First time nLite user needing some questions answered please?

[rogajoga]

Hi Guys,

My PC is pretty corrupted and so I need to reinstall windows and so I am looking to use nLite to strip my XP disc down to what I just need. Here are my specs:

A 2001 DELL Dimension 8200 Intel Pentium P4 2.0Ghz Processor

100GB IDE HDD

Creative sound blaster card

ethernet

Enabled hyper threading in the Bios

512MB DDR1 RAM

DELL Monitor 4:3 native 1600x1200 DVI LCD 20.1 inch

DVD/CD reader

DVD/CD writer

Floppy drive

ATI RADEON 9800XT 256MB AGP GPU

Windows XP Home Edition + Service Pack 3

wired mouse + keyboard

I read somewhere that nLite can be used to strip XP right down and make the install size so small on your desktop that it can make windows boot in less than 5 seconds, is this true? I take it this only works with new PC's that have a very fast spec. Some people have said that nLite on my PC spec wouldn't make a difference and people have said that without nlite I would boot in 50 seconds. Which is pretty much the speed which I have always been able to boot windows at. Can nLite really make a difference?

What I am looking to do is to strip XP right down to the things that I only need. I want to do some local video playback, photo playback, MP3 audio playback, no gaming locally. I want to use the PC as a home server connected via 802.11 b/g/n wifi dongle and wired ethernet. I want to make the PC more like a thin client where it runs most of the time in the cloud accessing word processing from google docs, yahoo docs, email from yahoo and gmail, and cloud gaming services like Onlive which support 720p gaming and only requires a users internet connection. 720p video playback of MPEG2 and WMV always worked flawlessly on this PC. So I would like to use nLite to firstly make the XP installation take up the least amount of space on my 100GB HDD. Like under 1GB with SP3 if possible?

Then I want to remove IE and WMPlayer from XP. Now people have told me that using nlite to do all this is a waste of time and it's not going to make hardly any difference. I thought I could use nLite to strip my PC right down to it's bare essentials which should allocate more processing power for applications I want to run rather than the power going towards the whole operating system, But again people said it's not going to make much of an increase in speeds and said that I should just install XP from it's original disc. Then use nLite if I want for a slip streaming installation of SP3, what do you guys think?

Would all the things I mentioned be better doing through nLite if I had a more recent PC with a better faster processor?

Someone also said that if I did this all and used nlite then XP may not even run properly. is this true?

I really like to read your opinion on this

Any help much appreciated

Many thanks in advance

Edited February 4, 2011 by rogajoga

[Ponch]

Lots of questions, I'll try to answer some.

-Booting in 5 seconds? ...Maybe they meant booting DOS??? XP, no (unless maybe with an SSD but this has nothing to do with nLite. Aside of this, you need to see the difference between a PC that you just reinstalled and a PC that you've been using for a few weeks, with antivirus updates and such... (read "real world"). 50 seconds is quite good for your system.

-OS footprint under 1GB ? Doable. Including your pagefile. (Again, at install, not after use)

-XP malfunctionning? Here we get to the core of the problem, overenthousiastic users will remove everything they see no use for. But the way to go is to remove only what you know you won't need, this mean thing you know FOR SURE what they are for (typically "battery service" if you're using a desktop). Also read the red warnings so you don't have to come back to the forum asking how to re-add this or that because chances are nobody knows how to.

-remove IE: possible but not advised.

-remove WMP: ok, but better keep the "compatibility".

It's easy to gain "lots" of disk space (half a % of your 100Gig HDD in your case), but making XP noticeably faster by removing services through nLite is not very safe. Lots of tweaks can be performed on a standard XP that will speed it up almost the same way.

I'd rather get more RAM if possible EDIT: (Dell's site says Dimension 8200 uses RDRAM, not DDR1)

Use nLite to sliptream drivers, SP3, and updates. Good luck.

Edited February 4, 2011 by Ponch

[submix8c]

I (kind of) agree.

My .02cents (side notes/side issues) - I noticed specs said "Dell 8200" and "XP Home w/SP3" - Advise you to look here if that's not a Retail XP. Caution - Dell Restore Disks are (sometimes) a wee bit harder to make. And (if Dell you-purchased-new) watch out for that Restore Partition.

edit - It's just as easy to disable Services one-at-a-time and see what effect it has on you. In addition, check for any Background processes you really don't need (e.g. Messenger software). Anything that "starts" at Windows Startup (running in background) will "slow you down". Once you are satisfied, nLite away and test (in e.g. Virtual PC)!

Edited February 4, 2011 by submix8c

[rogajoga]

Lots of questions, I'll try to answer some.

-Booting in 5 seconds? ...Maybe they meant booting DOS??? XP, no (unless maybe with an SSD but this has nothing to do with nLite. Aside of this, you need to see the difference between a PC that you just reinstalled and a PC that you've been using for a few weeks, with antivirus updates and such... (read "real world"). 50 seconds is quite good for your system.

-OS footprint under 1GB ? Doable. Including your pagefile. (Again, at install, not after use)

-XP malfunctionning? Here we get to the core of the problem, overenthousiastic users will remove everything they see no use for. But the way to go is to remove only what you know you won't need, this mean thing you know FOR SURE what they are for (typically "battery service" if you're using a desktop). Also read the red warnings so you don't have to come back to the forum asking how to re-add this or that because chances are nobody knows how to.

-remove IE: possible but not advised.

-remove WMP: ok, but better keep the "compatibility".

It's easy to gain "lots" of disk space (half a % of your 100Gig HDD in your case), but making XP noticeably faster by removing services through nLite is not very safe. Lots of tweaks can be performed on a standard XP that will speed it up almost the same way.

I'd rather get more RAM if possible EDIT: (Dell's site says Dimension 8200 uses RDRAM, not DDR1)

Use nLite to sliptream drivers, SP3, and updates. Good luck.

Maybe I got the 5 seconds boot up wrong. It's just I was watching some youtube videos where they said you can get XP to boot in under 5 seconds. I went back to watch one of these videos and the videos description box mentioned it was being done without the bios on a 3 year old notebook with an SSD and 3GB RAM. It was a full operating system but heavily tweaked with lots of start up prooesses disabled and registry tweaks. Something which I can't do and there would be no point with my old hardware. But I have seen other videos where you can get XP booting between 5 to 20 seconds without an SSD and with the bios. But I guess that's not possible with my old PC.

I don't understand why removing IE is not advisable? I only use firefox but may only start using chrome or opera.

Again WMPlayer I am not bothered using because I plan to install the latest versions of VLC and XBMC and possibly the latest version of Cyberlink power DVD

Thanks for letting me know the type of RAM I always thought it was DDR1 well thanks for that.

I take it that I don't need SP1 and SP2? I just need to download SP3 and use my re-installation XP home edition disc from Dell and I am ready to go

I have read about GameXP that can be used to tweak your XP experience to make it run faster, this is for after install, it's a program that runs without needing to be installed to your PC. And then there is XPlite which is a bit like nLite but can be strip your PC down after the XP install instead of using nLite for a stripped version before install. Are they worth using?

Lastly, as I am quite new to this and want to make sure I don't create a bootable image that makes XP malfunctions after install, is there not a list of nlite infi files on here that I can use that work 100 percent while at the same time strip my PC right down to it's bare essentials? Preferrably an infi file that has a 100% working OS without IE and WMPlayer?

Many thanks in advance

[rogajoga]

I (kind of) agree.

My .02cents (side notes/side issues) - I noticed specs said "Dell 8200" and "XP Home w/SP3" - Advise you to look here if that's not a Retail XP. Caution - Dell Restore Disks are (sometimes) a wee bit harder to make. And (if Dell you-purchased-new) watch out for that Restore Partition.

edit - It's just as easy to disable Services one-at-a-time and see what effect it has on you. In addition, check for any Background processes you really don't need (e.g. Messenger software). Anything that "starts" at Windows Startup (running in background) will "slow you down". Once you are satisfied, nLite away and test (in e.g. Virtual PC)!

Many thanks for your reply

I have a DELL re-installation Windows XP Home Edition disc, I don't think it's OEM as I see no OEM writing on the disc, it a purple looking disc if that means anything.

I have always hands a lot of processes running in the windows start up background

What do you mean by Virtual PC is that VMware? is it free? of course I can't test it because my PC is so corrupted it probably wouldn't work. Maybe the best thing to do is to reinstall XP the normal way then once I have a clean XP then load up VMware and then test nLite in it and then do the reinstall of a stripped down XP.

Any help much appreciated

you have all been very helpful

Many thanks in advance

[submix8c]

I have a DELL re-installation Windows XP Home Edition disc, I don't think it's OEM as I see no OEM writing on the disc, it a purple looking disc if that means anything.

What do you mean by Virtual PC is that VMware? is it free? of course I can't test it because my PC is so corrupted it probably wouldn't work. Maybe the best thing to do is to reinstall XP the normal way then once I have a clean XP then load up VMware and then test nLite in it and then do the reinstall of a stripped down XP.

That's Dell OEM. Virtual PC is a free MS Add-on. Go to MS website and search for it. Again, find the documentation on your PC and see if it says anything about a Recovery Partition and what Function Key combination will "start it up" (basically, restores from HDD instead of CD, if available). Besides, if you have a virus or really boogered it up, you need to do a Restore. In addition, I repeat, you may not be able to use the CD (or the I386 folder on the HDD) directly without a few extra steps so go to the other link and do some reading before doing any nLite-ing.