Azelza

I see topics like "New motherboards that work with Win98" ... That's just ridiculous. I can imagine using Win98 if you live in a third world country and have a 10 year old computer... but even MicroXP uses 37MB of Ram TOTAL, and nLite will use about 50MB.... So I don't understand you people, wanting to run Win98 on modern hardware, *let alone old hardware* where MicroXP / nLite is perfect...

system32\cliconfig.exe that's a good one... ancient too! SQL Server where? but I didn't include powercfg.exe in the list because it's just one part of a larger set of a bunch of command line system-administration tools which should be considered in a group together and probably should be an nLite component. Also, IExpress is already a component for removal in nLite. ---- I've got a few more: system32\netsetup.exe An installer to copy to your Win98 or Win95 box so it can network with XP. Does nothing on XP. (why's this in system32 anyways!?) system32\pentnt.exe Pentium Floating Point Divide Error Utility system32\drivers\disdn\ Empty folder, it once contained .sys files for ISDN adapters. system32\grpconv.exe "It is used to convert Windows 3.1 groups to folders when upgrading to Windows 95 or later." C:\Windows\winhelp.exe 16-bit app for viewing help files in 16-bit programs. With 16-bit support removed, it says: winhelp.exe is not a valid Win32 application." [ Edit: I'll continue updating the original post with new additions to this thread ]

Honken do you know of some?

removing SxS is big trouble if you get the wrong ones, but SP3 made some of the old ones unnecessary

GrofLuigi, It's not a matter of opinion here since we're going under the assumption of the baseline standard of a bare Minimal nLited XP. -- What to remove isn't the issue, everything is removed for the sake of this post. And so we come only to fact: Which folders and files are factually useless or obsolete on a bare-minimum nLited XP. That's the purpose here, finding stuff which CAN'T possibly have any use. For instance, write.exe, or Mui setup existing in windows folder since it's only an installer and hence doesn't need to stay there.

James, Please don't misunderstand this post. I do not want to go around indiscriminately deleting whatever folder is empty without any care or concern for whether or not Windows needs the folder. There are a number of empty folders which are needed by Windows or keep some structure that may be important in the future. This thread is specifically about folders left over from removed components and will never be needed again, and also junk/obsolete files which are are safe to remove from Windows\ after an nLited XP has completed. For example, stuff that nLite should removed but doesn't, like twunk_16, ancient exe's in C:\Windows\system32, etc.

Hello, There's a set of folders and files that can be nuked out after a minimal nLited XP SP3 installation has completed. This list isn't about trying to make XP as close-to-nothing as possible, but rather it's a reasonable set of useless stuff which shouldn't be needed by most anybody. nLite just doesn't remove some things which are even downright obsolete, like "java" Not that they do much or take up much space, but the real point here is to have a cleaner filesystem layout so we can better understand what's really relevant and still remains... I'll update this post as new stuff is found. The following folders and files can be removed, with a justification for each: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C:\IO.SYS 0 bytes and useless. Clutters up the root. C:\MSDOS.SYS 0 bytes and useless. C:\Program Files\ComPlus Applications\ Empty. You likely will never have one of these. C:\Windows\java\ Microsoft's implementation of java isn't even included anymore. This is a remnant from when it was. C:\Windows\mui\ Unnecessary for the system itself, only contains an multilingual UI installer exe inside. C:\Windows\addins\ Empty. C:\Windows\Config\ Empty. Stores config files for 16-bit windows components. Perhaps used by some yamaha soft-synthesizer. C:\Windows\AppPatch\ Empty if you've removed the app compatibility updates. C:\Windows\ime\ Empty. C:\Windows\msapps\ Empty. C:\Windows\PeerNet\ Empty. C:\Windows\setupact.log C:\Windows\setupapi.log C:\Windows\setuperr.log C:\Windows\setuplog.log C:\Windows\setuplog.txt C:\Windows\Sti_Trace.log C:\Windows\regopt.log C:\Windows\sessmgr.setup.log C:\Windows\SET3.tmp C:\Windows\tsoc.log C:\Windows\wmsetup.log C:\Windows\ocgen.log C:\Windows\comsetup.log Various log files from the XP Setup / installation process, can be nuked. C:\Windows\Resources\Themes\Luna\ Empty remnant if you've disabled themes. C:\Windows\system32\2052 C:\Windows\system32\3076 C:\Windows\system32\1025 C:\Windows\system32\1028 C:\Windows\system32\1031 C:\Windows\system32\1033 C:\Windows\system32\1037 C:\Windows\system32\1041 C:\Windows\system32\1042 C:\Windows\system32\1054 Various localization folders which are all empty. Even 1033. I use default english windows and these are all empty. SP3 doesn't seem to use these anymore. C:\Windows\system32\3com_dmi\ Empty folder. ..I thought I removed those ethernet drivers. C:\Windows\system32\dhcp\ Empty. Only used if your box is setup as a DHCP server. C:\Windows\system32\wins\ Empty. NetBIOS name service.. C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\ Flash OCX. I can install flash myself, thankyou. C:\Windows\TASKMAN.EXE Ancient, useless. C:\Windows\twunk_16.exe With 16-bit support removed, this isn't even a "valid win32 application" C:\Windows\winhelp.exe 16-bit app for viewing help files in 16-bit programs. "winhelp.exe is not a valid Win32 application." C:\Windows\system32\command.com Perhaps useful if you have floppy drive and format disks? C:\Windows\system32\mplay32.exe Dangerous old media player. All that happens when you run it is it notices your registry is messed and tries to "fix things." Remove it. C:\Windows\system32\write.exe win3.1 compatibility exe that only starts up wordpad. C:\Windows\system32\routemon.exe This app's purpose is to tell you that it's obsolete. C:\Windows\system32\osuninst.exe Need to run this to uninstall windows? Ie, downgrade from XP back to Win95. Well, it only tells you that your registry is corrupt. Why on earth hasn't nLite managed to remove things like this? C:\Windows\system32\cliconfig.exe C:\Windows\system32\cliconfig.dll SQL server configuration tool. C:\Windows\system32\netsetup.exe An installer to copy to your Win98 or Win95 box so it can network with XP. Does nothing on XP. (why's this in system32 anyways!?) C:\Windows\system32\pentnt.exe Pentium Floating Point Divide Error Utility. Hopefully you can do-without. C:\Windows\system32\grpconv.exe "It is used to convert Windows 3.1 groups to folders when upgrading to Windows 95 or later." C:\Windows\system32\drivers\disdn\ Empty folder, it once contained .sys files for ISDN adapters. C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-ww_8d353f13\ C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.0.0_x-ww_1382d70a\ C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.CPlusPlusRuntime_6595b64144ccf1df_7.0.0.0_x-ww_2726e76a\ C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.SystemCompatible_6595b64144ccf1df_5.1.0.0_x-ww_fc342b0b.Manifest C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.SystemCompatible_6595b64144ccf1df_5.1.0.0_x-ww_fc342b0b.cat C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-ww_8d353f13.Manifest C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.0.0_x-ww_8d353f13.cat C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.CPlusPlusRuntime_6595b64144ccf1df_7.0.0.0_x-ww_2726e76a.Manifest C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.CPlusPlusRuntime_6595b64144ccf1df_7.0.0.0_x-ww_2726e76a.cat C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.0.0_x-ww_1382d70a.Manifest C:\Windows\WinSxS\Manifests\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.0.0_x-ww_1382d70a.cat Old sidebysides and their manifests which were replaced by newer versions in SP3. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ..That's all for now! There's various more obsolete and useless things in there -- help me find them! nLite needs a "Oldware & Other tiny useless things" removable component section. nLite's also missing the "clear empty folders for removed components" option. Please post any other empty/unused folder locations and harmless+removable files you can find. Let's keep this thread going! Also, if I'm wrong in any of the things listed here please let us know. - Azelza