nLite

[shbris]

needed a copy of xp for an old pc. thought i'd give nlite a go, and basically brutalized xp (ie i selected remove everything ...) and O M F G its fast!! installed in sub fifteen minutes (this is old single core hardware remember), boots unbelievably quick, with only FIFTY MB of ram (48.5 actually) once it's settled on desktop. only 16 processes start and cpu usage is reduced massively.

so i thought i'd just remind everyone to be green, don't waste your old pc hardware, nlite the [***read the rules about swearing, asterisks or not***] out of it and it can still be useable!!

bitesize

[this_is_gav]

I plain refuse to use nLite in any production environment, as at some point down the line, you know you're going to come across something that won't work because x has been removed.

I make 1 exception. The Acer Aspire One with the 8GB SSD. It's completely unusable without have a completely stripped down XP. I'd argue it's completely unusable with an nLited XP and the kids hate them to the core.

That said, an 8GB drive is hardly voluptuous, so there's at least a comfort in that there's less software which can go on to fail to work.

It also enabled us to get some cheap Eee PCs with the 4gb SSDs, which are far, far faster.

I don't think my nLited disk is as drastic as yours though. My .iso is 231mb.

[jim]

Last time I used nLite I accidentally disabled Windows Audio and spent a week troubleshooting to figure out why my sound wasn't working

[shbris]

it's literally just acting as a basic nas with folding running, so i removed everything then just manually re-added anything that looked 'networky'. iso was <200, but you're right i was overly enthusiastic, chrome refused to install! but just usb'd all the stuff i needed over now it just runs in background.

i used vlite on my windows 7 for my dell mini 9, helped a bit but you have to be SUPER careful with that one

[Stephen C]

I use an Nlited XP on my Asus Eee's 2GB drive with all updates and SP2 installed and I still have about 800mb left

[Giraffe]

This topic has reminded me: up on the shelf is an old but reasonable PC on which I installed nLited XP Pro SP3 and then had to stop because of long-term (5 months) visitors.

Took out some things but didn't go overboard but the drastic part was removing IE! (also tookk out WMP and OE, but they're minor).
Must get it going again and see what doesn't work

[ehhhhhhh]

I like nlite too....best tool to integrate drivers and programs and make unattended install disks

i remember that cd-keys have been burned into my memory in the old days, coz there weren't any reliable ghosting and install disk mod tools

[blueball]

I got burned with nlite because I didn't install some critical item and it then wouldn't let me add critical patches from the update site or even by downloading them manually, the install said some trivial piece of software was missing and consequently it couldn't continue!!

[Unique]

if you have an old pc, but plenty of HD space, is there much difference in performance or bootup time between an nlited stripped xp install, and a full xp sp3 install with the unnecessary stuff disabled via services.msc ? i can imagine it may take longer to boot, but would the performance be much different?

i thought the main benefit was to conserve HD space, such as for old pc's or netbooks?

[Lourdes]

I've never removed anything I needed with nLite. It really isn't difficult to just leave what you need or what won't be an issue instead of going mad and checking everything when there won't be a performance difference.