Smallest Windows install size

GoSharks

Diamond Member
Nov 29, 1999
3,053
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What would be the smallest installation out of my Dreamspark options?

Windows XP Pro (less inclined to run this)
Windows Vista
Windows 7 Pro
Windows 8/8.1 Pro
Windows 2008 R2 Standard
Windows 2012 R2 Standard
Windows 2012 R2 Essentials

Looking to run a VM on a laptop where drive space is limited.
 

G73S

Senior member
Mar 14, 2012
635
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dunno about the rest but for me, after disabling hibernation and page file, Windows 7 SP1 uses only 9 GB out of the box

a bit more after the updates, but that's very low for a modern OS if you ask meh
 

denis280

Diamond Member
Jan 16, 2011
3,434
9
81
Windows XP Pro (less inclined to run this)(Going out )
Windows Vista (Crap)
Windows 7 Pro( still in till 2020)That would be a wise choice.
Windows 8/8.1 Pro (will change soon)
 

lamedude

Golden Member
Jan 14, 2011
1,206
10
81
XP is only couple hundred MBs. A 32bit Vista/7/8 will be a couple GBs at best and a couple more for 64bit.
 

Chiefcrowe

Diamond Member
Sep 15, 2008
5,044
184
116
one of my old XP installs is 15.7 GB and I just looked at a new install of 7 and that is 18.5 GB.

So there probably won't be a Huge difference between most of them.

If I were you I'd go with 2012 Standard or 8.1.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
14,553
248
106
one of my old XP installs is 15.7 GB and I just looked at a new install of 7 and that is 18.5 GB.

So there probably won't be a Huge difference between most of them.

If I were you I'd go with 2012 Standard or 8.1.

The VM I am typing on right now (XP pro) is sitting at 4 GB. Not a ton of stuff installed, but does what I need, and runs great as a VM. The newer OS's, not so much. They take a lot of memory to run well, and use at least double the space.

I have a backup of the VM on my server, so if anything goes awry, very easy to just clear it and pull up the backup.
 

imagoon

Diamond Member
Feb 19, 2003
5,199
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You can use DISM to remove packages from Windows Vista and above to shrink it even more. You can also use DISM to build a custom installer that doesn't have all the parts from the start.

Vista / Win 7 / server 2008 / 2008 r2 use the "install everything but don't enable the packages" model by default. It is the main reason you can install IIS on a windows server without the media.