Matty, the setup process of an nLite’d CD is exactly the same as with the original CD! So no worries. Try it, I’m sure you’ll love it… There are many, many options to discover. For example, you need to disable Windows File Protection (SFC) in nLite, unless you want empty folders for those programs I bet you have removed: Movie Maker, Windows Messenger, and maybe even Windows Media Player?
My SP3 ISO is 200,000 MB. There aren’t many megabytes left to get rid of. My previous SP2 ISO was ~185 MB, but it really was pure SP2 and no hotfixes so I think adding just 15 MB to get it fully patched (to SP3 level) is nice.
Now I’m actually tempted to begin the Vista era, and thus the vLite era… did an attempt to install the Vista Upgrade Advisor but it requires .NET so no way I’ll install it.
Hi LA,yeh im deffo gonna give it a try tomorrow morning,ive started off being pretty cautious as im sure most do when first starting out with the program.I must say i was extremely impressed with the detail it goes to in explaining what your actually getting rid of. What would you recommend as the first thing to do after the new install is complete? Should i visit the M$ site to check that im up to date,this is done from an xp sp2c cd with sp3 included.I did check the box in nlite to include all updates/hotfixes etc.
Thanks for the info on (SFC) not sure if disabled it but im sure if all goes well ill be doing a new copy ;D
I`ve been reading the bold_fortune info a lot (both hear and in neowin) but i do feel that sometimes he seems to become a bit to scattered if you know what i mean.
Still some great advise though and the guy sure knows his stuff.
Yeah, gotta start carefully. :-TU I think my first CD was slightly below 400 MB (there’s surely a post in this thread, I’ll take a look…). EDIT: seems like my first or second CD was 383 MB.
The first thing I always do is to delete folders and files that even nLite won’t remove. The reason why I mentioned the SFC thing by the way, is that you won’t only get empty folders, but even worse: Windows won’t let you delete them!
Sounds like you’ve made a fully updated CD, but of course, if you install MS software like Office or .NET Framework, visiting Windows Update is a good idea! However I never do this in panic the first thing I do.
I do not yet recommend (at this moment) to include SP 3. Nlite has been a holy shrine for me almost from it’s very beginnings, but waiting for some reassuring updated versions has never been a wrong idea for me. It’s in no way nlite’s fault I’m talking about here. It’s just because of SP 3 being rather new (even if containing rather few new things…). All I want to express hereby is: let the free programmers do their refining and quality feedback checks first.
Then, and only then (just wait some more weeks) I will recommend slipstreaming SP 3, as it is at the moment, into a new nlited OS install CD.
That does not mean I wouldn’t recommend using the latest nlite version at this moment. This refers only to the unattended inclusion of SP 3.
It’s just a few doubts about MS’s actual intentions.
Awww (:SHY) Thanks for the compliment :-TU ;D. It’s so perfect that I’m now obsessing over what imaging program to use to retain it in history.
+1 With each new SP there’s known to be problems. So, if you’re an adventurer with a few loose nuts like LA and want try SP3, why not create 2 nLite CD’s? One with and one without SP3.
Why not creating 8 different versions of possible installs? The possibility of getting happy with that OS of yours an’ mine does, verily, increase with spending your lifetime on experimenting on that…
PS: A functional XP SP2 installment shrunk down to 107mb (on cd, not hd) is, at this moment, not to be polluted by any so called SP 3 “security updates”. (Tried it, would’ve blown it up to about 280 again, didn’t want that…)
I hope you did have that dream, because an nLite’d CD is truly wonderful.
Thanks REBOL (:SHY) - but don’t forget to mention yourself! I also expect good advice from Soya, Commodus, and perhaps someone else too. :-TU
I don’t understand how it’s possible to get it down to 107 MB. That pure SP2 CD I made was around 185 MB, I didn’t see so much more to delete from it… maybe some drivers and network components (which I leave intact because I have no idea whether they are needed or not). Anyway I was happy to get my XP SP3 CD at exactly 200 MB.
I prefer nuts instead of beans! (:TNG)
Although these guys don’t recommend SP3, I think it’s worth trying. I’ve had no problems whatsoever.
…and I, who ran into an activation key problem with M$, am lucky to discover that my brand new XP SP1 key is valid for my installation (nLite XP SP3 based on a pure XP SP2)! So I don’t have to make a new installation based on my SP1 CD.
:BNC
But of course… I want to make a new CD so I can put in the new activation key in it. And maybe remove some drivers and Windows Update stuff.
Everything went pretty smoothly,followed the advise given by all and so far im over the moon with my new install. Thanks to all for posting your suggestions,it wont be long know before i do mark “2”
I didnt slipsteam sp3 into the install but have updated it after,at least i now know the baseline and can take it on from here. Its just great that where you had useless stuff before you now have nothing.
Talking about M$ intentions,i read yesterday that percentage wise the people using FF/Opera has droped by over 1% since the advent of sp3,thats a lot of pcs
As I found out about 3 years ago, adding a SP after installation makes a much bigger Windows directory than one gets by slipstreaming serially into the same image. It’s about 1GB extra, even after removing some directories of back-up files used for uninstalling the SP.
ISTR dotNET being needed for something - was that SP2? As has been said, that adds a lot to the size.
Just tried nLite again: XP Pro → SP2 → SP3 → remove lotsathings, including IE (but not the core of IE - I’m a coward).
Installing: lots of warnings about missing files; needed a key!! and I used one that I’d written down when having to do a bit of a change to get SP2 in when that was released.
At final reboot it got to the point of loading XP and crashed out to reboot. Tried Safe Mode, same error; dumped CD.
Oh well, did something wrong but don’t know what. Happy with last week’s effort (no key needed) so not going to get obsessed with this.
You caught leo’s sickness of over-deleting things. As I said somewhere sometime before, you have to find the right balance. I got mine on the first try :-TU. Don’t get carried away even though nLite is tempting (:TNG).
