nLite and Windows customization

Started by twocows April 28th, 2009 12:50 AM
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  • 5 replies

twocows

The not-so-black cat of ill omen

Age 32
Male
Michigan
Seen February 19th, 2023
Posted April 30th, 2021
4,307 posts
14.2 Years
nLite is a program that allows you to completely customize a Windows 2000 or XP installation disc (you can use vLite for Vista. Basically, you can integrate upgrades or service packs, remove components, customize settings, and add or subtract stuff directly from the disc using the program. Once you're done editing, it makes an iso that you can burn to a CD and use to install.

I discovered just how amazing this program is when I was (for no reason whatsoever) trying to remove IE from my virtual XP installation. Not only did it allow me to remove IE (and add a Firefox installer to the disc), but I was able to slim down the installation disc from 650 MB to 250 MB by removing a lot of other useless stuff, and shaved my XP boot time (to working desktop) from 45ish seconds down to about 5 (not exaggerating). I always seem to make the coolest discoveries just by screwing around.

By the way, this process is completely legal (as far as I know), as long as you have a legally purchased install disc and product key, and you don't share the new disc with anyone.

Also, if you do this, do it on a test installation first, and don't blame me if you botch it. Obviously, a fair amount of technical expertise is required for this endeavor.
VNs are superior to anime, don't @ me

twocows

The not-so-black cat of ill omen

Age 32
Male
Michigan
Seen February 19th, 2023
Posted April 30th, 2021
4,307 posts
14.2 Years
I've tried Windows 7, and it was pretty fast on its own. I can only imagine what sorts of things I could do to it with a tool like this. Sexy, sexy things.

Be very careful what you remove! I removed 16bit subsystem or something like that, and about two months later when I went to install a printer; I could not. Took me ages to track down why too....
You have to plan ahead when doing this sort of thing, though. I'm not going to be using computers with a guest installation of Windows XP under VirtualBox, so I was able to uninstall anything related to printers, and most of the networking stuff (it gets to the internet through the host connection, so everything not related to LAN can pretty much go). I also took out the fax and modem stuff, as it was similarly unnecessary.

For the record, I didn't uninstall the 16 bit subsystem. I do use older programs with that installation (it's what I do if a program doesn't work on my host installation; sometimes it'll end up working on the guest), so that'd be counterproductive.
VNs are superior to anime, don't @ me