Jeronimo

Nice a new version, did not see you were working on it. I have 1 remark: Components Cache is still selectable after using vLite on the same folder again. Also I checked sizes between winsxs under 0.8 beta and 0.9 beta: 0.8: 1,03GB / 12568 files / 3551 folders 0.9: 1,01GB / 12506 files / 3515 folders Changed selections: Added Realtek and Intel INF drivers, removed components Components Cache, Remote Registry, Secondary Logon(*), Windows Communication Foundation, XPS Document Writer See included last session for details.

Finally took the time to investigate. Maybe these settings can be added to vLite when UAC is kept enabled? The following is an extract from TweakVista (link in my first post) with added the settings in registry. All settings can be found under the link stated bycluberti (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System): * User Account Control: Admin Approval Mode for the Built-in Administrator account o Enabled o Disabled ValidateAdminCodeSignatures * User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for administrators in Admin Approval Mode o Elevate without prompting o Prompt for credentials o Prompt for consent ConsentPromptBehaviorAdmin * User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for standard users o Automatically deny elevation requests o Prompt for credentials ConsentPromptBehaviorUser * User Account Control: Detect application installations and prompt for elevation o Enabled o Disabled EnableInstallerDetection * User Account Control: Only elevate executables that are signed and validated o Enabled o Disabled ValidateAdminCodeSignatures * User Account Control: Only elevate UIAccess applications that are installed in secure locations o Enabled o Disabled EnableSecureUIAPaths * User Account Control: Run all administrators in Admin Approval Mode o Enabled o Disabled * User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation o Enabled o Disabled PromptOnSecureDesktop * User Account Control: Virtualize file and registry write failures to per-user locations o Enabled o Disabled EnableVirtualization Additional information on all settings can be found here: Understanding and Configuring User Account Control in Windows Vista

Remote Desktop is only available client side up to Home Premium, as you did not specify what version you tried to install, this is the only remark I can make on this.

The 1st answer/question you will get is if you have a virus-scanner enabled as this might be the process causing this issue. If so try again without AV or disabled and see if it still occurs.

UAC can be disabled from user accounts or from msconfig, but this is not what I started the topic for. There are some possibilities to loosen up UAC, as to make it less anoying more userfriendly and therefore more secure: if you get messages all the time, that you click away without reading, then it's purpose has been lost and security is still at risk. However I have not found an alternative way to edit Local Policies within HomeBasic (also in HomePremium) because secpol.msc or gpedit.msc is not available.

What do you mean by WRP?

Network Connections - disable if you set static IP-address and do not access network connections frequently Software Licensing - required for control panel, personalization Secure Accounts Manager - required for Windows Mail User Profile Service - disable will cause login failure to you default account (auto-login) Question: Group Policy - disable, anyone know how as this service is protected in services as well as in the registry My 2 cents. If a service: 1. starts at system start-up in manual mode, then I re-evaluate (maybe it is essential?) and if I still do not want it to start, then I set it to disabled. 2. does not start at system start-up in manual mode, then I leave it that way. If it starts because of some application, then it is most likely required. 3. absolutely must not start, because of security risks (like peer-to-peers services) then I always put them to disabled. My settings... Automatic: - Application Experience, Desktop Window Manager Session Manager, Themes (Aero Interface) - Multimedia Class Scheduler, Windows Audio, Windows Audio Endpoint Builder (Audio) - DCOM Server Process Launcher, Group Pollicy Client, Multimedia Class Scheduler, Plug and Play, Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Task Scheduler, User Profile Service, Windows Event Log, Windows Management Instrumentation (mandatory) - Program Compatibility Assistant Service (unsure) - Protected Storage (Security, Windows Mail) - Software Licensing (Control Panel) - SuperFetch (Performance. Yes it uses memory, but less memory usage does not mean better performance) Disabled (keep starting or depend on eachother): - Background Intelligent Transfer Service, COM+ Event System, COM+ System Application, Network List Service, Network Location Awareness, SL UI Notification Service, System Event Notification Service - DHCP Client, WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service - Function Discovery Provider Host, PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator - Function Discovery Resource Publication - Internet Connection Sharing (ICS), Network Connections, Remote Access Connection Manager, Routing and Remote Access, Telephony - Net.Tcp Port Sharing Service (default?!) - Remote Registry (security!?) - Shell Hardware Detection - SSDP Discovery, UPnP Device Host, Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service (security!?) Note that all other services will be at manual, but then again I have already removed a lot of services from the Windows Vista Home Basic by use of vLite (0.8 beta)

Also gpedit.msc is not available :-S

It is already hardware rendered, just not by the hardware you want it to be rendered with ;-). I think the difference would be unnoticed. Aero interface would be a totally different story.

I can understand that if this is the case, you would like the opportunity to disable it. However, when I check CPU consumption from Tast Manager, then in idle state it is most of the time at close to 0% (there is always something done by the system).

@nuhi Well I try to provide a decent answer and sometimes I am off as in this case. I already stated "as far as I know", I would not do this if I was sure :-)

Ok, then the circle is round. I already noted, that it can only work when this feature is enabled in my first post. You provided the explanation for this, thanks.

Thanks for pointing me towards the obvious I will check tonight, if UAC options are accessible from there.

I found a nice guide here explaining how you can keep UAC active, but disable certain aspects of it. However I do not seem to have secpol.msc under Home Basic. Is this because I used vLite on my installation or is it not present in Home Basic? Is there another way to apply such settings?

Good point. I do not think so: as far as I know Vista drops the uprgade folder without option otherwise.

The one with the 2.2GB file is at least required :-P, boot also, support and upgrade not and efi maybe

I do not know how themes are exactly handled, I just saw that Aero based themes are handled by dwm and others are handled by csrss. Without Glass Aero can still be 3D, just without transparency (check the outer border of a window for instance). If this is indeed the case, I can not say.

@Clint lets just say I wanted to level with you. Also I thought you were replying to me, see post 30

@Clint, morning chap. Yeah you amaze me too. Changing the installation name through Hex edit seems more like geeking, then tweaking. Maybe I would be interested in this, when all the tweaking was done (is it ever).

@weed thanks for the confirmation. Do note that without more memory in pagefile is used, so gain is not around ~250MB for you, but ~200MB. Also I tried to disable Software Licensing, because it seems to only be required for ReadyBoost, however your control panel will not work without it (found out when accessing personalization from richt-click on desktop).

@Clint thanks for the laughs, what is next? How to use an HexEditor? This is not a bone this is 73 74 75 70 69 64 21 21 21

I did some testing with PCMark05 2D transparent windows benchmark. I would like somebody else to confirm, so if you have the chance, please try and report here. For the above mentioned benchmark I got a score in Home Premium with the following themes selected (score is windows/sec.?): Aero Glass - 850 Aero without Glass - 1150 Basic - 250 Now under Home Basic, I was unable to get scores with PC Mark05, but I did notice the speed of Windows Vista Standard was about the same as Aero without Glass and I also tried the following on both: I set resolution to 1600x1200, opened up personalization and Appearance settings. Now I started dragging around this last window and watched CPU utilization in the Task Manager. For Windows Vista Basic it was around 90-100% all the time (!?). For Aero with and without Glass (Home Premium) and Windows Vista Standard (Home Basic) it never went over 35%. Windows Vista Standard might not have everything Aero without Glass has (minimize is not animated, no thumbs of taskbar items and in alt-tab) it is better performancewise in my point of view. My conclusion is, if you have enough memory and primarily work on the desktop, then my choice would be as following: 1.a Aero without Glass (good performance, nice features) 1.b Windows Vista Standard (best performance) (unless you know how to disable these features, you are bound to 1a for Home Premium and 1b for HomeBasic) 2. Aero Glass (if you prefer the transparency and all eyecandy) 3. Windows Vista Basic Graphics card does not support transparency: 1a/b Slow CPU: 1a/b or 2 Slow graphicscard: 3 Memory of 512MB or not sufficient for your usage: 3 (indication: you should try to find out what suites you best) p.s. I am no where talking about Windows Standard or Windows Classic these are 9X/ME type of schemes. Furthermore for the Aero/Vista Standard interface to work under Visual Styles the option "enable desktop composition" must be selected (this is also known as transparency). If you are intersted, download this document to read up on rules to enable Aero (also performance requirements etc.).

@Clint Why are you acting as the cocky know it all? You keep pointing out how good you are, but when people ask for guidance, then you reply with "this is not the place". Why don't you really help in what we are trying to do instead of proving you are "superiour". We are all working in one way or the other towards the same goal and in this nuhi tries to provide a tool to assist us. How his methods are, I do not care as along as the result is up to par. For me this is the case and he can indeed be off sometimes. But he does not put neon-lights on his front page stating vLite will gaining 500% performance boost and memory usage will be 2 times less. Nobody's perfect, lets just try not to prove we are right, but try to have an healthy discussion on slimming down Windows Vista.

Thanks SnapShot, nothing exactly new but a refreshing tip. I went on reading through the article of Paul Thurott (again) and also saw an article at Softpedia (one could have been based on the other, due to the similarities). I do think that Aero with or without Glass supports HW-acceleration and Windows Vista Standard in Home Basic does not. I would like solid proof of this, maybe by use of a benchmarking tool. I knew one which renders on the desktop and this might give an indication to some extend. However forgot the name of it.

I suppose you are beeing cynical. As I expected removing these 2 components, did not provide any additional reduction on memory usage in relation to just disabling them. However, I am convinced that these 2 features have a positive effect on your system when used properly. For ReadyBoost you will need a compatible Flash drive though. Considering 1 or 2GB is needed for a decent Vista experience, I can imagine that people would like to disable these features to reduce memory usage. If this also mean they have a faster or more responisve system, taht only trial and error can confirm. On a side note for ReadyBoost: I have been doing some reading up on the feature and been looking around for Flash drives. This feature helps when small files are cached, because access times of Flash drives are much lower. However this is not the case for all drives. I tend to look for drives with access times below 1ms (benchmarked with HDTach on several review site for a decent indication), while others offer access times >>10ms. (a lot of people google for information and maybe they stumble upon this here, I had a hard time finding information, but most information I found in forums through googling)