This software provided me with a solution for one the most irritating computer related problem that i had ever faced in my life.Read on to know about the problem and its solution.And of course the features of this software.
The Acer 4310 Laptop comes with a preloaded OS - Linpus Linux, that too a command-line version of it i.e. there is no GUI.I had never heard of this version of Linux and it was too complicated to use even after getting a list of commands from the Internet.Installing Windows XP on this laptop was the only way i could use this laptop.But when i tried to install Windows XP,the setup wasn’t able to detect the hard-disk(SATA AHCI).Acer provides a CD on which an updated version of the BIOS is present which makes Windows XP Setup to detect the HDD.The CD contains an ISO image of the BIOS which you need to burn onto a CD and then boot from it.Sounds simple enough,but trust me with Linpus Linux it isn’t simple enough.
Again Googled on to how to install Windows XP on Acer 4310 without updating the BIOS,this time i got lucky found this tutorial on a blog.
Install Windows XP on Acer Aspire 4710 - without Floppy Disk Drive
This tutorial introduced me to nLite.
Basically this tutorial tells how to integrate the Acer HDD drivers into the Windows XP Setup CD,after which Windows XP installs smoothly.
After completion of Windows XP i further probed about nLite and found these features.
Features of nLite:
* Service Pack Integration
* Component Removal
* Unattended Setup
* Driver Integration
* Hotfixes Integration
* Tweaks
* Services Configuration
* Patches
* Bootable ISO creation
Let me decrypt these features for you -
Service Pack Integration - Simple.Allows you to integrate newer Service Packs into your old Windows Setup CD.
Component Removal & Unattended Setup - The most boring thing about installing Windows is to sit right through the setup,making changes to settings and not installing unwanted Windows Components such as Micorsoft Outlook, if need be.But with nLite this is history,as it allows you to make these changes before installing Windows and then after beginning the installation you can sit back and watch(perhaps take a walk,highly recommended for people who spend their entire day in front of the PC) Windows install automatically.This makes it the most appealing feature of nLite.
Driver Integration - As i had mentioned above this helped me solve the most irritating related problem that i had ever faced in my life.This basically allows you to integrate drivers that are not included in the Windows Setup CD,but are critical during installation.
Hotfixes Integration & Patches - This feature is the second most appealing feature of nLite.Remeber how Windows bugs you with downloading and installing patches & hotfixes, everytime you reinstall Windows.This feature allows you to integrate patches and hotfixes from Microsoft directly into your Windows distribution files without having to download again and install them every time you need to reinstall Windows.
nLite supports Windows 2000, XP x86/x64 and 2003 x86/x64 in all languages.
It needs .NET Framework 2.0 in order to run.
Download nLite here :
nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation - Download
*****************************************
For Vista download vLite from :
vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool
The Acer 4310 Laptop comes with a preloaded OS - Linpus Linux, that too a command-line version of it i.e. there is no GUI.I had never heard of this version of Linux and it was too complicated to use even after getting a list of commands from the Internet.Installing Windows XP on this laptop was the only way i could use this laptop.But when i tried to install Windows XP,the setup wasn’t able to detect the hard-disk(SATA AHCI).Acer provides a CD on which an updated version of the BIOS is present which makes Windows XP Setup to detect the HDD.The CD contains an ISO image of the BIOS which you need to burn onto a CD and then boot from it.Sounds simple enough,but trust me with Linpus Linux it isn’t simple enough.
Again Googled on to how to install Windows XP on Acer 4310 without updating the BIOS,this time i got lucky found this tutorial on a blog.
Install Windows XP on Acer Aspire 4710 - without Floppy Disk Drive
This tutorial introduced me to nLite.
Basically this tutorial tells how to integrate the Acer HDD drivers into the Windows XP Setup CD,after which Windows XP installs smoothly.
After completion of Windows XP i further probed about nLite and found these features.
Features of nLite:
* Service Pack Integration
* Component Removal
* Unattended Setup
* Driver Integration
* Hotfixes Integration
* Tweaks
* Services Configuration
* Patches
* Bootable ISO creation
Let me decrypt these features for you -
Service Pack Integration - Simple.Allows you to integrate newer Service Packs into your old Windows Setup CD.
Component Removal & Unattended Setup - The most boring thing about installing Windows is to sit right through the setup,making changes to settings and not installing unwanted Windows Components such as Micorsoft Outlook, if need be.But with nLite this is history,as it allows you to make these changes before installing Windows and then after beginning the installation you can sit back and watch(perhaps take a walk,highly recommended for people who spend their entire day in front of the PC) Windows install automatically.This makes it the most appealing feature of nLite.
Driver Integration - As i had mentioned above this helped me solve the most irritating related problem that i had ever faced in my life.This basically allows you to integrate drivers that are not included in the Windows Setup CD,but are critical during installation.
Hotfixes Integration & Patches - This feature is the second most appealing feature of nLite.Remeber how Windows bugs you with downloading and installing patches & hotfixes, everytime you reinstall Windows.This feature allows you to integrate patches and hotfixes from Microsoft directly into your Windows distribution files without having to download again and install them every time you need to reinstall Windows.
nLite supports Windows 2000, XP x86/x64 and 2003 x86/x64 in all languages.
It needs .NET Framework 2.0 in order to run.
Download nLite here :
nLite - Deployment Tool for the bootable Unattended Windows installation - Download
*****************************************
For Vista download vLite from :
vLite - Windows Vista configuration tool
hyeah: ?
Anyone has an idea about which components/services are safe to remove? I think I can remove all langauges, keyboard layouts without any problems.