Tiny Windows are stripped down versions of Windows 11 and Windows 10, ideal for older computers or virtual machines. We tested Microsoft Office on both ‘tiny11’ and ‘tiny10’ to see if the Office apps can run in memory far below the official limits.
Tiny Windows are stripped down versions of Windows 11 (tiny11) and Windows 10 (tiny10). which need less memory to run and less disk space. A lot of the extras have been removed from what amounts to a very customized Windows installation.
Here are some screenshots of tiny11 and tiny10 right after installation, as you can see there’s little on the Start Menu and certainly none of the, er junk, that arrives with modern Windows.
Tiny Windows11 – tiny11
Tiny Windows 10 – tiny10
We’re interested in using the ‘tinys’ as virtual machines (Hyper/V or VMware) for testing. Anyone wanting to test Office or run multiple versions of Windows needs to use virtual machines.
Windows for Microsoft Office users
Our Windows books for Microsoft Office users have a whole chapter devoted to explaining and using Virtual Machines. Including a ‘step-by-step’ through making your first ‘VM’ using Hyper/V (comes with Pro versions of Windows) with Office software.
Windows 10 for Microsoft Office users
Windows 11 for Microsoft Office users
Does tiny10 and tiny11 run Microsoft Office?
Yes, you can run Microsoft Office on either tiny10 or tiny11 and it works surprisingly well even with little memory.
We made a tiny10 virtual machine with a mere 2GB of memory and tiny11 with just 4GB – both the minimum recommended. People have run either ‘tiny’ in even less memory than that. (For comparison, my smartphone has 6GB and main computer 32GB of RAM).
Officially, Microsoft 365 for Windows requires 4GB for 64-bit apps or 2GB 32-bit.
For both machines we installed Microsoft 365 for Windows 64-bit. Installation and running Office apps worked quite normally and well, despite the very low memory.
Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook all worked normally and surprisingly quickly given the setup. The apps might slow down with very large documents or many Outlook mailboxes but overall we were pleased by how well Microsoft Office worked.
The same results should apply to Office 2021, Office 2019 and earlier versions of Office which, if anything, would put lower demands on computer resources.
If you want to make virtual machines with Microsoft Office, it’s worth considering tiny11 or tiny10 to make a stable OS using less memory than a complete Windows VM.
Get tiny Windows
tiny11 (Windows 11) can be downloaded from https://archive.org/details/tiny-11_202302
tiny10 (Windows 10) from here https://archive.org/details/tiny-10_202301
Both are .ISO Windows disk image files.
Keep in mind
- As with any external software, use at your own risk. Tiny10/11 are well regarded and have been around for a while with no reports of trouble.
- tiny Windows defaults to making a local account login. A Microsoft account login is optional which is the reverse of a standard Windows installation.
- These Windows installs need a valid license key, eventually. Over time there will be increasing reminders to license Windows either by buying a product key or an existing Windows 8 or later key.
- Windows Update will install security patches, just like regular Windows.
Windows 11 for Microsoft Office users
Windows 10 for Microsoft Office users
Microsoft 365’s install rule is great news for virtual machines
Office 32 and 64 bit on the same machine
