Create a stream-lined Vista install

Out with it!
Removing unwanted components from Vista has many benefits. It reduces the size of the image, increases the speed of installation, and reduces the amount of space taken up by the final install. A word of warning, though – when vLite removes a component, it’s gone. Vista will consider it to have never existed, so trying to run or patch a missing component will result in an error. There’s also no way of adding back in a missing component, short of a fresh install.

Before you can hack anything out, vLite will provide you with several ‘compatibility’ options. Essentially, these checkboxes prevent you from inadvertently removing support for components you need. Feel free to select what’s relevant to you, but here’s our recommendation:


Aero Glass
Internet Explorer
Windows Performance Index


Now, what components to remove? Here’s our list of things you can get rid of. If for some reason you need something, then by all means keep it, but most of the time you’re not going to miss any of these.


Accessories
Accessibility
Mobility Center
Welcome Center
Sidebar and Gadgets

Drivers
Modem
Printers
Scanners

Games
Inbox Games
Premium Inbox Games
Don’t remove Game Explorer - some newer games require it

Hardware Support
Windows Image Acquisition
Windows Mobile Device Center
Windows Portable Devices
Smartcards

Languages
Korean
Japanese
Simplified and Traditional Chinese

Multimedia
Media Center
Movie and DVD maker
Sample Pictures
Screensavers
Shell Event Sounds
Sideshow
Windows Calender
Windows Photo Gallery

Network
Connect to a Network Projector
Internet Information Services (if you plan to not run a web server from you machine)
MSN Installer
Remote Destkop and Assistance
Remote Desktop Client
Windows Collaboration
Windows Mail
Windows Firewall
Services
Computer Browser
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Error Reporting
Internet Connection Sharing
DFS Replication
Offline Files
Volume Shadow Copy
Windows Search

System
Bitlocker Drive Encryption
Malicious Software Removal Tool
Manual Install
Microsoft Agent
Natural Language
Parental Controls
Security Center
Sync Center
System Restore
Tablet PC
Windows Backup
Windows Defender
Windows Easy Transfer
Zip Folders

As you can see, there’s a metric buttload of stuff you can just rip out. After cannibalising your Vista install in this manner you should be able to reduce the size of your image from 2.5GB to just 900MB. As an aside, most of this space is taken up by Media Center.

Tweaking
vLite 1.1 beta sadly does not include an extensive set of tweaks, but the ones it does have are very welcome. Here are our recommendations as to what settings to use:

Security tab

DEP (Data Execution Protection): Off
DEP has been known to cause certain programs to not function correctly. Atomicans are pretty savvy when it comes to viruses and the like, so protection from buffer overruns is overkill.

Disable AntiSpyware Realtime Protection: Yes
For the same reasons we turn off DEP, so do we get rid of this. We also reclaim some system resources.

User Account Control: Off
Do you hate how Vista asks permission to do pretty much everything? You do? So do we. Let’s disable it before the OS is even booted.

System tab

Hibernation: Off
It’s unlikely you’ll use this, ever, so reclaim drive space and turn this off.

Power scheme: High performance
Make sure Vista doesn’t throttle your CPU or drive speeds and whack this to high performance. Do this even if you’re installing to a laptop, as you can always customise the setting in Vista later.

Explorer tab

The settings here define what’s hidden to you in Explorer’s folder views. If, like us, you want to see everything, set all the ‘Show...’ entries to ‘Yes’.

Unattended activities

The second last tab in our adventure allows us to fully automate our Vista install, barring serious errors. The image above shows what options you should check – just replace the product key with a valid one and input your own username and password.

If you decide to skip the product key entry, the OS will still install, but you won’t be able to download updates until you enter a key and have it verified. Of course, there’s also the whole “30 days to activate” thing as well.

Burn, baby, burn
Finally the configuring is done, leaving us with just two steps to go – applying the changes and creating a bootable ISO. If you’re happy with your changes, hit the ‘Apply’ button in the bottom right corner of the screen. When the dialog box appears, select the ‘Apply and rebuild’ option. This will merge the hotfixes, and your changes, into the Windows image, reducing the overall size significantly. Depending on how many hotfixes you’ve applied and components you’ve removed (quite a few if you followed every step of ours), this can take some time, so go for a run or finish laundering your filthy lucre while it goes to work.

When it’s finished, all you need to do is burn the image! You can either create an ISO for repeated use (which is what we recommend), or just write the image straight to disc.

With this completed, you’ll have a much slimmer Vista install that includes the latest hotfixes. Keep it safe and handy, or, if you fancy a new OS install, give it a whirl. If you’re not 100 per cent confident that things will go smoothly, you can always download Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and test your disc before committing it to a real machine. VPC 2007 is free, so what are you waiting for?