Safely Remove Security Catalogs

[UberGeek]

Can anyone give me tips for [How To] safely remove Security Catalogs from Installer source of XP installation (either manually or with tools if any)

I have disabled SFC already.

What could be the long term risks (if any)?

[Guest]

Manual Method:

1. Decompress SvcPack.in_ in I386.
   
2. Open SvcPack.inf and remove all entries in the [ProductCatalogsToInstall] section.
   
3. Place SvcPack.inf in I386, delete SvcPack.in_. It is not necessary to recompress, but the old file must be removed.
   
4. In the "I386/SvcPack" directory, delete all CAT and CA_ files.
   
5. Done.
   

Long term risks have been explained recently.

[UberGeek]

Great ! That was real quick, thank you @5eraph !!!

I was wondering if there would be any other things to do or not - you saved me browsing a lot for vain

Moderators can now mark this Topic [sOLVED], really!

[Sp0iLedBrAt]

Being ready to do this, I suppose you also read the warning in nLite that if you remove .CAT files, you will also get a lot of prompts about files not being digitally signed, right? I don't know if these prompts will break your unattended install, but it's worth doing another search and being completely informed of all the consequences.

For example, I have about 50 of MS's updates and hotfixes; along with DirectX and driver catalog files (marked with oemxx where xx is a number), the size totals to about 9.5MB. It's not too big of a size, and how faster can it be? I have about 15-20 programs installing from RunOnce and at least that much add-ons, I haven't stripped a lot, and it still takes an hour total for a complete install.

So, what I'm saying is have your options open and do a lot of test using a VM; if a quick install is all you're interested in, then disregard this.

Enjoy

[UberGeek]

I'll keep it in mind that it may cause problem with directx.

As of other things, My windows is Highly stripped down (180 MB) with only ADDED thing is WMP11 & apart from this every thing is removed as much possible.

If somebody can tell me about the DirectX cat/ca_ file names or naming conventions, I wont remove 'em.

I'm testing this in VirtualBox (& I plan to use it heavily as a virtual OS mainly) so far it haven't come up with any driver/catalog related problem.

But If anyone know how to give it a ACID test (if any prob may occur) - my thanks goes to him.

I'm facing only problem right now, is network related, I'm posting my problem HERE IN THIS THREAD.

[Sp0iLedBrAt]

d3dx9_29_x86

xact2_3_x86

xinput9_1_0_x86

These are examples of names of .CAT files that belong to DirectX 9. As for other versions, I wouldn't know, I only work with XP

[strel]

I always keep languages to be able to open any web page in any language correctly. I don't see what could be causing your network problems, although your removal list seems too short to me for a 180 MB reduced source, besides, no services settings and tweaks are applied. May you be trimming a previously nlited source so not all components removed appear in the list?

Edited October 7, 2009 by strel

[UberGeek]

I always keep languages to be able to open any web page in any language correctly. I don't see what could be causing your network problems, although your removal list seems too short to me for a 180 MB reduced source, besides, no services settings and tweaks are applied. May you be trimming a previously nlited source so not all components removed appear in the list?

I didn't apply any tweaks or options etc. I first want a problemless Component removal - & thats what I'm testing right now.

As of for 180MB - watchout for Language/keyboard/manual_install/help/tour etc removal.

This is not meant to browse multilingual sites - will only be used for LAN party (with ability to browse english only sites)

As I said, this is not previously nlited. This is applied over (a clean (WinXP 5.1.2600 Pro noSP + Manual Integration of SP3) + WMP11 Slipstream) & as of now no other system files or Catalogs removed or modified or misplaced manually or with tools.

Thanks for watching the Session file & comment - I really appreciate it.