Suggestions for a clean install on older computer

[Zxian]

Hey everyone,

I've got a small project coming up in a little while... a clean install of XP on an old-ish laptop.

PIII-M 750MHz

256MB Ram

10GB HD

The computer is going to be used for surfing the web and reading e-mails. The occasional picture download from a digital camera as well.

I was thinking of nLite-ing the install to slim down the bite that XP takes of the hard drive. Here's a list of programs that I was going to install for general security/funcitonality:

NOD32 (Anti-virus)

Kerio Personal Firewall

SpywareBlaster

SpyBot S&D

Ad-Aware

Maxthon (Browser)

Office 2003

First off... I know that I'm probably going to get a lot of flames for choosing Maxthon and not Firefox... just don't bother... I'm not going to spend the time to get Firefox to work with a reasonably low memory usage and all that other stuff. Besides, the computer is going to be used by my dad, who's a total techno-clod and would simply like to be able to read his Financial Times and check his e-mails, that's it. I've used it for about 9 months now, and with SpywareBlaster and Spybot and an updated Hosts file, I haven't got a single piece of spyware on my system since.

I'm trying to keep all the background programs as lightweight as possible since it is an older machine.

Now I'm just wondering if there's anything else that people would suggest I install or any items I can remove from XP with nLite without screwing anything up. I think I've got a simple list made up in my head (I haven't started anything yet) such as Remote Registry, Messenger, and all the services that are used for file sharing through XP.

Thanks for the help.

[MCT]

hi, look @ the "what not 2 remove..." thread in the nlite forum, i remove almost everything & have about 50 more programs then what u have & it works, i use nod32,spyware blaster,adaware,spybot aswell without problems

I've used it for about 9 months now, and with SpywareBlaster and Spybot and an updated Hosts file, I haven't got a single piece of spyware on my system since

why would u want a hosts file if u are using spyware blaster

it sets reg entries so u dont have 2 have a hosts file (which can slow u down too!)

ps: we dont flame here, this isnt neow1n

[jamey]

I reckon you can remove almost everything wth nLite, as MCT said, and nothing should break. I would then recommend updating chipset, graphics, sound, network and any other drivers. Then just disable nearly all services as per Black Viper's recommendations.

I bet that will give it a speed boost

[Radimus]

Why not just make a XPE cd and let him boot from that...

But you are really best off by using win98, install and update and config everything, then ghost it to a cd or 2.

if it gets too funked up, slap the image back on

[Zxian]

Hi there,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I don't really want to go into making the XPE CD since I have no idea what this is, and I don't really have the time to figure it out.

I'm still leaning towards XP since it is much more user friendly when it comes to installing programs and drivers and such. For example USB keys. There will probably be lots of times where I or others will use our USB keys on that computer, and having to bring the driver CDs would just be a pain in the butt.

Just a reminder, this isn't going to be my computer. I'm trying to set this thing up so that it needs as little maintenance as possible. That's why I chose NOD32 because it's always kept upto date. Kerio is pretty much set-it-and-forget-it.

Just another little thing... the internet on it is going to be wireless... so some extra services needed for that.

I'll probably set it up with the same way that I have my services set with a few less... my parent's won't need to connect VPN (like I do... stupid telephony required...)

Thanks again.

[Astalavista]

just install xp