Kralik

Perhaps vLite could add a note saying that Windows Photo Gallery is required for Picasa? It seems that if you remove it, Picasa gives an odd error and won't install. I'm thinking perhaps it uses some of its libraries to generate thumbnails... or something. Thanks!

I've seen this same problem, although I have no idea what causes it since I removed a ton of stuff. However, here's a workaround: Down below the wireless networks list, you should see something like "Set up a connection" (can't check ATM since I'm looking at XP at work). You should get a wizard that allows you to Connect to a wireless network manually. Use that -- put in the SSID, Encryption info, etc. and voila! You can now connect.

My thoughts: Many people are enjoying trying out Server 2008 since Microsoft is giving 8 months of free evaluation. There were a bunch of blogs and benchmarks that seemed to say that Server was better than Vista, but IMO you can't make a direct comparison because the base installs of each are very different. Different services, and so on. Since they have the same kernel, they arguably would perform similarly. As for me, I have applications and drivers that are not 64-bit compatible... along with 4GB of memory. Vista 32-bit only gives something like 3.3GB available even with PAE enabled. Server, on the other hand, allows me to use all 4GB. There may be others in my situation as well. It's some sort of limitation that Microsoft put in... their Server OS's can support well over 4GB, but their Home OS's cannot. Makes me think of the 15-connection limit for Network/Printer Sharing in Windows XP... introduced in SP1, IIRC? "If you want more, upgrade to Server!"

Thanks for all of your hard work! Perhaps a sticky on instructions (or aviv00's guide) on how to pre-integrate Desktop Experience, WLAN, etc. so that those who keep asking about the broken Server Add Features issue could be redirected? Here's an interesting thought on Network List Service, etc: Again, not sure what happens if you remove Network Sharing Center, etc. on Vista, but on Server, I can "Manually connect to a wireless network" (as if it wasn't broadcasting its SSID, for example). It will show it in the connections list until I reboot. After that, it is still active in the system, and will connect automatically, but it is not listed. If you had to manage it, you would need to use the netsh command. For example: netsh wlan show all netsh wlan disconnect netsh wlan connect NetworkName etc. Does removing Network and Sharing Center alone on Vista really break WLAN, or does it still work with the old-school Network Connections control panel applet?

Well, on a failed installation where Wireless did NOT work as expected, and then upon a working installation, here is what I did that worked (while removing the above components): 1) Used Server 2008 Standard (no idea if this would work on Vista... probably not) 2) Pre-installed Desktop Experience and WLAN Support via WAIK. 3) Removed a ton of packages via WAIK that vLite misses. 4) vLited the image down to the metal, removing even winsxs. Only kept a few things. 5) Booted and removed pending.xml from winsxs after first boot. I read from some other posts that there is an issue with pending.xml causing infinite reboots, and I have experienced the same. However, I was unsure of when to remove it. If I remove it after the first install, all is well. However, if I remove it from the install.wim image before installing, Wireless Networking is broken. I'm guessing that some part of the Wireless is installed after vLite does its thing? Not sure how it all works, but just thought I'd share. Thanks nuhi! EDIT: When removing pending.xml after the first boot, the Windows directory is larger (1.10 GB vs. 1.04 GB) so I'm guessing that the WAIK preinstall is actually doing some/all of the wireless installation during the Windows system install.

Just a quick note on WLAN support: I have successfully removed the following with vLite and retained wireless capabilities (in fact, I am writing this from such a system): -Network and Sharing Center -Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) -Network List Service -Network Location Awareness (NLA) All I have to do is configure the wireless connection via Control Panel --> Network Connections. For some reason it has to be configured manually, but I was having that problem with my vLite'd install before removing the above, so I suspect that it is some other component somewhere that I removed with either WAIK or vLite. So maybe just a warning would be due, but not an assertion that they are REQUIRED?

I second hannubys... check out aviv00's Win Server 2008 Guide for more details. You may have to do some reading, but I think the Desktop Experience integration instructions are pretty early in the article. Just integrate whatever you may need with WAIK, then vLite the heck out of it! No need to use Server Manager at all.

This is an excellent resource -- thanks for taking the time to research this and put it together. I got Server 2008 down to a ~400MB ISO and ~1GB install with WAIK and vLite, and I'm able to use Desktop Experience (I only preserved Windows Photo Gallery as it's needed for Picasa) and Wireless LAN support. Also kept .NET.