How to Create a Custom Windows 11 Install Disk, With Only the Features You Need

How-To
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Remove the components you don’t need and keep those you do.

Custom Tiny Windows 11
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Windows 11 has been with us for some time now, and for those of us with the best desktops we can guarantee the best performance. But what about that five year old laptop that your aunt has? The one with 4GB of RAM and a CPU that fell out of the best CPUs category in the prior decade. Sure Linux is an option, but what if they really need that one Windows app? 

This scenario is common to many of us who work in tech. A family member needs tech support and we don’t have a lot of time to help them. So what if there were a way to create a custom Windows 11 install, one that install on older hardware and breathe new life into it?

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Les Pounder
Les Pounder
Associate Editor

Les Pounder is an associate editor at Tom's Hardware. He is a creative technologist and for seven years has created projects to educate and inspire minds both young and old. He has worked with the Raspberry Pi Foundation to write and deliver their teacher training program "Picademy".

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Amdlova
    Works with windows 10?
    Reply
  • SyCoREAPER
    Publishing modified iso's (even if no key is included or isn't cracked) by individuals under the semi-annonimity of the internet is already very gray.

    Running a website that does it as a service, free, paid, trial or otherwise is going to catch the eye of Microsoft and get a cease and desist best case, worst case get taken to the bank. This no doubt violates some distribution clause in MS Windows rights.

    That said I'm not against debloating, I'm just pointing out the reality of this all.
    Reply
  • mac_angel
    It's awesome that there are a number of ways to be able to do this nowadays. M$ OS's have bugged me for a long time. My favourite was 2000 Server. Small, streamlined, basic. No frills or anything to make it look pretty. I'd much rather have a small, basic and fast OS and be able to add the things I want than having SO much crap I don't want and next to impossible to get rid of.
    I was also really surprised about the amount of telemetry data that gets sent to M$ with Win 10 and 11. Like, I knew there was a fair amount, but no clue about actually how much. They take EVERYTHING from you and your computer. It's seriously scary learning how much.
    Reply
  • JustNice
    Does windows updates play nice with these modifications? I would have to assume this process would need to be redone periodically. Particularly with the big feature upgrades that come down the pipeline.
    Reply
  • It’s all a big waste of time

    imagine you do it and then you’re using the system and then you want to use some software that needs other things to be there that are not. And now you’ve got a problem now you have to figure out how to add it back in. What a POS leave it alone and use it.

    I guess some people have tons of time on their hands to waste
    Reply
  • asheroto
    JustNice said:
    Does windows updates play nice with these modifications? I would have to assume this process would need to be redone periodically. Particularly with the big feature upgrades that come down the pipeline.

    I tried this a few months back and then realized it broke Windows Update - none of my images would let Window Updates install correctly. It also suspiciously injects scripts into startup / scheduled tasks. Not sure if the scripts are legit, did not check them out.

    Maybe they've fixed the Windows Update issue, but I decided to just work with autounattend.xml and create my own scripts.

    You can use Window System Image Manager, or this is easier:
    https://www.windowsafg.com/
    Reply
  • dunnetahl
    Hey thanks for this guide. I gave it a try a few days ago but I unfortunately removed a few too many components and some features I wanted did not function properly. I wanted to try again however uupdump.net is down and has been for several days now. I have tried a bunch of different ISOs including https://uup.rg-adguard.net/ but every time I get to removing the internet components they all have an * next to them and cannot be marked for removal.

    Do you know anywhere other than uupdump.net to generate the correct .cmd file to download an ISO that the internet components can be removed from? Or can you share the .cmd you used for the guide or any working .cmd file?

    Thanks.
    Reply
  • bravomail2
    MSMG Toolkit is no longer supported and ISOs created by it do not work. I tried.
    NTLite costs money. What are cheapskates like me left with? https://github.com/bravomail/tinier11 - free open source text script, which will slim down your Windows 10 or 11 latest ISO.
    Reply
  • utg
    needs an update to include latest version of MSMG Toolkit changes.
    Reply