Anyone using nLited versions of WinXP

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sydras said:
Hmm...not exactly what I was looking for. I'm looking to reduce the no.of existing Windows apps and install only a few choice apps. But the nLited Vista sounds promising :).
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its just that u have all the necessary or most used applications on the XP cd\dvd .which to install and which not to is upto you ..and most of the unused default XP programs\services are removed..and instead of them the most common applications are added.

while installing u get a screen where you can select which all applications you want to install along with the XP..so u can select 1-2 or even 10.

Its good for people like me who format and re install XP almost ever 2-3 months..

If you are looking for something very ultra portable version of XP.

there is a completely ripped apart version of XP called as USB edition or the

Tiny XP Beast edition which after installation takes something like 500 mb of your HD space ..and uses 47 mb RAM after boot up..but lemme tell you a lot means a lot of applications are missing ..and its only useful for gaming or a download rig ..or for some basic purposes..

it can be used as a back up or to do file transfer on a machine without OS.

as this version of XP takes flat 15-20 mins for installation.

and in the end if you dont like any of them you can create your own version using n lite by keeping the services\applications you need and removing the rest.;)
 
Oh man...this looks confusing. I know what you're talking about. I want XP to be stripped down but not to the point of being non functional. Looks like I'll have to nLite my own copy of the OS. The USB stick edition/Live edition however, I think I'll try it. Would be really exciting to boot XP off a CD or a USB stick.

It's not size that I care about. It's overall OS efficiency, good stability and decent usability. I may have to dig around on the net to determine such a version.
 
i would suggest that you take the plunge and nlite your own version. coz thats how you'll truly know what you need and dont need. stick around and take a look at the msfn forums... jus make sure that you know whatever you do :P dont blindly remove services nd stuff..

after u make ur iso.. test it out on some VM software...
 
sTALKEr said:
i would suggest that you take the plunge and nlite your own version. coz thats how you'll truly know what you need and dont need. stick around and take a look at the msfn forums... jus make sure that you know whatever you do :P dont blindly remove services nd stuff..
after u make ur iso.. test it out on some VM software...
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Hmm...already did this some time ago. I nLited it but only to include windows SP3(or something like that) from hotfix.net and RyanVM updates. Aah...I don't even remember what I did exactly. I did not test it out as my 2nd rig is not ready for want of a decent cabby.

I've been sitting on the task of putting my 2nd rig together for so long:no: . I think I'll need to get meself a bijli cabby and jumpstart this soon.
 
Been using nlite for a long time now...
I integrate ryan vm update pack, drivers , remove drivers that r not needed, use the tweaks, use the unattended setup part for key, n other small things like adding device manager shortcut to right click on my comp etc...

I've been using v lite too, prepared a 1cd version of vista,,,almost everything removed ,,,for games,, but no considerable speed,,,

there r many places where u can download the updates and hotfixes...

as for the usb editions, they r built using pe builder,, its totally diff dan xp bootup, but essentially the same os,,,,the guy who made it has his own site too,, even u can buid one urself,,,he has provided the softwares...

ALSO i do not integrate the software for one simple reason that they get outdated fast, and its better to plce them in a folder on the iso,,
this can be done by putting the software folder in the folder of the edited os and then build the iso...
 
What's the point of Nlite anyway ?..for personal PCs too.

WHo cares about diskspace these days, reducing memory footprints is more useful, but you can already do that by disabling the right services.

Isn't it better to just disable what you dont need rather than not install it at all ?
 
^^

the point is not having to do it again nd again.. whether u like it or not :P, there are ppl who keep reinstalling there OS every once in a while.. for watever reason :P

gets to become a pain in de ass to configure the whole thing once again...

also.. the simplest way that nLite can help u is in making an unattended install.. pop disc in.. select partition to install on.. nd ur done.. it takes care of everything else for you :)
 
I installed XP in 2002, never reinstalled.

Its called ghost, a restore is 5 mins away. Image, install new app, test, works fine ok, if not restore image, done!

the only real reason to use this i think is for stripped down builds for kiosks or labs or companies, too much trouble for a general purpose PC as u never know when u need anything.
 
norton ghost?

how big is ur windows partition... correct me if im wrong, but ghosting involves making a backup of the whole partition... right?

no offence.. but not everyone has spare hdd's/partitions/hdd space on neighboring partitions to take images..

P.s: someone who is competent enough nd has been using windows for long enough will surely know what he needs nd doesnt need.. PLUS there are enough guides on the net to help out wid the functions of various apps nd services.
 
sTALKEr said:
norton ghost?

how big is ur windows partition... correct me if im wrong, but ghosting involves making a backup of the whole partition... right?
no offence.. but not everyone has spare hdd's/partitions/hdd space on neighboring partitions to take images..
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10GB for the system partition. Data off course goes onto a separate partition. That's not too much is it :)
you could prolly halve that if your more ambitious and only keep apps you actually use

You can do better than ghost for disk space if you do only incremental backups, but i prefer a full image.

So my point would be unless the box your building is really very specialist with a strictly limited requirements spec, you'd be limiting what XP can do. Not everyone has more than 1 or 2 PCs. You expect XP to work with anything out there. Large HDs cost a lot less than PCs :)
sTALKEr said:
P.s: someone who is competent enough nd has been using windows for long enough will surely know what he needs nd doesnt need.. PLUS there are enough guides on the net to help out wid the functions of various apps nd services.
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Yeah, but general purpose is just that, the apps to remove mentioned in the homepage for nlite take up insignificant amount of diskspace to justify going through the headaches of doing a cusotm build. From experience i would never advise to remove IE totally from XP, cos you never know when some app needs components from it. Use another browser by all means surely.
 
Yes, another word for this is slipstreaming, however i fail to see the difference between restoring an image that already has this :)

The only advantage i'm seeing so far is it makes a clean re-install easier. Then again i have an image of the clean install also, i try not to use it as then u got to re-install most of all the apps again. I suppose you could configure all your apps into your nlite install but man, thats going to be lots of work.
 
Nah not really,,, its pretty easy,,,,ofcourse restoring an image would be easier, but then, there r limitations
1) hardware, u wont be able to use it on other hardware issues,,, even if u manage, then its gonna be a bumpy ride....

2) updates,,, microsoft releases updates every few weeks...den wat do u do??and someone who doesnt have bandwidth, he doesnt get the updates...
 
blr_p said:
Yes, another word for this is slipstreaming, however i fail to see the difference between restoring an image that already has this :)

The only advantage i'm seeing so far is it makes a clean re-install easier. Then again i have an image of the clean install also, i try not to use it as then u got to re-install most of all the apps again. I suppose you could configure all your apps into your nlite install but man, thats going to be lots of work.
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Well, i've got three PCs at home and a nlited CD with the required SATA/RAID drivers and my basic system preferences work out better than any ghost image. Especially with my main rig. My Acronis True Image recovery CD refused to recognise my Sil SATA drive that I had used for a backup when I needed to restore. And as the man said^^, updates don't have to be dloaded everytime something goes wrong and u need a reinstall!

P.S.@ sydras: If you want 2 try nlite, try testing the CD on VirtualPC or VMWare.
 
Party Monger said:
Nah not really,,, its pretty easy,,,,ofcourse restoring an image would be easier, but then, there r limitations
1) hardware, u wont be able to use it on other hardware issues,,, even if u manage, then its gonna be a bumpy ride....
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Naga said:
Well, i've got three PCs at home and a nlited CD with the required SATA/RAID drivers and my basic system preferences work out better than any ghost image.
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Fair point, a image would not work you would have to do 3, so here your nlite cd x 3 is more efficient since as you say the hardware is different. Then again on mass installs they usually get a std build and mirror that across multiple pcs.

But is this just a base install+SP2+fixes, or do you also add all apps to the nlite version too ?

If its as easy as u say to install all apps, this would be the optimal way to do it.

Party Monger said:
2) updates,,, microsoft releases updates every few weeks...den wat do u do??and someone who doesnt have bandwidth, he doesnt get the updates...
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Don't understand here, if one DLs required updatess then you just run the same file(s) on the other PCs no :huh:

Naga said:
My Acronis True Image recovery CD refused to recognise my Sil SATA drive that I had used for a backup when I needed to restore.
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THis one is strange, Acronis had no probs writing to the drive but could not read from it during a restore. If i recall acronis does it all in windows or does it ever go to DOS (for restore), in which case its a driver issue.
 
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blr_p said:
THis one is strange, Acronis had no probs writing to the drive but could not read from it during a restore. If i recall acronis does it all in windows or does it ever go to DOS (for restore), in which case its a driver issue.
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I presume most people restore when there's a prob with Windows so most times the restore would be in DOS. Yes, it is a driver issue. I couldn't find an option to integrate my Sil drivers into my emergency boot disk. On board SATA RAIDs were recognised but those are configured in RAID for perf. The only solution I got on the support forums was to use a diff drive for backups. Now I only back up my data files.
Also I install only basic apps like WMP11, IE7, .Net etc on my nLited CDs.
 
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Party Monger said:
ALSO i do not integrate the software for one simple reason that they get outdated fast, and its better to plce them in a folder on the iso,,
this can be done by putting the software folder in the folder of the edited os and then build the iso...
Click to expand...

There are some core utilities that I prefer get installed without which even using the PC is very irritating. Latest releases don't matter to me in this case as I'm very happy with the current release. More times than not, the new releases come with their share of problems.

blr_p said:
What's the point of Nlite anyway ?..for personal PCs too.

WHo cares about diskspace these days, reducing memory footprints is more useful, but you can already do that by disabling the right services.

Isn't it better to just disable what you dont need rather than not install it at all ?
Click to expand...

For me, it's more about efficiency. Many of us would give an arm and a leg for Win XP/Vista to perform efficiently. It's an interesting challenge too. and I've seen the no.of processes WinXP starts up. Most of them seem like they should be on some server(hangover of Microsoft just reusing Win2000 code for XP). I donno what I need so many services for.
sTALKEr said:
^^
gets to become a pain in de ass to configure the whole thing once again...
also.. the simplest way that nLite can help u is in making an unattended install.. pop disc in.. select partition to install on.. nd ur done.. it takes care of everything else for you :)
Click to expand...

True brother :cool2: . It's so irritating to install XP after a crash. Takes a whole day sometimes. In that case unattended install would come useful.
blr_p said:
I installed XP in 2002, never reinstalled.
Its called ghost, a restore is 5 mins away. Image, install new app, test, works fine ok, if not restore image, done!
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What do you do if your hardware changes in between? I'm guessing it would be a problem to reinstall the ghosted image. And I'm always wary of a ghost image restore. A clean install gives more peace of mind.
Also, how do you test your ghost image? You would have to reinstall on the same m/c. So I never know if carefully preserved ghost install will ever work :( .

blr_p said:
Yeah, but general purpose is just that, the apps to remove mentioned in the homepage for nlite take up insignificant amount of diskspace to justify going through the headaches of doing a cusotm build. From experience i would never advise to remove IE totally from XP, cos you never know when some app needs components from it. Use another browser by all means surely.
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Hmm....you have a point here. Removing small apps doesn't make sense. I'm more interested in the efficiency aspect i.e. will removing the app improve XP's performance. I guess there is no definitive data on this :( .

Also, IE is recommended for some really important websites eg: I think HDFC bank website can't even work on firefox. Also I believe Microsoft used this justification when they were told to unbundle IE from XP.

Naga said:
P.S.@ sydras: If you want 2 try nlite, try testing the CD on VirtualPC or VMWare.
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I just downloaded virtual PC last week as I wanted to play the original Max Payne which does not work on my 2GB memory m/c. But it was complicated and I did not figure out how to use it. Maybe I'll give it another shot sometime later.

sTALKEr said:
its a major PITA to install each update nd fix manually over nd over again :)
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Right you are :cool2: . Slipstreaming seems like a much better option. But I've observed conflicts in RyanVM when integrating updates involving the same setup source files. I keep getting errors that the file I'm replacing is newer than than the current file. I then just keep the newer file. Is this advisable?
 
sydras said:
There are some core utilities that I prefer get installed without which even using the PC is very irritating. Latest releases don't matter to me in this case as I'm very happy with the current release. More times than not, the new releases come with their share of problems.

Right you are :cool2: . Slipstreaming seems like a much better option. But I've observed conflicts in RyanVM when integrating updates involving the same setup source files. I keep getting errors that the file I'm replacing is newer than than the current file. I then just keep the newer file. Is this advisable?
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yeah i know, things like winrar and all u can integrate, But yahoo messenger, Antivirus and all v r better off installing seperately, Though that was just a suggestion and a feature i wanted to tell..:cool2:
Well mos of the times the files in the update pack r the the one recmended whether old or new...But stil if u hav a doubt u can ask @ the msfn forum,,,
Also v r missing nlite here,, It can reduce a hell lot of garbage off vista, Save space too...

As for wat u said abt removing apps, Sometimes, Its jus a pain in the A** to see some of those icons,,,lol so i like to remove the root cause...lol
Stil i agree print spooler and all r better off jus being disabled...
 
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