Stripping Windows 7 nude

[Jecht81]

Howdy.

I'm gonna do my first vLited edition of Win7. Now here's the the problem. I have absolutely no idea what NOT to remove and what to keep. I'm gonna use this windows for a HTPC, that needs mediacenter, network connection/file sharing and TV tuner. I'd like to make it as light as possible, with "Eye Candy" enabled.

Do you guys know any good instructions for lite build? I've seen those XML docs on these forums, but I have no understading of those.

Thanx in advance for any effort. Cheers.

[thumpa]

im also interested in stripping windows 7 but my last copy i did wasnt able to locate partitions....so, as the previous post said.

[ajua]

You don't need to necessarily remove components to make lite. As some components are changed from Vista to Windows 7, i think you will be better by starting to learn about Windows Automated Installation Kit and how to make a proper Autounattend.xml file to customize your setup.

Then, start by making registry tweaks and tweaking services.

Starting by removing Windows 7 components will likely increase the chances of errors, un-bootable installations, BSOD's etc...

When nuhi (vLite's author) gets more input on components, then you can strip your setup.

[beats]

Here's a start: Windows 7 "Keep" List, A list of everything needed to be kept for it to work.

[vinifera]

if SxS could be removed without fatal bugs, that would be the only thing "needed" for win7 to be light

rest is just page file size

Edited April 4, 2011 by vinifera

[cluberti]

Please post your vLite-related questions in the vLite forums, if you would. Thank you.

[alvinkhorfire]

if SxS could be removed without fatal bugs, that would be the only thing "needed" for win7 to be light

rest is just page file size

Referring to dead0's thread, you can use the batch file to safely shrink winsxs, without affecting the ability to use Windows Update.