enderandrew

There are IE7 addons both here and on RyanVM's forums. It doesn't slipstream IE7, but it will do the IE7 install when you're doing the Windows install.

Jumping from Win 3.1 to 95 meant taxing your hardware. The same really was true of NT, and jumping from 98 to 2000. However, I've seen XP actually perform better than 2000 on the same hardware when properly configured. For gamers, XP really is the OS to run. Conceptually I think Vista has done some things right, such as rewriting the network stack from the ground up on IPV6 with backwards compatibility for IPV4. The average consumer will get Vista with their PC purchase, and be motivated to go after even faster PC hardware to support Vista. However, I think the smart consumer will hold off. Aero really isn't any better than what is available on KDE and Gnome today between compiz and GXL/AIGLX. WinFS got dumped. All that new code just means more bugs and more exploits to be found. And how many XP apps will break on Vista? Some at the very least. It happens with every new release.

I doubt many companies will develop games for DX10 for a little while, because it means forcing the players to buy Vista and new video cards. And despite the features of DX10, how well can the game be expected to run if Vista is slowing your gaming rig to a crawl? MicrowinX has the feature of dropping the shell from memory to enter a gaming mode. You can effectively do the same thing in Linux by creating a session with no X or KDE/Gnome that just launches the game. I've never understood while Windows doesn't do a similiar "game mode". Oh well.

Wrong link. There is a difference between the Recently Used Documents List, and the Recently Used Programs list pinned to the Start Menu. For what it is worth, I was looking to help this guy. So I Googled for the registry entry to remove the list. I removed the list. Then I tried reversing the registry entry. The list won't come back. Uh oh.

I love you tooBTW, I'm more of a turd sandwich than a giant douche EDIT: Oh, and people in my forums have made removal addons for WGA for those who don't like it. For what it is worth, I was never horribly against WGA initially. However, when I discovered that Microsoft misled people with the EULA and lied about what the software actually does, I've since changed my opinion. I'm not encouraging anyone to pirate software, but frankly given everything that has come about about WGA, I think you should seriously consider dropping it from your packs. It is quite easy to remove (I have) but that is just my opinion. Either way, thanks for all your work.

I use CDRW's all the time. I have for about 9 years pretty regularly. I have some of the same discs that I've been using on and off for 9 years. A CDRW disc is supposed to be good for about 100 burns. I've probably hit that mark with some of my discs. Occassionaly I've run into older drives that don't like CDRW discs, but I've never once really had a problem with them. I'd wager you bought bad discs, or have a bad drive.

We don't know if the install method used in the Vista betas will be the same installer used in the final. We don't know if the files will be stored the same way. Nuhi could spend plenty of time developing an nLite for Vista that doesn't even work with the final product. And honestly, I don't see many good reasons to upgrade to Vista when you can just drop the Vista Transformation Pack on XP. I ran the latest Vista beta for a day before dropping it. It ran HORRIBLY slow on my brand new Turion laptop. Some of the features sound nice, and it looks nice, but it really is a beast.

It is always nice to have options, but I'll keep looking. I'd like to find something that doesn't depend on IMAPI.

Honestly, the simplest method for users is to drop in a reg file and wipe out the entries. However, how much do you think it affects the install process to put in all those registry entries in the first place? Removing the data from all the dll files in the first place will make the install that much faster. Here's the kicker. Let's say that you do all this work. Then you drop in RyanVM's Update pack addon which overwrites many of the system .dll files (or XPize for that matter), and your work is lost. After you slipstream in your addons, you'll have to extract these files, edit them, and repack the cabs. Why not post a guide and allow both options for users? Attach a reg file to remove the registry entries after the fact, but also post instructions for what can be removed from each .dll This can be a MAJOR undertaking, but at the same time, it will help drop the size of the registry which is getting ridiculously large.

I have no intention to redistribute anyone work's and claim credit for it. I also have no intention to 100% clone anyone's work. But I'd love to hear any advice you have for stripping windows down bare while keeping basic functionality. If you'd be willing to show me which files you remove in cleanup, I wouldn't mind taking a peek. Mind you, I don't intend to strip down as small as you have. For one, I intend to keep IE support (though I loathe IE), explorer, and auto-updates. Personally, I know about autopatcher, and I am a big Firefox fan. However, I want the guide (and whatever CD I make) to support most people. I do a lot of PC repair, and when I do formats/reinstalls for people, they may need IE support and auto-update support.

That's a good idea! I'll try that.

Outstanding! I think you're really on to something here. I can't wait to see the list you come up with.

If I payed for his files and then just basically released them, then I think I would be stealing from the guy. However he posted his guides freely and said in his guides that you can effectively recreate his work from them. Even still, I don't intend to 100% duplicate his work. He keeps a few things that I feel are unnecessary, and removes some things I feel should be kept. There are people who get their Windows installs under 100 megs. That pretty much trumps Bold Fortune's guide. MicrowinX is one such project. I'm not sure the average user wants to completely remove explorer.exe and such, but since multiple people have slimmed down Windows to such minute proportions, I know it is very possible. If people want to safe-guard their work, they are entitled to do so, and I will not judge them in a negative way. However, if I put in the work, I intend to share it. I want to help the next guy/gal down the road. And I am hoping others are willing to help partake in that endeavor. Normally I do most of my work on nLite and such at work. I'm surrounded by a plethora of computers, and I have free time here. I never have free time at home, even though I usually have two notebooks and a desktop on my desk to allow me to work on three computers at once. However, I've been quite busy the past few days unfortunately. I was going over Bold Fortune's 350 files to keep the other day and got half way through it. Most of those files I've put in my "Keep" list. I'll remove as much as I can using the typical nLite processes, and then attempt an install. If any of the "Keep" files are missing, then I'll need to manually put them in to the "Keep" area in nLite. I've even added a few on my keep list that Bold Fortune didn't have. I noticed that there were plenty of files that he said you could remove that wouldn't actually break functionality per se, but however you would receive error messages when going into MMC areas like System Properties. Does anyone know if there is a workaround/fix for such things? For instance:

Thanks. I've gone over both of those, and I've also been reading over Bold Fortune's guides, going over each dll individually and deciding whether or not it can be kept, or removed, and removed at which stage.

Great! Where is your guide or documentation? Edit: Anyone who attempts to look at your code has to pay you $15,000 and they are subject to any future legal mumbo jumbo you want to throw out? Yep, that sounds exactly like I described. I described a community project that involves publicly sharing information.

I'd like to see the community pool together their knowledge so that we can put together a comprehensive step-by-step guide on slimming down your Windows install as best as you can. I know monohouse is working on his "Deleted Edition" and I hope he is willing to share his discoveries. In making my CD I am currently tempted to donate a few bones to bold_fortune to get his batch files, except for two problems. 1 - I want to remove as much from the install CD safely as possible, and bold_fortune doesn't support using nLite to remove from source. 2 - I want to share all my findings. Given that he charges for his files, I don't think he'd appreciate me sharing his work. This is what I propose. 1 - The guide needs to list a session.ini file that includes only options and removals. People can load this up in nLite. At the same time, for those who don't like using nLite, we should list which files are being removed from the cabs so people can do it manually if they really insist. 2 - We need a list of files to be put in the "Keep" and "Remove" advanced options respectively. I know that different people prefer to keep or remove different components and wish to keep and remove different functionalities. The goal of this project should be to slim down Windows as much as possible. In the cases of MAJOR features to be preserved/removed, we simply seperate those files. For example: I imagine those will be three key features that people may want to preserve or not in their particular builds. 3 - Certain files need to removed after install. autofm.exe for instance is needed to format drives during install, but can be removed post-install. bold_fortune also discussed on his forums that certain files must be present in the install CD to be registered, but can be removed safely after the fact. We need to compile a list of files that can be removed via batch file after the fact. I've been going through removing a couple new .dlls at a time, making a CD and testing how it goes. I'll post my current progress in a few hours when I'm on a different PC. After I post what little work I've made starting out, others can contribute their list of files to be removed in the various stages. We'll test those files, and format them in a nice guide. To continue work, I will go down the list pretty much of all the .dll files in the System32 folder and test them. http://www.bold-fortune.com/forums/index.php?showforum=56 Using bold_fortune's freely available guides I think if multiple people are working on this, we can get a working, streamlined CD pumped out in no time at all. I know that plenty of people have already ventured down the path I'm heading down, and I would like to pool that experience together into a nice guide that others can continue to follow for years to come.

I can always release a guide on how I did it, with applicable files. I thought Microsoft has in the past actually allowed the download of the install files. In many places XP install CDs are tossed around like candy. When I worked for HP, Microsoft didn't care about the CDs at all. Microsoft didn't consider the CD to be a copy of Windows. However, we did very heavily audit the **** OEM stickers. If we lost one of those, we paid a pretty hefty fine. As far as Microsoft was concerned, the serial number was the big issue.

How does this compare to Nero? Nero is the only non-freeware app on my CD currently, and I wouldn't mind replacing it. (Not to mention even my Nero-lite slimmed down installer makes for a 40 meg cab)

I don't run into a whole lot of people with 9x, but it does happen from time to time. They often ask about basic upgrades to their computer, and don't want to replace the whole thing. But they are usually in the boat that their motherboards only support old processors and memory, and it isn't that cheap to buy really old hardware because many places charge extra just to keep that stuff around. Some people are just stubborn and really cheap. I try to suggest to those people to just spend $400 on a new rig. I'll definately try the guide that was linked, and I'll see if I can slip in that new kernel that supports Windows XP programs as well. That is one of the biggest problems with people who stick with old versions of Windows is that newer software won't run on their PC. I'll probably start on this project later this week. I'm still tweaking my XP CD. On the Uber-DVD I want: Windows XP - slimmed, tweaked and customized with all the updates and various apps thrown in the installer 2003 converted to XP/Workstation - again slimmed, tweaked and customized x64 much like the above 2003 - actual server build (themes and the like gone but server aspects kept it) 2003 with Media Center and Tablet Builds (ie Ultimate build) 98 - Up to date as much as possible I don't see a good reason to throw in 2000, ME, or NT4. A properly tweaked XP can actually run faster than 2000 on the same hardware. I'd rather have 98 with various ME updates than ME itself, and again I can't see a good reason to work with NT4. When I'm finished, I'll release my nLite session.ini files, my reg files, my cleanup commands, and full instructions. Honestly, I don't see why I can't just release a torrent to the actual CD/DVD so long as I remove the CD keys from the WINNT.SIF files. All people would have to do is put in their CD keys, build the ISO file again, burn and go. On the XP CD, I've been trimming it down quite a bit while retaining functionality for WMP, IE and Windows Update. Most of the really slimmed down guides break functionality in these areas. All of the addons right now are freeware except Nero, and again, if people have a license for it, they simply need to put in the serial number the first time the app is launched. If I find good freeware burning software, I'll take Nero out. I'm using Gimpshop for Graphics and OpenOffice for the office suite. I could bundle Photoshop and MS Office, but again I'm trying to stick with freeware (preferrably Open Source) as much as possible.

The purpose of slipstreaming is automating. I work on a lot of computers for a great number of people. If I can automate or speed up tasks, then I'm all for it. I'd much rather throw in a CD and have a computer completely setup rather than doing it all manually.

There seems to be an awful lot of information here. I'm interested in making a Win98 CD (unattended preferably) for my ultimate Windows multiboot DVD. I don't intend to use the Win98 portion very often, but just last month I burned a copy of my Win98SE CD for a gal who lost her copy. Of all the various projects here, which can I slipstream? In what order should I install them?

The smallest I've seen is around the 90 meg mark, but you have to argue what functionality remains at that level.

Two more questions that just popped in my head. If I remove Windows Media Player in the remove components section, but keep Media Player compatibility, could I use a Media Player 10 or 11 addon? Theoretically the installer should work if I do the keep compatibility option, right? The same thing with .NET - Can't I remove the built in install files if I am using the .NET 2.0 addon?

Hotfixes and Update Packs: If I click on Advanced, I have an option to remove catalog files which supposedly will dramatically speed up the setup process. However it says SFC must be disabled. That's fine, because I want SFC disabled. However, in the Patches section of nLite, do I select "Enable" to enable the patch to disable SFC, or "disable" to disable the file protection? It doesn't seem very clear.

I've never had problems burning or booting the ISOs. However, I *always* use RW-discs until I've tested everything pretty thoroughly and I know that I have a finished product. Then I use a normal disc.