Ok, so i got my fresh 6001.18000.080118-1840_x86fre_Client_en-us-FRMCFRE_EN_DVD.iso and of course the first thing to do was vLiteing! First, i've tried Ultimate version with my previous preset (all [+winsxs] removed except Aero, nForce storage controller and... Paint, lol ) There were some some errors: And resulting image weren't booting with 'cannot load volmgrx.sys' error. So, to be safe, i've excluded Storage Controllers and Dynamic Volume Manager and went with Home Premium. Same 'registry' error, but now everything was installed properly! Oh, and Vista still a slow a**. But we have some hope So be aware. Exclude those components for now. .... And now some shocking news (to me, at least): Windows Update and Remove programs are working even with winsxs removed! (I dunno, maybe they were working for someone after integrating some updates - but not for me... or may be registry error is the culprit??) The driver for VMWare audio was found and installed. Some sizes for comparsion: - Windows folder: 1,24GB - WinSxs folder: 151MB (8,060 files, 336 folders)