Microsoft Plans Version of Windows 10 For Devices With Limited Storage (engadget.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: A smaller, more pared down version of Windows 10 was spotted in the latest Redstone 5 preview build. Microsoft is calling it Windows 10 Lean and it's 2GB smaller in size than standard editions of Windows 10 once installed. Missing from this version are the Registry Editor, Internet Explorer, wallpaper, Microsoft Management Console and drivers for CD and DVD drives, and Windows Central notes that the lighter Windows 10 might be designed to ensure tablets and laptops with little internal storage can install Windows 10 feature updates. Additionally, the Redstone 5 preview also features phone-related APIs that support functions like dialing, blocking withheld numbers, video calling, Bluetooth headset support and speakerphone mode, stoking those persistent Andromeda rumors.

Comments

Wow

[Waffle Iron]

If they're jettisoning wallpaper, it seems like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel. Even Windows 95 had wallpaper.

I would suggest to them that they could try getting rid of all of those spam applet tiles in the start menu. That would certainly free up more space than a couple of wallpaper jpegs.

regedit.exe is 313K

[pruss]

I feel a bit paranoid here: I doubt they removed regedit just to save 313K.

Re: regedit.exe is 313K

[Anonymous Coward]

Ding ding fucking ding. This guy gets it

Re:regedit.exe is 313K

[xack]

Regedit is used for disabling telemetry which Microsoft dosen’t want. If Microsoft was serious about a lean Windows they could revive minwin or even Windows XP.

Hey MS? Open for suggestions?

[Opportunist]

Instead of getting rid of the registry editor, which weighs in at about 400k, how about getting rid of Cortana? I have a hunch the lady is heavier than a few k.

While we're at it, there's a bunch more of your crapware you dumped into the system I can't get rid of, maybe scrape them out too while you're at it? It's not like Win10 comes without a ton of unwanted, unnecessary and outright useless crap preinstalled. Not installing that would probably be where I'd start before removing drivers and system management tools.

Re:Microsoft jettisons telemetry code to reduce si

[pecosdave]

Seriously? How big is a DVD driver?

Back in the day when I worked on lots of DOS systems I used to have to load the Mitsumi driver on floppy disk, usually after having booted to said floppy disk. The Mitsumi driver took up so little room on the floppy I didn't even consider it in my "space budget" when figuring out what I was going to put on a floppy and what I was going to leave out.

FLOPPY

I'm going to go out on a limb without actually testing it, and assume that if I were to boot to DOS from a floppy on a modern system with legacy support on (because honestly how are you going to boot to a floppy otherwise?) I could likely use the latest SATA Mitsumi driver to access data on a CDROM in the latest BluRay drive as long as the BIOS is setup with ATAPI support on SATA, which it usually is. I'm not going to go so far as to guess I could access a DVD or BluRay simply because I don't trust the huge file system to be accessible on such an old OS.

I would guess optical drive access overall would be kernel level these days.

Anyone want to test this?

Removing IE was a good idea, the registry editor, meh, MMC - hey as long as we're remove lots of stuff tablet users not on a domain won't need sure. I've got an idea to save space - how about NOT installing Candy Crush, Adobe Photoshop Express, Duolingo, Translator, and a host of other things while I'm not looking and wait for user request? I'm sure even the smallest of these programs far outweighs a DVD driver.