Install with less then 512 MB

vraagtekenhet

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2
Hello,
is it possible to install with less then 512 MB? The installer says not, but is there a way (just like in Windows 7) to install anyway?
Adding RAM is not an option, because I don't have them
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
Hi vraagteken,

I never managed to install it with less then 512mb ram. Not Win 8 not even 7 (we're talking over the original version right?) It's not the recommended settings to begin with. There will be not enough ram for all the background services (not to mention the apps => pinball fx uses 500mb ram alone so even clicking it accidentaly will stop working or mess it up).

Even if you succeed the install, it will... work like crap, but everyone is free to try.

I'm curious if something like this is even possible. You normally get an error message after booting the DVD (always saw it on pentium 1 en 3 ancient pc's).

I' m not gonna try something like this sorry. I already did (oops) in a virtual machine (Virtualbox, VMware Player): I used standard settings, installed it with 1, 2 gb ram (with512 works as we know it). But after install I set the ram to 256mb and... bluescren, error, not sure what it was but IT DID'T RUN.

I used the official versions of windows, not some self customized, lite versions.

Succes
Hopachi
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 x64
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    Laptop
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    HP Envy DV6 7250
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    Intel i7-3630QM
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    That's basically it.
Agreed. Less than 512 MB doesn't seem workable to me. I have a HP nc6320 with 512 MB (503 MB usable, so no shared video RAM I guess), both Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 8 CP work on it just fine (borh installed from the standard ISO's, no lite versions). Windows 7 uses 313 MB when it's (almost) idle, Windows 8 seems to use even less, 264 MB according to the taskmanager. That leaves about 200-250 MB for applications, very workable if you know what you're doing.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8-7-XP-98
I know less 512MB will work slow but, is there a way to install it? (For example change something in the installer)?
It 's just for trying and that's the only pc which I can use for it.

The pc has 384MB (128+256) RAM and a 1,6GHz processor.

I already tried to change the winsetup.dll like in the Windows 7 install, but it didn' t work.

Some idea's?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
I know less 512MB will work slow but, is there a way to install it? (For example change something in the installer)?
It 's just for trying and that's the only pc which I can use for it.

The pc has 384MB (128+256) RAM and a 1,6GHz processor.

I already tried to change the winsetup.dll like in the Windows 7 install, but it didn' t work.

Some idea's?

Yes, you can hex edit winsetup.dll which is how it is done for Windows 7. The problem is the neither myself nor anything I can find knows what this value is for Windows 8.

Using the Windows 7 hacked version in place of 8 while trying to install 8 does not work either, unfortunately.

So, there are people like myself with your same interest. Maybe somebody will figure something out - perhaps the same person that figured out the values for 7.

And then there is fafhrd which presents a possible solution here:

http://www.eightforums.com/installa...all-windows-8-machine-less-than-1-gb-ram.html

I did not try it yet because for me, it is a laptop I need to do this with. It only has one internal drive and I have no external drive either. Maybe I can figure something out and still tweak this guide for my circumstances.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8250 x86 + 7 SP1 x86 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86
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    P4 3.4 GHz HT
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    MSI-7211
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    OCZ 2 GB DDR @ 400 MHz
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    Logitech M510
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    2 MByte/sec Down, 250 KByte/sec Up
Don't use the installer. It's fail-safe checking will stop you installing if some basic requirements are not met.

Windows installation can be carried out directly from the sources\install.wim using Imagex.exe to apply the image to a freshly formatted partition. There are no system checks this way so I can get away with installing to a partition as small as 15GB, and avoiding having the Windows 8 system reserved system partition created.

(The following I have not confirmed - the command worked this way in windows 7)

Bcdboot.exe will write the boot files to the specified volume, e.g.

bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

this command sets the boot volume containing c:\windows folder to also be the system volume containing the c:\boot folder and the BCD, bootloader and boot manager files.

Whether or not 348MB will allow Windows 8 to run is a different matter.

Sources for imagex and alternatives are linked to here:

http://www.eightforums.com/installa...ou-setup-your-win-8-install-11.html#post72420
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
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    HP COMPAQ Presario CQ57
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    AMD E- 300 APU with Radion HD Graphics 1.30GHz
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    inbuilt
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    BT Infinity Unlimited - 80 up 20 down =70/16 really
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    Chrome Canary usually
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    no Start menu modifications
    Upgraded with no issues to 8.0 and to 8.1
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