Smaller and faster - Binary Alchemy

Binary Alchemy
digital materialization
Title
Go to content

Smaller and faster

Information

Smaller and faster Windows

There are some open source solutions that remove unwanted stuff from Windows.

Important notes:
  • Don't be fooled by isolated scores of Atlas or RevitOS!
    It always depends if you pick a tiny bit and measure that only OR if you measure your whole computer.
    Just to get better scores they disabled functions which make your system faster over all.
    Or they disable features that might be important for your security.

  • Some Windows Updates refuse to install.

  • Are you a gamer who needs every 1% of speed improvement?
    Or do you work with confidential data and you cannot risk a virus or some freelancer hacking into your network?




Promises and their shady side:
Note: This does not mean that you can get an OS that is faster and uses less memory by disabling features, but you should consider not to disable everything.
As the main aspect of rendering is to get more speed, I recommend that you take a look at this "Faster CPU" list and choose what you want to disable yourself.

  • "Faster Boot"
    The boot time should not be measured until you can login, it should be measured until you can use Windows. E.g. open an Explorer window.
    Win11 (and Tiny11) pre-cache the last used login in the background while booting other Windows stuff.
    Atlas and ReviOS take way more time after the login.
    On 3 different hardwares Atlas/ReviOS was slower than Win11/Tiny11.
    Win11/Tiny11  ~10s   
    Atlas   ~13s
    ReviOS  ~16s

  • Less memory
    SuperFetch (service SysMain) is disabled by default.
    Pre-caching often used applications makes sense as you use the same apps every day.
    If you load a program, Windows has to copy the executable into memory in order to run it. If you close the application, the program still exists in RAM. If you run the program again, Windows won't have to load anything from disk - it will all be sitting in RAM.
    All your unused RAM becomes a hard drive cache. Because the disk is six orders of magnitude slower than RAM, you want as much of your programs and data files sitting in RAM. Your unused RAM becomes a cache. That is what standby memory is. It is memory that can immediately be given to any application that needs it.

  • Faster CPU
    Your system is of course 10-20% faster if you disable...
    • Virus Scanner (ReviOS) or parts of if (Atlas).
      (Virus scanner should not slow down once all data/plugins are loaded)
    • Spectre/Meltdown-Mitigation
      (Up to 4% (not verified) impact on older CPUs. More info and test/disable app: https://www.grc.com/inspectre.htm)
    • Core Isolation (Memory integrity/VBS/ HVCI) and Virtual Machine Platform
      (GPU impact up to 15% (not verified) if the app uses many Windows core/driver functions.
      Disable yourself: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/options-to-optimize-gaming-performance-in-windows-11-a255f612-2949-4373-a566-ff6f3f474613 )
    • Windows Telemetry
      (Disable yourself by disabling "Connected User Experiences and Telemetry" and use OuOShutup10)
    • Windows Updates
      (Should not slow down much, but perhaps happens at the wrong time for a gamer?)

  • Less drive space
    Tiny11 does not setup any Recovery Partition, which saves a bit space on your disk.
    Then it is very small after installation.
    BUT after Windows applied all updates, the drive space is gone again.
    And I have seen a tests in which all of these OS have taken more than 30GB after updates...





This table is based on a test we have done with Win11 23H2 in Sep. 2024:

Name
Win11
Tiny11
ReviOS
Altas
What does it do?A script that modifies the .iso before installation.
Removes installation requirement  for a Microsoft Account and apps.
A script that is executed after a new installation.
A script that is executed after a new installation.
Intention
Windows which uses less drive space.
Windows which uses less drive space.
Get the maximum performance for gaming no matter how.
Windows which uses less drive space.
Get the maximum performance for gaming.
Disk usage
(all updates applied, disabled pagefile and hypersys)
21.8GB
(17.5 GB before updates)
17.9 GB
(9.15 GB before updates)
16GB
(Clone of Win11 before ReviOS)
16.7
(Clone of Win11 before Atlas)
Disk usage  (other test by an IT guy. Probably an older Win11 installer. See Tiny11 size notes below)50GB43GB27GB29GB
Services Running81776369
Processes running11611351
59
Memory Usage1.7GB
(cache: 0.6GB)
1.4GB
(cache 0.5GB)
1.0 GB
(cache: 0.8 GB)
1.2GB
(cache 0.4GB)

Note on
disk space usage of Tiny11 (and all other Windows installations):

The Windows update increased the size of the Tiny11 folder C:\Windows\WinSxS folder from 6.8GB to by 12.5GB.

Task Scheduler\Library\Microsoft\Windows\Servicing\StartComponentCleanup cleans up these files 30 days after the updated component has been installed before uninstalling the previous versions of the component.

If you run
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
then it does not wait 30 days.
This command reduced the size from 12.5 GB to 8.2 GB in our test.

There is another command
Dism.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup /ResetBase
It removes all superseded versions of every component in the component store.
Note that all existing update packages can't be uninstalled after this command is completed!
This command reduced the size from 8.2 GB to 8.0 GB.

Developing new worlds
Back to content