Microsoft releases Windows 11 lightweight version: Supports running Win32 applications

Microsoft releases Windows 11 lightweight version: Supports running Win32 applications

Microsoft releases Windows 11 lightweight version: Supports running Win32 applications.

Microsoft quietly released a lightweight new version of Windows 11, named “Microsoft Validation OS”.

According to the introduction , this new lightweight operating system is based on the command line and is not intended for ordinary end users; it is designed for hardware or software vendors, developers and technicians to help diagnose, mitigate and repair various kind of problem. So it’s more like a recovery environment.

Microsoft’s official description says:

Microsoft Validation OS is a lightweight, fast, and customizable Windows 11-based operating system that you can use on the factory floor to diagnose, mitigate, and fix hardware defects in Windows device manufacturing.

Validation OS can be booted to a command line environment to improve factory floor reliability and support running Win32 applications, making the transition from early hardware bring-up to retail OS and application development smoother.

Validation OS supports Win32 applications to help diagnose a Windows 11-based in-development project.

Because the Win32 API provides direct access to the system hardware and there are various tools for diagnostics.

More details can be found in the official documentation , which includes several tutorial manuals on how to use the operating system, etc.

For those who want to try it out, you can click here to download the Validation OS ISO for free for both ARM64 and AMD64 architectures.