Windows Thin PC

Windows Thin PC is the successor to Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs. It is based on Windows Embedded POSReady 7, a lightweight version of Windows 7 intended for use in embedded industry devices and serves as a thin client which can be used on older computers which is compatible only with Windows 2000 and later for users who do not want or do not have the option to upgrade hardware. It was released to manufacturing on 1 June 2011 and reached general availability on 1 July 2011.

Like its predecessor, the operating system is not available in the retail market and could only be obtained from the Microsoft Software Assurance program, which is targeted towards the enterprise market.

Features
In a similar fashion to the previous release, many features found in the original Windows 7 release were removed in an effort to reduce the performance impact on older devices. The Desktop Window Manager feature is still present in this release of Windows despite it focusing on older hardware.

Windows Thin PC contains write filters which are both file-based and enhanced and can be enabled to prevent users and programs from writing data to the main disk and redirect all data writes to a virtual hard disk that is cleared when the machine reboots to ensure that Windows Thin PC is restored to its original image.

Windows Thin PC also contains some minor enhancements like the ability to suppress certain Windows dialog boxes, a keyboard filter to suppress unwanted keystrokes and support for custom-defined keystroke combinations.

Resource usage
Although the OS is designed to repurpose older machines (much like its predecessor), it is not compatible with older hardware, including those from the Pentium 1/2 era.