How difficult would it be to completely tear out the Windows desktop experience and just use the system and display drivers without the rest? Has anybody attempted such a feat?
Win32 is also responsible for core Services, which means you can't de-Windows-ify Windows and strip it down to an NT API-only. All other personalities (OS/2, POSIX, SFU) have a dependency on Win32, as well.
You're still running the WindowServer of course; it's part of the Executive.
That said, with a bunch of modifications, NTDEV did get Windows 11 down to it's bare minimum, and text only to boot. So I guess it's technically possible, though not useful.
Yep, they've replaced nearly every UI with text (the login window is a TUI), though there's still some shell DLLs and the whole thing still uses a window manager. That's honestly for the best, since it allows you to migrate full installations with some UI-based apps to a Core installation with them intact.
> That said, with a bunch of modifications, NTDEV did get Windows 11 down to it's bare minimum, and text only to boot. So I guess it's technically possible, though not useful.
Windows has had a "text mode" since at least Windows XP IIRC, but it's really not that useful, if at all. Even for rescue operations you're better off with Windows PE.