Windows Thin PC: Windows, Slimmed Down
by Andrew Cunningham on April 28, 2011 8:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Windows
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
Ultimately, Windows Thin PC is a very interesting piece of software that is hamstrung by both timing and licensing issues.
On the licensing end, this is only available to corporate customers via Microsoft’s Software Assurance program (and also to OEMs, whether under the Windows Thin PC name or the former Windows Embedded Standard moniker). A specialized, compact version of Windows that strips out most extraneous features but still maintains compatibility with existing Windows software could easily find a home on netbooks or on older machines or in certain home server configurations, but consumers and enthusiasts are left with no (legal) way to obtain it (however, I again note that you can apply many of Thin PC’s settings to a vanilla Windows install to reduce the OS’s footprint without resorting to dodgy third-party tools).
And that brings us to timing, the fly in the ointment that really ruins any potential utility this product might have had: consider that Windows Thin PC is being offered only to businesses, many of which are still in the midst of rolling out (or planning to roll out) Windows 7. Consider, also, that Windows 8 appears at the moment to be on schedule for a late 2012 release, some 18 months from now.
Corporate IT is not a fast-moving beast – there’s little chance that Windows Thin PC, which isn’t even officially available in its final form, can be approved, tested and deployed in a business that is in the early stage of deploying thin clients to users. For businesses already using thin clients, chances are that they already have their servers and clients figured out, and it may be that Windows Thin PC offers few incentives to switch, especially if they’re using a non-Microsoft product.
Even if Windows Thin PC makes a lot of sense for your business, you have at best a little over a year before Windows 8 comes along and the cycle begins anew, and that sort of turnaround time isn’t going to be appealing to risk-averse IT managers.
I think Windows Thin PC is neat. I think it shows that the Windows platform can be flexible and modular, and can potentially be adapted from the fat client OS that it is today into something a little more cloud-friendly. That being said, I don’t think that this particular niche product is going to have much time to find its niche, and that most interest in it is going to be academic rather than practical.
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Guspaz - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
So, essentially this is just a minimal install of Win7 with Deep Freeze/SteadyState built in?Shadowmaster625 - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
There may not be any way to legally obtain a license for "consumers", but make no mistake, the xLite people are gonna be all over this. WinsxsLite isnt quite there yet but give it another 6 months and we'll be able to cut most of that folder out. And system32 can easily be cut to below 1GB. By the end of this year we should be able to easily fit this on a 2GB CF card.And yes EWF rules. If you have people staying with you for the weekend or whatnot and they are known to be "unsafer surfers", just enable EWF on your OS drive, and you are protected from just about anything. It also makes running windows off a CF card feel somewhat fast.
damianrobertjones - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
...is not meant for the man on the street. It affords the 'company' installing the software the entire tree of Windows 7 options, which you can remove to reduce the footprint of this 'edition'.Once again, it is not intended for standard consumers, instead, for businesses to install onto set top boxes, cash machines, cash registers etc.
lorribot - Friday, April 29, 2011 - link
There is only two reasons to have a Thin PC, run a terminal session or run an RDP session. Neither of these require Media player, IE or any of the the other detritus that MS have left behind. There is an out side chance you may need to either print form a terminal session to a local or networked printer or hook up a USB barcode scanner beyond that not a lot else is needed, you certainly don't want to be joining a domain or you will need to buy a CAL.HP have some good and cheap stuff that works and even some WinCE devices, all will be a lot cheaper than licensing a copy of this.
MS really don't seem to understand this market, they need to go back to the drawing board as even WinPE is too fat and that is supposed to be downloadable over the network to boot to a pre-execution environment, it takes longer to download and start up then it does to drop an Windows XP image on to the computer.
Perhaps if the offered a Windows Phone 7 version with or without all the touch screen stuff they maight be heading in the right direction and offering something new.
HMTK - Saturday, April 30, 2011 - link
I don't see the relevance of this thing. It's not "thin" enough and has no real compelling features. I also don't see any advantage licensing-wise in a VDI scenario. Just running a minimal install of Windows 7 completely locked down with GPO's will do the same.now if you could buy this and NOT need SA for VDI I'd be a happy man. Microsoft licensing is what makes TCO of VDI so damned expensive.
bobbyto34 - Monday, May 2, 2011 - link
For me, a thin pc should not be more powerfull than an atom platform.The goal : only launch citrix or TSE, and do some usb port redirection (scan and printer), but with less work than transforming a PC into thin client (no antivirus, few OS updates, easy swap if the hardware fails, small size).
So for me, the test does not answers to my questions. We do not buy thin client for steam games :)
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zapper067 - Monday, November 7, 2011 - link
Windows Thin PC HAS troubleshooter,it is just not available on the evaluation(error found in Installation and Resource Usage article.)