What is Tiny10 (Lightweight Windows 10) and How to Install It

In Short
  • Tiny10 is a stripped-down Windows 10 that requires less than half of Windows 10's recommended system resources.
  • Tiny10 is a custom Windows 10 ISo; Hence, we don't recommend using it as your daily driver.
  • Its installation is similar to Windows 10. It has next to no Windows bloatware and services taking up your CPU resources.

It’s great that Windows 11 is feature-rich and a much more modern take on operating systems, although there are several UI inconsistencies that Rectify11 tries to fix. However, you cannot escape the sluggish Windows experience, especially if you’re running a fairly old machine. Both Windows 10 and 11 are bloated with too many features, unnecessary apps, and redundant background services and that’s the reason Tiny10 exists. It’s a lightweight take on Windows 10, takes much less space, works on computers with lower memory, and comes with no bloatware. To find out what is Tiny10 and how to install it, keep reading.

Let’s highlight everything about Tiny10 and how its lightweight nature differs from vanilla Windows 10 installation. In the end, let’s look at how to install Tiny10 on any PC (both 32-bit and 64-bit). A brief hands-on impression is waiting for you at the end.

Note This guide is for educational puroses and we do not promote Tiny10 / Tiny11 or appreciate people to switch to a custom Windows 10/11 version. Tiny10/11 is a closed piece of software and we don’t know what truly lies in the code of the same. Hence we strongly recommend not using it as your daily driver and have your personal files and accounts in it.

What is Tiny10?

Tiny10 is a stripped-down version of Windows 10, and it’s developed by NTDEV. The project aims to remove all the unnecessary Windows components to debloat it and make the experience smoother. In fact, the developer claims that Tiny10 not only removes the bloatware but is also optimized from the ground up to reduce Windows 10’s overall size.

For example, if you install Tiny10 on a 32-bit system, it only takes 5.2GB of disk space compared to the vanilla Windows 10 system, which takes up to 22GB of space. That’s a 17 GB size reduction and it’s significant. On 64-bit systems, Tiny10 takes up to 10GB of disk space. In terms of RAM, you can run Tiny10 on a 32-bit system with 1GB of RAM, and a 64-bit system with 2GB of RAM. In comparison, a vanilla Windows 10 installation struggles to run on a system with 4GB of RAM.

But how does Tiny10 achieve this? We extensively tested Tiny10, in a Virtual Machine of course, and everything worked fine. All the core Windows system tools are available, including PowerShell, CMD, Disk Management, etc. We also ran several applications, including Geekbench, Crystaldisk, ShareX, and games like CS: GO, and everything ran without any issues. Functionality-wise, it is pretty much identical to a vanilla installation.

As for the apps, Tiny10 gets rid of all the default apps like the Image Viewer, Edge, Media Player, etc. Only Notepad and Wordpad are available on this stripped-down build of Windows 10. Tiny10 does not come with Microsoft Store or Windows Security.

There’s no support for Windows Subsystem for Linux, but you can enable Hyper-V. There are two Tiny Windows versions Tiny10 and Tiny11. Tiny10 has been discontinued but Tiny11’s development is up and running.

Tiny10 is good but it comes with its risks. Running a lightweight Windows 10 on a low-end PC with little disk space and RAM has been a dream for many, but that dream is not worth chasing for the cost of your privacy and data security. Hence, we’d recommend Chrome OS Flex. Although it does not support full-fledged Windows apps yet, it’s the best lightweight option for aging PCs. Google is no good when it comes to privacy but it’s the better of two evils.

Differences Between Tiny10 and Windows 10

To get started, Tiny10 is faster and more responsive compared to vanilla Windows 10. There is next to zero bloatware as all of it, unnecessary apps, services, and system components have been removed by the developer. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the number of apps in the start menu.

Tiny10 vs Windows 10: Start menu

Tiny10 also takes up very little disk space in comparison to Windows 10. On my 64-bit laptop, the Tiny10 installation took only 10.5GB of space, whereas Windows 10 ballooned to 22.2GB after a fresh installation.

Tiny10 vs Windows 10: Disk Space after fresh installation

I also kept a keen eye on the CPU and RAM usage on Tiny10, and surprisingly, it was merely taking 1% of CPU and 1.6GB of RAM in idle. In comparison, Windows 10 kept its CPU usage in check, but RAM usage was constantly above 2.5GB. Here’s the Task Manager overview of Tiny10 and Windows 10.

Tiny10 vs Windows 10: Task Manager

Coming to some benchmark testing between Tiny10 and vanilla Windows 10, here are some Geekbench and CrystalDiskMark results. In the Geekbench test, both OSes performed along the same lines, but in the CrystalDiskMark test, we can see that Tiny10 was able to write data at double speeds, probably because the disks were already in use by various apps on vanilla Windows 10.

Tiny10 vs Windows 10: Geekbench scores
Tiny10 vs Windows 10: CrystalDiskMark Test

Finally, I also installed Steam and played CS: GO at high settings on Tiny10, and it performed decently on my 6th Gen i5-powered laptop. I got around 20-30FPS, which isn’t a huge difference from vanilla Windows 10 installation.

CS: GO on Tiny10

How to Install Tiny10 (Stripped Down Windows 10)

  • Download the ISO image of Tiny10 based on your system architecture.
  • Download Rufus to create a bootable USB drive from this link.
  • Open Rufus -> plug in a USB drive of at least 16 GB -> select the ISO image -> click “Start”. Make sure the File system is NTFS.
  • While the flashing process completes, get to downloading a browser because you don’t get any in Tiny10.
  • Next, plug the USB drive into the target PC and restart it. When the PC restarts, press the key for boot options (should be one of the function keys, i.e. F9, F8, F7, F11, F12, etc.). Once you are on the boot selection screen, select your USB drive and hit Enter.

Note:

If you don’t know the boot key for your PC or laptop, look it up for your make on the internet or visit your manufacturer’s website to find the answer.
  • Your PC will now load Tiny10’s installation window, which is similar to Windows 10’s setup window. Follow the on-screen instructions and choose your preferred drive.
  • Finally, click on “Next” to install the OS. Once the installation is complete, you will boot into Tiny10.

Tiny10: First Impressions

We used Tiny10 for plenty of different tasks, from playing games like CS: GO to enabling Hyper-V and everything works as intended. The CPU and RAM usage were in check and it was fast, stable, and responsive.

1 / 6

The Start menu opens up in a jiffy. There is no Bing search embedded in the search bar so search results are fast, no telemetry in the background, and no weird services raking disk usage to 100%. It’s overall a smooth and pleasant experience. Tiny10Edit does what it advertises but we still don’t recommend using it as your daily driver due to potential security concerns.

And that was everything you need to know about Tiny10 and its installation. Tiny10 offers support for 32-bit systems, which means older hardware can benefit from this project. We hope Microsoft, in the future, releases a lightweight Windows 11 as the same will tremendously help users running laid-back hardware. If you want to debloat Windows 11 and speed up your Windows 11 PC, follow our linked tutorials. If you have any questions, let us know in the comments section below.

Is it safe to install Tiny10?

While we’re not 100% sure about its safety, at the end of the day it’s developed by a completely anonymous developer. It could have key-loggers in the install files, which pose a threat to user privacy and security. Hence, it’s not safe to install Tiny10 and use it as your daily driver.

Is Tiny10 an open-source project?

No, Tiny10 is not an open-source project.

Is Tiny10 developed by Microsoft?

No, Tiny10 is an independent project, and it’s been developed by a developer named NTDEV.

What is the size of the Tiny10 ISO image?

The 64-bit ISO image of Tiny10 takes up to 2.4GB of space, and the 32-bit image is around 1.7GB in size.

Can we install Tiny10 on 32-bit PCs?

Yes, Tiny10 is supported on 32-bit computers.

Comments 64
  • Ray says:

    Windows 10 has really received big updates.It has really used update my ram alot.If i were to use this Custom Os it would really free up my ram.Even if i really used the Windows 11 customed one.I want an Os that will make my system run smooth without causing issues when editing my videos.Please send me a link so i can download the Os.I don’t want to purchase a new lap top yet.I really like my Spectre x 360 15

  • KahrloS says:

    Cant download the iso file… links are expired… 🙁

    I need x64 version 🙂

  • Avi says:

    Is there an iso file to install on arm a-53?thank you.

  • Ahmed says:

    Is there any way to add support for Microsoft account for work/school? This seems to be removed.

  • Иво Иванов says:

    No language support, very bad…

  • Gibbs says:

    Don’t care for Hyper-V when I use pci passthrough, just wondering how much more I could strip this down by removing Hyper-V and Bitlocker. Maybe save another pound of flesh, there is a Windows 7 lite edition in the wild that manages to do just 50mb I would love to see 10 reduced closer to that size.

  • EmeraldApple51 says:

    The Xbox live as well as gaming services will not work on Tiny 10. You can download games but you won’t be able to connect it to your Xbox account. Don’t know whether the Xbox cloud gamming works.

  • Sandeep says:

    how to enable Hyper-V on Tiny10?

  • Gita says:

    installed succesfully, and running faster and more smooth than the windows 10 home , but it is not activated, As the Tiny10 x64 Beta 1 runs Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC (Build 19044.1586, March 2022), I search online and finally get a windows 10 enterprise LTSC 2021 key from keyingo.com, it activated it successfully, remember , then ltsc 2016, 2019 are not working , only ltsc 2021 is working for the tiny 10

  • David Baker says:

    Does Tiny 10 update a previous install of Win 8.1 or does it wipe previous system so that you have to reinstall all previous apps and backup docs and files currently installed?

    • Arjun Sha says:

      It will require a clean installation.

  • Mexi says:

    Hi,

    I would love to try Tiny10 on my Lenovo, but when I try to boot in out of my USB Drive, there comes a fail message taht something is wrong with the Ascii.
    Maybe you know this problem, and maybe you can help me out? Thank you!

  • DisgruntledFrog says:

    It is lightweight and fairly fast on my old Lenovo. Two problems. I loaded Avast which flagged a file called ntlhost.exe as malware. Otherwise, it seems ok. I got Office to work but when I try to check my email through the web, I get an error message from my institution.

  • Akash says:

    Link expired

  • LiteOSfan says:

    Does this OS have usb 3 support UEFI for ryzen processors
    as win 7 lite mouse keyboard would only work in BIOS not in the operating system.

  • Daniel Fer says:

    For me, the only one surprised is you, because with Windows 8.1 you could optimize it up to 500 megabytes in ram memory usage.
    The only thing this developer did was to stop various background services, but still, Windows 10 requires more services to be running and they cannot be disabled without damaging the system.

  • Krotow says:

    At today tiny10 is fine if you use it in some closed environmenent. Internet access still require antivirus so keep in mind that Windows Defender is absent and other AVs will slurp all available RAM and CPU cycles thus defying the purpose of Tiny10 as solution for low resource machines. Also I didn’t found real solution to overcome problems with any .NET runtime installation. Especially annoying is KB5020694 update which goes in endless loop due to “corrupted system files” error. .NET 2.0 and 3.5 runtimes also was impossible to install due to same error. At today .NET unfortunately is required even by some Windows driver configuration software. I hope that NTDEV or someone else will fix problems with that. Until that tiny10 is not usable in real world.

  • RUSTOM says:

    Good job!!! just installed in VMware workstation with 10GB HDD and 4 GB ram.

    Currently, in idle it works at 7ooMB RAM and 5 GB HDD used. Excellent work. !!!!!

    Just what I needed. Is there a reason I am not using this on my actual laptop?

    • Arjun Sha says:

      Office apps don’t work, for your information.

  • Garth Bock says:

    I can only load drivers thru the cd/dvd drive. Even though USB drivers are installed the file system doesn’t recognize any USB devices plugged in. Need USB ports to work. Also Ethernet drivers are installed but Firefox says no network. Any suggestions?
    Dell Optiplex 9010

  • Rushi says:

    64 bit ISO image not available

  • FJB says:

    What a waste of time, it needs to be activated with an enterprise key.

  • Ttaf & Windows says:

    Uh, how can i install it without USB or CD drive ? I’m thinking to install it on my 1 GB ram laptop, (cause I want Windows 10). I have a software called powerISO . Will it work or not?

  • Horatiu says:

    What about .net 2. And 3.5 component. Im trying to install by using online capabilities or dism /online by specified the sorce scs file (on tony iso or fuull iso) and was unsuccefully. This component is requrired in direct x , and in all old version pc games. In rest Tiny is beatiifull!!

    Thank you.

Leave a Reply