamlined installation of Windows 11, trimmed by all Microsoft’s bloating – became even more tinier.
Toms Hardware picked up the release of Nano11 Builder by the developer, NTDEV, which boasts that it is possible to put together an installation file for Windows 11, up to three times less than a standard Windows 11 image.
Nano11 can be used to produce a miniaturized acquisition of any Windows 11 version, even testing builds such as Windows 11 25H2 (which is now very close to the release of the finished version).
How does the tool work? It’s a Powershell script that can be used to trim a lot of Microsoft’s apps from Windows 11 – as Tiny11 also does, but Nano11 goes much further than that, and also cuts core system components.
The latter includes Microsoft Defender, Windows 11’s drivers, Bitlocker, Biometrics and “Most System Services” – Oh yes and Windows Update.
At this point you are probably thinking: wait a moment – we don’t get any security or functional updates without Windows update, right?
This is correct and the installation of Windows 11, which is the result of using NANO11, does not get any updates or can be operated in any way. As NTDEV explains, “you can’t add language, drivers or features and you won’t receive Windows updates” -so as a result, Nano11 is not intended to provide an operating system to your daily driver -PC.
So while NTDEV describes this tool as Windows 11 with “all the essential things, none of fluff”, that’s not entirely true – some of what many would consider as the essential bones of desktop us have been removed here.
Analysis: Small over faith but not so perfectly formed
Okay, considering all that is the purpose of Nano11 exactly? It is for interconnecting a Windows 11 installation that can be set to a flash, with an installation that takes only five minutes (approx.) Because so much has been removed here.
As mentioned, however, it is precisely because so much is jettisoned in this streamlining process that the resulting roof of Windows 11 is only for use in tests or development and best suited for a VM (virtual machine) installation. In short, for the average person, this will not be for real use, and it is more a curiosity than anything else (not for the first time).
What it illustrates, however, is just how much Windows 11 can Get slim down – and how Microsoft inflates the operating system with a lot of apps that not everyone wants.
One of the remarkable cuts used by NTDEV is to dump OneDrive integration and Microsoft Edge and there are more than a few people out there who would love to have that opportunity when installing Windows 11. (And yes, it is possible to remove Edge in europe and you do not get Microsoft’s abundant border-related nagging, either this is not this, so much).
For the average PC owner, if you want a trimmed Windows 11, try Tiny11, which recently got a new version of its Builder tool.
