Microsoft cuts the Windows 11 bloat for Xbox handhelds

Microsoft just demonstrated it can put Windows 11 on a diet if it really wants to, with the announcement of PC gaming handhelds running a slimmed-down version of the operating system under the hood. Each new version of Windows has piled on features – often unwanted – slowing down even the most powerful PCs compared to the days …

[NoneSuch]

Choose Wisely Young Padawan.

My Linux Mint install is light, nimble and does everything I need it too. Nothing is installed on my system unless I install it. And I approve that message.

YMMV of course, but Windows is just an OS. Others can do it just as well and often better.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Choose Wisely Young Padawan.

I would go back calling it a "program launcher", which is the actual purpose of every OS.

[theOtherJT]

Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

...they just didn't want to.

Funny hearing this from Linus (of LTT fame, not our lord and savior Torvalds) only a week after he went on a massive rant about how much Windows sucks for gaming these days (which it does) and how ridiculous it is that the Linux version of the Lenovo Legion handheld was actually performing better in the vast majority of games than the native Windows version did. This despite having to use the Proton compatibility layer, since apparently Windows is such a godawful memory sink that it's more efficient to run the whole game through the translation layer than it is to have Windows actually running as the underlying OS.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

They fucked up something in the kernel. Windows 10 and the 21H2 version of Windows 11 are fine. 24h2 is such a mess, woah, even on Ryzen 5950/Titan RTX (Touring generation) I notice the difference.

[hohumladida]

Re: Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

Well its not really funny once you realize that the 'fake' Linus is a paid shill for the biggest bidder.

[theOtherJT]

Re: Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

Well, fortunately for me in this instance he's repeating the numbers from Dave2d's video on the same topic, so regardless of his channel's bias - and I'm in no doubt that it does have one - but the numbers do appear to be pretty much just the numbers.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

It's her biased? Sure, but "paid shill" goes too far. Ultimately he's just a tech guy who has mostly lived on Windows, that's all, and that's all it takes to have opinions like his.

[Sampler]

Re: Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

I give 'em three months, tops, before we get Xbox Co-pilot squeezed in...

[milliemoo83]

Re: Just goes to show that they always could remove this crap...

<clippy>"Hey! It looks like you're trying to cheat. Would you like some help with that?" </clippy>

[tiggity]

"We're not loading the desktop wallpaper, the taskbar, or a bunch of processes that are really designed around productivity scenarios for Windows."

I would prefix productivity scenarios with decreased myself when describing Windows.

First 2 things you always need to do on a windows box is

1) Remove needless dross from running at startup

2) Go through services & disable (or maybe set to manual for a few special cases) huge numbers of services

Its ludicrous how many services are "running / on by default"

[simonlb]

"designed around productivity scenarios for Windows"

It isn't productive if it is loaded unnecessarily, saps your resources and can't be turned off (and made to stay turned off) without a lot of hassle.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not too mention if you disable them on a normal install the mandatory updates will eventually break your system.

[captain veg]

turning off services

I used to do that. It was always a voyage of discovery, finding out what Windows couldn't live without today compared with tomorrow.

These days I just use Mint. Bliss.

-A.

[Anonymous Coward]

2Gb available to games

I suspect them mean an additional 2GB available to the games. But surely no OS should use 2Gb, never mind 2Gb more than it needs.

[David 132]

Re: 2Gb available to games

Yes, I did a double-take at that too.

OTOH, "640MB should be enough for any game", right?

[Xalran]

Re: 2Gb available to games

Actually I think it's 640Kb, not 640Mb...

Because old 8086/8088 only had 512K unless you bought the extension to 640K.

Mbs came with the 80286/80386... .

I remember the time I had a 486 with 768Mb... becausse I got cheap (free, bound to be scrapped) 256Mb DIMMs... when the norm was 256Mb and 512Mb for the highe end stuff.

Gb came with the Pentium D (aka the heat generator that had two processors on a single chip) and the rest is history.

[Roopee]

Re: 2Gb available to games

If you're being pedantic, you're both wrong, it's 640KB... or 640KiB :)

[David 132]

Re: 2Gb available to games

I think my attempt at humour nay have either a) been too feeble, or b) whooshed over both your heads. I know the (apocryphal) quote is 640KB. I was attempting to update it for a world where the OS has (an extra) 2GB… oh, whatever. It’s not worth trying to explain.

[wolfetone]

Re: 2Gb available to games

Years ago I pre-ordered Wolfenstien: The New Order on PS3. Got it release day, stuck the disk in, and it took me 4 hours to play it because it was downloading and installing a 16GB update. On day of release.

That was the last new game I played. I've had enough of them.

[mark l 2]

The fact that Microsoft have released this slimmed down version of Windows, shows that perhaps MS were worried about the number of manufactures that were releasing hand held gaming devices running Steam OS and not Windows?

As if Steam OS gains a large enough share of the gaming handheld market, then gamers might start thinking that they should get rid of Windows on their PC altogether and install Linux there as well?

How long before these Windows 11 handhelds running this cut down OS get a 'feature update' from Microsoft that adds a load of new crud no one was asking for, and the OS goes back to being a resource hog again?

[Roland6]

Probably when someone builds a laptop that looks like a handheld gaming device to MS update and so gets the gaming version of Windows…

[Dan 55]

Microsoft + ASUS. Struggling to think which of those two has the worst after sales service.

I think I'll stick with Steam OS + a non-ASUS device thanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope Springs Eternal... Disappointment Unavoidable

"Hopefully, the lessons learned from shoehorning Windows 11 into a portable gaming device will turn up in future versions of Microsoft's flagship operating system."

Most one might expect is Windows 13 will be codenamed "Shoehorn" but would be enshitment complete, a flagshit operating system.

[steelpillow]

Wallpaper and taskbar?!

So those are the real memory/processor hogs, well well well. I suppose they're a great place to hide the AI and spyware so the Black Hats can't find it.

But I do think that calling the rest of the treacle-crap "productivity" stuff is a bloody cheeky spin. As Fat Freddy's Cat once said, "Well, my uncle is in medical school", with follow-up thought bubble "I'm not going to tell them what they're doing to my uncle in medical school".

[PRR]

Re: Wallpaper and taskbar?!

> Wallpaper and taskbar?! - So those are the real memory/processor hogs, well well well.

My usual wallpaper is blank black. No JPEG/TIFF/PNG. If I want a picture I print it and hang it on the wall. The desktop reloads a lot faster from blank. Also it is easier to find less-used or stray icons on a blank background.

OK, just to amuse myself I have put the main PC back to "Bliss". Also to remind myself that in California, nothing stays nice.

[David 132]

Re: Wallpaper and taskbar?!

The desktop reloads a lot faster from blank.

ISTR that there was a bug in Windows 2000, that caused the boot process to take a lot longer if your desktop used a solid colour rather than an image. The reason was that the boot process waited for the image decoder routine to signal that it had finished, before the rest of boot continued. No image -> no decoder -> no “finished” signal, so the boot process hung waiting for a signal that never came, until the (30s?) watchdog timer triggered and booting was forced to continue.

[S O]

Re: Wallpaper and taskbar?!

Historically, the fastest loading background was a small bitmap image, not a solid colour, definitely not a jpeg of course. Even aside from the win 2k bug the background fill process was faster when it didn't have to generate anything, remember tiled backgrounds?

I'm not sure if this is still valid, but I wouldn't be that surprised if it was.

[ChrisElvidge]

Re: Wallpaper and taskbar?!

The line I always loved from the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers is:

Fat Freddie: I'm sure I can smell cat crap.

Cat: Wait til he puts on his headphones.

[Bluto Nash]

Re: Wallpaper and taskbar?!

That's "F. Frederick Skitty" to you, PLEASE. Keep it classy.

Bong's in here somewhere -->

[Wolfclaw]

What you are talking about was the Windows Mobile interface, that could have been the future but like most thing Microsoft screwed it up, a sit it had to many chiefs deciding on what direction it should take and not enough input from the clever designers and engineers.

[FIA]

The Windows Sandbox C: drive has 2.61gig used on a fresh boot.

So I assume that's about the size of a cut down but functional Windows 11 install.

[Roland6]

Expect this build to be forensically examined, so that the unofficial slimmed down installers get a lot better and produce more stable environments.

[S O]

That stability part is important, we need systems that forced updates will not break due to the fragility of the system and expected "features".

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

You can have it

it is called "Server 2025" or "Server 2022", depending on which UI you prefer. Surprisingly lean, even with defender still enabled. Which you can uninstall as a feature, if you are so insane to run it on a N3350 like I do (two inherited ZBOX-PI335-W3B, else they'd been thrown out). Defender does have notable system load on that CPU.

Since I suspect some fuck up in the kernel of 24h2/Server 2025 I tend to recommend Server 2022 (or Server 2028 :D )

[Roland6]

Re: You can have it

Was going to write something witty about how expensive WS is, but checked nerdused.com and got a WS2025 Std 24 core licence for £23. Obviously, just need to grab the bargains as and when they occur.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: You can have it

Thx! Bookmarked!

[Jason Hindle]

Wow, an OS that doesn't take minutes to load Co-Pilot and Teams

I have a couple of those. Called Mac and Linux.

[IGotOut]

Re: Wow, an OS that doesn't take minutes to load Co-Pilot and Teams

And you think the new Apple interface is not going to be a memory hog?

[Lee D]

Microsoft not understanding that I just don't want Windows.

I don't want to pay for it, I don't want to use it, I don't want things made exclusively for it, and I don't want to have to deal with it.

A game console, of all things, is a "turn it on, play a game" device. It really doesn't need anything you couldn't make with an ancient OS and a couple of menu JPEGs. It certainly doesn't need Windows.

I waited years for the "Steambox / Steam Machine" concept to actually take off, and then I bought several Steam Decks for friends and family. Not because it could run everything, it doesn't need to (but mine can actually run things Windows can't, like games designed for old Windows, ironically!). Not even because it can run things faster (it literally shouldn't be able to run things faster than Windows, but does solely becaus Windows has been so sucky for 20+ years). But because it's NOT WINDOWS.

Nobody wanted it on their phone, nobody wanted it in a tablet, nobody wants it in their handheld. Hell, I judge XBox people but even those have moved so far from being Windows machines that it's laughable how unconfigurable their core OS actually is that they couldn't even retain that themselves. Surely any well-designed modern OS should just be a matter of the same code, compiled to the right architecture and then configured to remove the irrelevant gumph on a standard deployment method, no? Apparently not. The XBox OS should an Autopilot config, as far as I'm concerned.

But I don't want any of that. I want something non-Windows. Deliberately. Because Windows just isn't that configurable at all, so it's a wolf in ill-fitting sheep's clothing outside of its core desktop market (hell, even the tablets suck).

I wrote a lot of stuff for the GP2X, which was a handheld, Linux-based games console that ran off AA batteries. That was TWENTY YEARS AGO.

I want a Steam Deck because I want a handheld, Linux-based games console. I don't want Windows anywhere near it. And people will discover that managing this niche and probably doomed-to-be-"unsupported" fad to jump on the bandwagon two years later is more hassle than it's worth.

[Anonymous Coward]

A very l o n g wait

<< Hopefully, the lessons learned from shoehorning Windows 11 into a portable gaming device will turn up in future versions of Microsoft's flagship operating system >>

I'm not holding my breath!