An idiots install of Nlite ?

[geb]

I'm not highly technically competent. I just purchased a new laptop to replace my five year old Toshiba Satellite. New one is an HP 8510W running Windows XP Pro. 2.2GHz/2GB/100G7200rpm/DVDRW/abg/GNIC/15.4" WSXGA. I am pretty frustrated that the boot up/shut down takes so much longer than with my old toshiba. There is much on this install that I simply do not need. I read up on nlite and it sounds very appealing. Especially since my habit of dealing with cleanup, defrag,viruses, and malware is to perform fairly regular reinstalls of the complete system on my laptops. To do this more quickly and "unattended" would be very nice.

I'd like to have an install disc with necessary drivers and xp updates/fixes, without any of the outlook express, IE, media player, etc, but am not confident enough to know just what can be safely left out.

Is there a good "bang for the buck" list of the most burdensome, least necessary, XP Pro things to leave out of an Nlite installation? I read through some of the tutorials and the process seems pretty straightforward. I just don't know how to determine what is safe to remove. I did not see any mention in tutorials of things like help files (google is always quicker and more thorough), screen savers, artwork, bells, whistes, etc, etc.

Would anyone be kind enough to provide a good general list? I guess If I could get an XP install with only the drivers necessary to keep the HPs hardware fully functional I'd be happy.

Thanks a lot!

Edited January 17, 2009 by geb

[GrofLuigi]

Welcome to the forum, geb.

In theory, everything in nLite should be safe to remove - Windows should work, just without that component. In practice, many third party programs depend on something. At the top of this forum is the topic What Not To Remove For Some Programs where users shared their experiences.

As a rule of thumb, keep the components that there is slight chance you'll need later. It is very difficult, and often impossible, to insert components which have been removed.

Nlite is all about trial and error - and unfortunately that means a lot of work (reinstall of the OS). But it's a lot of fun too. Read the descriptions in the program, they are very informative.

There is no "one size fits all" list because everyone has different priorities - someone couldn't live without OE or IE... I doubt there are two persons in the world that would agree on a common list.

I think best course would be to research on components (as you did) and then ask questions about speciffic items that aren't clear yet.

About update packs - there are also several of them floating around with different goals (only high priority updates, or integrated IE7, WMP11...) I don't follow them so I'm afraid I can't help you more, but hopefully someone else would be able to chime in. Also, you should be able to find (most of) them by searching in the forum.

GL

[johnhc]

geb, on the side of your post it says XP x64. If this is what you are going to nLite, see this great tutorial. It also contains all the x64 updates after SP2. GrofLuigi is quite correct about trial and error. To facilitate this, I suggest you look into a virtual system such as VirtualPC, VirtualBox or VMware Server - all free. The first is 32 bit XP only. I have not used VirtualBox because it did not support x64 when I started. VMware Server is very large (almost 600 MB). I would be careful about removing IE. I have seen some here that discovered some applications that inexplicable need it. What kind of source do you have? Some people here have reported problems using recovery CDs. It seems like the manufacturers have made it difficult if not impossible to use their CDs for an install that is not a recovery of their environment. Enjoy, John.

[DL.]

Be very careful when removing components, because as the others have said it's often very difficult to add something you've removed.

There are of course some things that hardly anyone ever use/need.

Select the compatibility options for things you may need.

Read the names and descriptions for every component to figure out if you need it or not. If you're uncertain; better keep the component than regret it later. Removing too much will often cause more problems than it's worth.

In the remove components part of nLite:

Applications: Remove the ones you never use, this one is pretty safe so you can remove everything if you want to.

Drivers: Remove the drivers for things your computer doesn't have and you're not planning on getting.

Hardware support: The same as drivers, but be very careful here. Remove only the ones you're certain you'll never need.

Keyboards: If you don't change the keyboard layout then remove all of them. Your default one is protected.

Languages: Same as keyboards.

Multimedia: About the same as applications, just be a bit more careful.

Network: You can remove just a few of those safely. The rest depends on what you use/need and understand what they're for.

Operating system options: A bit of a mixed bag here, you can remove some but there are also a number of things you shouldn't.

Services: Be careful here, or some of your programs/hardware won't work. Read up on the services first. Disabling the services rather than removing them is often better.

Directories: If you've never used the files in those folders (on the CD) you could easily remove all of them.

I think the main thing for you to focus on shouldn't be to remove components using nLite.

You should rather try reducing the number of autostart obejcts, from the registry and "Autostart"-folder.

Make your own .reg-file to remove those things and set other tweaks.

[majormashup]

DL..

I would be inclined to use Bashrat the sneaky's driverpacks for your drivers

As far as removing stuff goes it's all trial and error, nlite will usually alert you if you are going to do something dumb and also gives descriptions of most components and services. Remember is all else fails you can google the component to find out what it does and then remove it when you know it's safe to do so. I've lost count of the amount of nlite builds I've done because I've left out important components so my advice to you would be to document what you do and if it breaks you can refer to it next time

Have fun

edit: did your laptop come with an OEM xp license?

if so you may want to check out my blog for a guide to integrating the OEM bios files needed to automatically activate your product (will save you loads of time if you frequently reinstall)

Edited January 20, 2009 by majormashup

[tictoc]

geb.

Re: nlite,

I too am computer illiterate but found a very helpful site at (i64x.com nlite install)it gave the whole process step by step with screen pictures on what boxes to tick (the program explains most of these and what not delete) I printed out all 27 pages and went through it step by step and found it quite straight forward, although I only got as far as page 18.

After filling in all the boxes I pressed the process now button and it got as far processing setup files and came up with, "missing nhelper.ex_in nlites folder" message.

When I started the nlite program and directed it to my XP files using the browse button, I looked in the XP folder and found the nlite program, opened it and found the nhelper and vhelper files in there so I know they weren't missing at that stage.

So I hope someone else knows how to fix it, as I've trawled this site and tried downloading nhelper from the net and putting it in folder i386 and system 32 without any luck.

Edited January 24, 2009 by tictoc

[johnhc]

tictoc, see this post. There are many posts about nhelper missing. This happens because you have run nLite more than once against the same source. You don't need this guy's fix, just don't run nLite multiple times on the same source.

You should start a new thread with a new topic. This question does not belong in this thread.

Please make sure to always start with a fresh copy of your CD files/folders, do all your work in one nLite session and integrate only one SP. Enjoy, John.

[tictoc]

Hi Johnhc

Re: missing nhelper

Thanks for your feedback, I really appreciated you taking an interest

I've now fixed my problem and here's what I did.

When I was working through nLite removing stuff, at the last section, Directories, I had originally ticked all the boxes and that's where I went wrong and kept getting the “nhelper missing” error as one of the directories was nLite itself, so obviously if I removed that (which contains the file nhelper) the program would strip it all out and then look for it at the end and not find it, simple or what.

Yes I agree, I am thick, but there has been a lot of discussion on this topic, so I'm not the only thicky.

As for starting with a new copy each time, there's no need as you can reload your last session at the beginning at the third screen (presets) just tick the box bottom left and this saves you hours of wading through the whole thing again, but I guess you knew that but others may have missed it. (I agree, it is good housekeeping to start with clean stuff)

I looked at the posts you suggested and about the SFC, I tried it enabled and disabled and nLite worked okay each time.

Thanks again, tictoc

[johnhc]

tictoc, starting with a fresh copy of the CD files/folders is not just good housekeeping, but is a requirement. I would really like to see your Last Session.ini that contains the removal of all the listed Directors. I suspect your success is just coincidental with not deleting the directories. Running nLite multiple time against the same source produces strange and varied symptoms. Some may not show for some time after install when you are testing/using your system. You certainly can use the Preset from the Last Session, but you should always start with a fresh source. Enjoy, John.

[tictoc]

Hi Johnhc,

The funny thing is I ran nlite again today and nlite didn't show up in the "directories to remove" this time, but it all went through to the finish okay, so I'm happy.

Thanks

Edited January 29, 2009 by tictoc