Moonchilde

Oops got that mixed up. I should have known better not to post when I'm tired. There are several components to BLB (like BLB Drive) and client is one of them.

BLB Client is part of the Bit Locker Windows components. The change desktop background is uh, a "feature" of Windows Starter. It forces the user to always have the same BG. MS didn't think Starter uses were worth allowing desktop background changes. I wouldn't delete GP. It's a major part of Windows that allows you to configure many things under the hood. http://www.techrepub...icy-editor/3066 I don't think you need Terminal Services unless you're using a terminal program to log into a network. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Desktop_Services#Terminal_Server

The xml files have the type of component before the name of the components to be removed in the default xml filenames. For example, accessories_notepad.xml or drivers_modems.xml. This should automatically be sorted alphabetically. Also, what doesn't work? What were you doing manually?

Sorry man, I stopped using 7Customizer when I found out it really wasn't going to do what I needed. Wish I could help.

Why are you using it in VirtualBox? I don't remember exactly how it works but isn't VirtualBox supposed to operate off a sandboxed virtual disk? How are you accessing your iso from it?

Are you applying the tweaks to the proper image? Most wim files have multiple versions of Windows 7 on disc. BTW, I read you used a slipstreamed iso, right? Is this one you made yourself or are you using an actual image direct from Microsoft with the service pack natively added in?

Why not just try the updated stand alone tool? http://sourceforge.net/projects/w7cr/ If you need a step by step do it this way. 1. Use 7-zip to extract your wim to a working NTFS partition. 2. run the command tool for W7CR 3. remove the components with the current available XML files 4. Use Windows 7 Toolkit to then capture the directory you used W7CR on as a new wim and compress it and finish up all your customizations with that.

So you made this program yourself to remove additional items? Would you be able to say, make this a stand alone program to simply remove components?

How does your booster work to remove more stuff? Does your booster program function on its own as a removal or do you need to use RT7?

How do I find that? Would it be the files in the windows/system32/config directory?

I kind of knew that much already just wondered if setup referenced any particular files besides unattend and extraction of the wim. Isn't there a file that references what packages are staged for install, installed, and not installed?

Anyone know it? What files it references, how it builds directories, what packages it installs? Where does it get all this info?

Thanks Moonchilde for the suggestion, however I did already have the folders in place and was even copying other shortcuts into those same folders. The good news is that I have figured out the issue. Once the unattended installer finished (and once again didn't copy the shortcuts to the appropriate places) I navigated to the directory using command prompt (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs) and noticed that the two shortcuts I was trying to move (Windows Media Player.lnk and Desktop Gadget Gallery.lnk) didn't exist, even though they are clearly visible at the top of the start menu, and appear when you navigate to that folder in Explorer. In the command prompt window I looked through the files that were listed and noticed that there were two there that didn't show up in the Start Menu: sidebar.lnk and media center.lnk . So those are the two files I need to move, but somehow they have a different name! This is new to me, but maybe some of you have seen it before? Strange...but thanks to you guys who tried to help. It was appreciated! If you check the links in the start menu on an actual install, they actually point to %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe (for media center) and "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe" /showgadgets for the gadget gallery. Try editing those instead, and maybe just using the delete command. Or, you could just do what I mentioned earlier. Mount your WIM image and then just edit the directories you want instead of using the batch to move stuff during install. The install will simply copy over the edited wim file with the start menu stuff all set up as you want.

Does the folders you're trying to move them to already exist? If not, you'll have to create them in your image so that the move command can move them there. The move command won't create the folders, and if they don't exist it simly won't move them. I just tested it myself, and if the folder doesn't exist it errors out. If you already mount the image to apply tweaks and stuff, you might as well just browse to the location to create the folders and move them yourself and then repackage the wim to install later. Otherwise, you'll have to add a command to create the new folders prior to moving the files there, which is probably just as easy to do.

If it's fully automated then I assume you wouldn't be customizing their registration keys? If that's the case, you'd not want to do this since you'd harm your activation once Windows 7 needs to go online and activate.

That's inherited from the 7Customizer beginnings. For whatever reason, that was how it was programmed into 7Customizer and this tool was originally created to help automate XML creation form 7C, hence it had to adhere to the XML structure required for 7C. So no, it isn't on purpose, but probably hasn't been updated in favor of progress of the external removal app.

Yes, from what I recall, it's pretty slow.

Hey, so glad to finally see this after all the discussions about it. I've been worked to death lately and haven't had a chance to really jump on yet, but I'm going to start pumping out those base XML's for us to start working off. I just got my system back up and running after finding out SP1 has quite different partition requirements from the original W7, and had to repartition my drive which is a huge pain in the arse to meet it's bloated needs.

Then try another program. Try using GDISM or something else, but your options for Win7 customization are very limited at the moment. Good luck.

You can only remove a few things using some software. Win7T uses packages via DISM to remove stuff. You won't be able to fully customize Win7 at the moment because nothing really removes a whole lot of garbage from the OS, so your options are very limited. However, Win7T can manage add ons and so can a few other unattended software tools like 7Customizer. For 7Customizer you'll need DISM, OSCDIMAGE, and imagex programs to use it properly.

Why are you using vLite to remove components you don't know are being removed properly?! At the moment there aren't any programs that really remove components well, if you have to do it, the best one at the moment is Win7Toolkit. That's the tool you should be using.

Hi Ken. I'm currently looking for a way to do this myself, for no particular reason other than I just want to see if it can be done. Anyway, I've had no luck as I extracted a wim to an exfat partition which does not have file permissions built into the file system, and then captured the directory into a new wim. Sadly, no luck during the install as it simply errors out. An entity called TrustedInstaller takes ownership of all the OS files, and it's possible there is a check during install or even possibly the files get marked with TrustedInstaller as it installs rather than any type of root admin. Really, it's for our security, but still I'm interested in this topic. If you find anything out let me know, there is also the possibility I messed up during my wim management and iso build that something wasn't correct.

Try taking ownership of the files within the folder first, and then delete the folder. Or, just format the drive from the install prompt. I wonder why people still use RT7?

I just wanted to let you know I love W7T! It's easily the best Win7 program available at the moment.

dead0's' batch files that automatically remove stuff. The whole vLite forum is pretty much about removing stuff from Win7 using a combination of vLite and batch files. I think it's an extremely poor way of doing it. Having component packages so we can make our own OS spins would be a much more elegant solution. The update you want is this http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=20858 It will allow WinSxS removal using shoddy methods like RT7Lite and vLite and will fix Win7 updates that these tools break by removing WinSxS. Maybe checking what exactly the tool does will help us wrap our heads around it. Honestly, the best way to shrink WinSxS is to remove the garbage we don't want, which will take care of all the stuff that doesn't need to be in WinSxS and keep the stuff that does. Future testing will allow us to know what we really can and can't remove. And of course, we can also selectively keep the WinSxS files if it turns out that for whatever reason, them missing breaking the system. I'm also uploading the first super alpha untested Drivers/A-D zip file if you're interested. I still have a lot of work to do on these but if you want to have a quick look at them, have a shot. I have yet to make a solid decision on their organization, but I'm starting to get a uniform idea on how I want to do it. Drivers.7z