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XP Tweaked & Slimmed?


bsperan

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I loved being able to tweak my Windows 98 SE installation with the "UNOFFICIAL Win 98SE Service Pack" (v2.1a). (Kudos to the author! :wub:) It added a LOT of much needed fixes for critical problems - essentially functioning as the Service Pack that MS never released (and then some). It was much, much easier than seperately installing all the individual file updates and fixes! And now it doesn't crash very often. I've also played around a bit with the 98SE2ME installer and Revolutions Pack Lite, with mixed results.

I realise that the Windows 98 family is an orphaned child now, that such packages as the Unofficial Win 98SE Service Pack were created out of necessity (esp. considering how flawed and unstable a stock installation is). In comparison, the Win XP family is pretty stable and still being supported with new Service Packs. (Though probably not for long.)

My Question: What equivalents are there for Windows XP?

I've looked back in this forum and the closest thing I could find was nLite. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds very promising.

I'll admit: I'm new to Windows XP. But months ago during my hours of daily surfing, I could have sworn I saw something else for XP that reminded me of The UNOFFICIAL Win 98 Service Pack and others like it. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name and I didn't exactly place priority in bookmarking such things because I did not have XP at the time. I was still relying on 98.

What am I looking for in a tweak package for XP?

Of course SP2 is a great start. But I'm looking for something more. (And I hear SP3 is not due to be finished until 2008.)

I'm looking for a package that automatically installs both official (beyond SP2) and unoffical patches. This includes bug fixes, privacy and security fixes (including things that MS does not consider security risks), tweaks for performance, etc. I could just scour MSFN and the Internet as a whole while downloading dozens of files and installing them individually. But that sounds a bit tedious, especially if I ever find myself needing to add XP to another PC, or doing a re-installation.

If such a package does not exist, would it be possible to create it with some basic scripts or code? Perhaps written in Java? Or perhaps similar to how 98SE2ME was created?

But I also want to 'trim the fat', so to speak.

There are many "features" that I want to uninstall and nLite may do this for me. But are there any alternatives?

What about XPlite? This is published by LitePC Technologies, the same group that published the infamous 98lite package. Is anyone here familiar with this and, if so, would they recommend this solution?

Edited by bsperan
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XPlite isn't freeware and it doesn't allow for as much removal or customization as nLite.

I would recommend you just use XP Home or Pro (depending on what you need), use the RyanVM Update Pack and use some tweaks from MSFN (I have a nice 36 KB .reg file that does a nice job). As for future updates, either use Windows Updates, WUD, AutoPatcher or redo your installation on a monthly basis as per new version of Ryan's update pack.

As for trimming the fat off XP, I do use nLite and I mainly just remove unneeded Languages and Drivers as those alone account for more than 50% of XP's mass. This leaves all of XP's functionality behind at less than half the original size. How can anyone argue that?

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