E-Ink News Daily

Back to list

A Windows Kernel in a Browser Tab, Part I: Cold Boot, Fast Boot, and Four Megabytes

The author details 'nanokrnl', a functional Windows-like kernel written in Rust, and 'nanox', a custom 64-bit WebAssembly emulator designed to run it in a browser. Unlike existing solutions like v86 which fail with this specific kernel, nanox allows the OS to boot and reach a command prompt while occupying only about four megabytes of memory.

Background

Running complex operating systems in web browsers typically requires lightweight emulators or virtualization, often limited to 32-bit environments or simpler kernels due to performance and size constraints.

Source
Lobsters
Published
Jul 4, 2026 at 04:03 AM
Score
7.0 / 10