Could well be the case. Also other instructions to get straight into configuring EFI didn't work with the windows11.however, from time to time i have read posts that mention a windows update can sometimes make it harder to get into linux.
my 29GB USB by now with 22 ISOs of all light Linux distros
What a marathon-test through today. But really small harvest out of so many distros.
6 of them terminated with black screen in error.
(TinyCore-current, Porteus-Xfce.v5.0-x-86_64. KNOPPIX_V9.1CD-2021-01-05-DE, vanilladpup-19.0.20, slitaz-4.0)
5 where apperently not ment as life-distro, but to install. Despite choosing on each download site in particular for life-versions where obvious.
(debian-12.10-amd64-netinstall, archlinux-2023.07.01-x86amt_64, Oraclelinux-R9-U-x84_64_boot, crux-37, absolute64_2023625)
2: searched in vain for a taskmanager to see the actual RAM when idle.
(bodhi-7.0.0-64-rc, trisquel-mini-11.0_amd64)
1: archbang-summer-2707-x86_64 was the wierdest I've seen of all. No obvious menus, and the few apps on the screen mostly had no closeing button. Taskmanager impossible to find for me.
1: Rasbian imager_1.7.5 was the only not recognized by the ventoy boot-USB menu.
6 reached already when idle - or at least when testing the same short youtube - above 1000MB of RAM usage.
(in roughly declining order of RAM usage, ask if interested in details: elive-3.8.34_beta:hybrid_amd64, Zorin-OS-16.3-Lite-64-bit, PeppermintOS-Debian-64, sparkylinux-7.0.1-x86_64-xfce, berillium-1.amd64.hybrid, Q4OS intalled)
1: wattO,S in which I had hopes because with the aim of least resources, so simple and most neccesary programs already on board, disappointed too. Idle 390MB of Ram, but with the short youtube 990MB RAM already.
1: slitaz-rolling-core-5in1 would be the winner with only 100MB of Ram when idle. Sadly, this was the only one of those running without an internet connection out of the box. So I still cant know how efficient it would handle the youtube.
All of the former able to run, but kept silent. No sound with the youtube (by the way, installed Q4OS neither). Which leaves me with the 2 least complicated distros additional to the former 25 tried (including AbsoluteOS):
Magaiia-8-Live-Xfce-x86_64, with audio out of the box, only 700MB when idle, but already 1,3 GB with youtube too.
And finally the one and only winner for me out of 24 linux distros (there are others I wanted to try, but not available for download yesterday night):
LXLE-Focal-Release, 270MB of RAM idle and 880 only, with installed LibreWolf watching the short youtube. About similiar as wattOS, but with so many more already installed options running effortlessly, including sound.
However, non of them allowed to work with the touch-display. But for me less urgent to solve. Guess with the large Ubuntu software packages available to LXLE, virtualization of Windows11 should work like a charm.
So my final own answer to my specific question in the title of this thread:
Lightest Linux distros, easy for noob, with virtual winOS?
Most likely easy with large and complete linux distros only, testing 3-4 light-weight on USB sticks - as most repliess here suggested - wont find even one.
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