Steampunk7

Submix, Jaclaz and Ponch, thanks to all of you for your valuable advice! After giving it some thought, I reckon I better just do a normal XP installation. I'm not planning to reinstall again very often - rather not at all if I'm not forced to - and so the gain might not really be worth the efforts. I've managed to trim down XP quite nicely before (right now, it runs 21 processes after start-up, three of which are Sygate, TF and SB); and I guess I can do it again. After all, it's the same system, just a new comp and hdd. The system ran stable and safe for a couple of years (and prob would still do so without the hardware troubles); and if it takes me some work to get it to that same status again, so be it. I might even save the old update hassle by using WSUS Offline Updater now, and having IE sitting in a corner won't kill me, either. It sat there all the time and wasn't started just once (I never figured out a way to get rid of it).

Hi there, thanks for your reply! 1 - The 'new' pc is an Acer Veriton 6900 Pro 2 - The new pc has Windows 7 installed, but it's a used pc and I doubt Windows 7 was pre-installed - the comp has a xp-sticker at its side. My old pc runs with an oem version (Dell) of Windows xp, but that wasn't there from the begin, either - I first got it with Win98se and changed to XP about 5 ys. ago. It's not a Dell pc, but one a friend built himself. 3 - I see... so it doesn't just help to get a light Windows, but actually becomes something different than just a skimmed down Windows. 4 - So it practically renders the original windows cd obsolete? 5 - Thanks for the tip! 6 - Well, removing components would've been the whole purpose of using nLite. I just wanted to save the trouble to get rid of some of the Windows stuff, like WMP and such. 7 - Oh, dear... 8 - Would have been an idea before the troubles... it started with one of the two hdds failing (hddscan3 saw nothing but orange,red and blue on test), which had some effects on motherboard and RAM which in turn affected the system. I got it running right now, but I wouldn't feel good imaging the whole mess - who knows what it did to the system? I reckon a clean install is my best option. There have been some major crashes when the hdd went bonkers, and it wasn't even the one with the system. Just seemed it took everything with it. 9 - I'm not quite sure I understand... wouldn't I always create and format partitions during installation? We used to do that with fdisk... but if I remember right, with XP it was done during the set-up. I've been through the sticky files - that was when the doubts crept in... Do I understand this right that the main feature of nLite is the 'unattended', fully automated installation? At least it gets much attention in the threads, and I must admit that I first didn't understand what they meant with 'unattended'. I first thought of a system that wouldn't need trudging to MS update once a week - it took a while until I realized they meant a fully automated installation. As I said, that wasn't even my ambition when I started looking at nLite. I will read the threads again and look around, but I begin to surmise I'd better stick to the old way and scrap out Windows XP myself. Maybe it gets easier the second time around. Thanks again, Steampunk

Greetings, everybody - and I hope you'll have some patience with a (very) insecure newbie. I'll shoot off right away and try my best to not let this post get too long. I need to reinstall my Windows XP Pro SP3 on a new machine since my old one is about to kick the bucket (10 ys. old motherboard starting to act up). I'm more or less a technical illiterate - a DAU - and it took me great pains and lots of time to get my OS run the way it is. I got rid of Windows Media Player, Windows Security, Automatic Updates, Windows Firewall, a bunch of services and other stuff. On the security site, my system fully relies on only three components: an old Sygate Firewall, Timefreeze (a tool that freezes/sandboxes your C: drive that I always start before going online), and Sandboxie to sandbox the browser. Of course, the usual suspects like SAS, MBAM etc. are there as well. You might sneer, but the system didn't see any virus/malware/whatever nuisance for three years. It hasn't seen any Windows updates for appr. the same time. Yes, I know I'm a crackpot. Anyhow, my computer has reached the end of its life span and I've got a new one, with a flashy new motherboard, a new hdd (s ata as opposed to my old ide). All I'd have to do is installing XP on it (I got a oem cd that already has sp3). I'm thinking with horror at the long times it took me to get my system to the status it is now and thought I might use nLite to get the same result with less hassles. I printed out detailed guides how to make such an ISO cd, got a XP SP3 update pack (xable) and I reckon I could get such a cd done. But I have a few questions, some (or most) of which might sound utterly stupid to you. I hope you'll bear with me. 1. What exactly do I have once the ISO thing is burned? Is it still Windows XP or is it some nLite/Windows mix? Is that new OS it creates still compatible with the original Windows CD? For example, when right now I figure I need something from my Windows CD that I never installed before, say freecell.exe or some other nonsense, I put in the Windows cd, select add/remove Windows components, and get the thing. Would that still be possible with the nLite installation? Is it still a normal, albeit trimmed down, Windows XP? Such as mine is right now? 2. The 'new' computer has Windows 7 installed. I don't want that, I want my old XP. So I'll have to wipe the hdd, format it and then I'd like to create my usual 5 partitions again - one (C:) for the system and the others for my other stuff. I've read in the webs that nLite won't partition well in an 'unattended' install. I don't really need it to install 'unattended', I won't mind babysitting it all the way to the welcome screen - but I do need my five partitions. Will it do this just as the normal installation cd does? 3. I read through the forum and noticed all the threads about 'sata' drivers etc. Most of it was technical Chinese for me, but I do understand that my new computer does have a sata hdd. Without really understanding what all those many threads were talking about, is it wise for someone like me to start on the nLite experiment at all? I just don't have the technical know-how to wise up on the whole subject. I couldn't even tell you what the difference between the new sata drive and my old ide drive is - as far as I'm concerned they both have 250 gb. Apropos hdd - in a month or two a second hdd will move into the comp, and I figure it will be a sata II, too, as according to the tech guy who helps me in case something needs a screwdriver this is the in thing to have. Could I just install it and have XP act as it always did when something new arrived? (This basically brings me back to point 1.) Oh - the tech guy won't be of much help for nLite. He told me he knew nothing about it and a normal XP installation might be the better option. And lastly, 4. The XP SP3 Updatepack from 'xable' I mentioned above - if I 'slipstream' this into the ISO cd, could I still see what exactly I'm updating? I remember the last time I've been to windows update - somewhen in 2010 - and the dang thing installed some trash on my computer (Media Player or Silverlight or whatever), and it took me ages to get rid of it. For that, they never saw me again and my computer wasn't any poorer for it. Well, sorry for the long post; and I hope it didn't come across as too dumb. nLite sounds like a wonderful idea to have a trimmed down Windows in an easier fashion than what I went through to get to my current version, but I'm not quite sure if I have the skills to handle it. I'm just not the technical wizard who looks at a code and knows all about it. And of course, my four questions above nag at me. Thanks a lot for your patience to read all this, Steampunk