Windows XP is probably the Microsoft operating system that has had the most community tweaks. For example, there is a stripped down version called MicroXP. Once installed, it only uses 200 MB (!) of disk space and 39 MB (!!) of RAM.
It's fully functional, boots in a few seconds, and it feels extremely fast in my experience even on very low-end computers. I have fond memories of this stripped down OS. When I was still a teenager I didn't have unrestricted access to a computer so I salvaged one with 512 MB of memory. The normal version of Windows XP didn't run well on this computer but MicroXP worked like a charm!
If you're interested, the official site is down[1] but you can still take a look at the README file[2], and you can find the ISO very easily using the MD5 from the README.
It's fully functional, boots in a few seconds, and it feels extremely fast in my experience even on very low-end computers. I have fond memories of this stripped down OS. When I was still a teenager I didn't have unrestricted access to a computer so I salvaged one with 512 MB of memory. The normal version of Windows XP didn't run well on this computer but MicroXP worked like a charm!
If you're interested, the official site is down[1] but you can still take a look at the README file[2], and you can find the ISO very easily using the MD5 from the README.
[1] http://retestrak.nl/board/
[2] https://microxp-readme.neocities.org/