smallest, lightest fastest windows 7 install

[jimbo1954]

hi guys

i am pretty sure this subject has been asked before, but i am wondering if anybody can help me create a small light version of windows 7, i am only using it it for one purpose, that is to run a jukebox program, so i would like to strip out everything that is not used, and remove /stop all devices not used.

 

 

best regards 

 

jimbo

[bphlpt]

With today's hardware, there is not as much need or interest in "slimming" an OS as there once was, regardless of the sorry bloated state of today's OS especially Windows 8.x+.  Personally, I prefer to remove nothing, and just disable the services and whatever else I don't need, since if you find out later that you need something that you had removed, because you want to run some new software or hardware or something, adding things back is often much, much harder than it was to remove it, if it is possible at all.  Also, sometimes removals interfere with future necessary OS updates, thus requiring a complete re-install..  Many of the tools that people used to use to slim their OS, such as RT7Lite, haven't been updated in several years, even though some folks still use them, and finding support for those tools is very difficult.

 

Win Toolkit can do a good, safe job of updating your OS, and is one of the best of the current set of Windows installation / customization tools, but slimming is not it's main focus, and if you are, mistakenly IMHO, convinced you need to have a "small light version of Windows 7", you might be disappointed in the results.

 

If you are truly only going to use your machine for one predefined purpose, you might actually be better off with one of the Linux variants, since you can probably find someone that has already made a version configured for that task, though it might take a bit of looking to find it.

 

With all that said, if you still want to proceed in your Windows slimming efforts, beyond what Win Toolkit can do, you should probably check out NTLite, which is made by nuhi, the same guy who wrote nLite and vLite.  It is under active development and I have heard good things about it from others who have used it.  Just make lots of backups and be prepared to make several trial and error installs as you fine tune your system.  Whether your efforts end up being worth the time involved will have to be seen.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheers and Regards

[doomdorker]

On 5/13/2015 at 3:01 AM, bphlpt said:

With today's hardware, there is not as much need or interest in "slimming" an OS as there once was, regardless of the sorry bloated state of today's OS especially Windows 8.x+.  Personally, I prefer to remove nothing, and just disable the services and whatever else I don't need, since if you find out later that you need something that you had removed, because you want to run some new software or hardware or something, adding things back is often much, much harder than it was to remove it, if it is possible at all.  Also, sometimes removals interfere with future necessary OS updates, thus requiring a complete re-install..  Many of the tools that people used to use to slim their OS, such as RT7Lite, haven't been updated in several years, even though some folks still use them, and finding support for those tools is very difficult.

 

Win Toolkit can do a good, safe job of updating your OS, and is one of the best of the current set of Windows installation / customization tools, but slimming is not it's main focus, and if you are, mistakenly IMHO, convinced you need to have a "small light version of Windows 7", you might be disappointed in the results.

 

If you are truly only going to use your machine for one predefined purpose, you might actually be better off with one of the Linux variants, since you can probably find someone that has already made a version configured for that task, though it might take a bit of looking to find it.

 

With all that said, if you still want to proceed in your Windows slimming efforts, beyond what Win Toolkit can do, you should probably check out NTLite, which is made by nuhi, the same guy who wrote nLite and vLite.  It is under active development and I have heard good things about it from others who have used it.  Just make lots of backups and be prepared to make several trial and error installs as you fine tune your system.  Whether your efforts end up being worth the time involved will have to be seen.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheers and Regards

I'd have to agree. There are really two main reasons you'd want to slim down an os insallation. One would be to fit the installation media onto something it wouldn't fit in (i.e. CD) which isn't a problem anymore really since 16GB thumb drives are so cheap and readily available. Two would be to start off with maximum performance just after installation which can really be accomplished with Win Toolkit. I basically tweaked my services a bit further from Blackviper's "tweaked" configuration. You can do the same which would be about the best you can do as far as gaining performance and speed. If you need to strip it any further than what Win Toolkit allows then you're probably going to affect stability of the OS. Back when they stripped the hell out of Windows 7 and Windows XP I think it was because hardware was still bottlenecking things a bit more. Now with the hardware spending that much time stripping an installation isn't going to gain you all that much performance.

[Emma]

Spank my ass for necroposting, but users will still visit this post, having the same question as the OP. I am an NTLite license holder and i write and share my barebone presets for w7 and w10(14393-build 1607) at Nuhis forum. I have got w7 ultimate x64 installed at 1.1xGB. The syswow64 folder is around 500mb once i have shrunk it. Using my preset on w7 32bit should give an install size of 600mb(estimated). This will makie a perfect os for a media player or jukebox, its rock solid stable.

Edited July 27, 2017 by EmmaRoyd

[darky]

the  mackyreddy   these are insane builds from a very pop guy to run in ram or full enjoy....x32  install wim is 343 MB an gets smaller 4 barebone!!!!!

Edited September 3, 2017 by darky

[darky]

On 5/13/2015 at 11:01 AM, bphlpt said:

With today's hardware, there is not as much need or interest in "slimming" an OS as there once was, regardless of the sorry bloated state of today's OS especially Windows 8.x+.  Personally, I prefer to remove nothing, and just disable the services and whatever else I don't need, since if you find out later that you need something that you had removed, because you want to run some new software or hardware or something, adding things back is often much, much harder than it was to remove it, if it is possible at all.  Also, sometimes removals interfere with future necessary OS updates, thus requiring a complete re-install..  Many of the tools that people used to use to slim their OS, such as RT7Lite, haven't been updated in several years, even though some folks still use them, and finding support for those tools is very difficult.

 

Win Toolkit can do a good, safe job of updating your OS, and is one of the best of the current set of Windows installation / customization tools, but slimming is not it's main focus, and if you are, mistakenly IMHO, convinced you need to have a "small light version of Windows 7", you might be disappointed in the results.

 

If you are truly only going to use your machine for one predefined purpose, you might actually be better off with one of the Linux variants, since you can probably find someone that has already made a version configured for that task, though it might take a bit of looking to find it.

 

With all that said, if you still want to proceed in your Windows slimming efforts, beyond what Win Toolkit can do, you should probably check out NTLite, which is made by nuhi, the same guy who wrote nLite and vLite.  It is under active development and I have heard good things about it from others who have used it.  Just make lots of backups and be prepared to make several trial and error installs as you fine tune your system.  Whether your efforts end up being worth the time involved will have to be seen.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheers and Regards

what if you only can afford a pc laptop with 1, 2gb of ram then smaller builds give u the option to run theses builds and still install office and when you shut down all crap is gone thats if you run in ram, there is a few very lite programs to assist you i still have copy's to make the vhd files along with the drivers, what does running in ram harm? not being funny just giving the people with less spending an option what will not ruin there pc laptop!!

[darky]

On 7/27/2017 at 9:59 PM, Emma said:

Spank my ass for necroposting, but users will still visit this post, having the same question as the OP. I am an NTLite license holder and i write and share my barebone presets for w7 and w10(14393-build 1607) at Nuhis forum. I have got w7 ultimate x64 installed at 1.1xGB. The syswow64 folder is around 500mb once i have shrunk it. Using my preset on w7 32bit should give an install size of 600mb(estimated). This will makie a perfect os for a media player or jukebox, its rock solid stable.

fair play u remind me ov zd7 days

[mackyreddy]

Looks like people are still interested in my customised stripped down OS'es which i released 5 years back.

By the way can i post customised OS'es here in this forum in a new thread, Does the forum rules allow to do this ?

regards

[robertcollier4]

The best thing to provide would be BAT files for removal of files.
Dont think the forum rules allow posting of Microsoft files directly except linking to Microsoft servers.
The user has to download iso using Techbench or ISO Downloader, mount install.wim image using a tool such as GImageX, and then perform the removals themselves via bat files.

I have archived some removal bat files over the time, linked:

https://sites.google.com/site/webuploads7373/win7minification

BAT File Removals:
dead0.rar
Jeronimo-Dead0-Scripts-Batch-ORIGINAL.zip
jeronimo.rar
liquid.rar
mackyreddy_Micro7_BatRemovals_V7.zip
DISM Components Removal LIsts:
Jeronimo packages.xls
Liquid0624 7packages.pdf
scribd Win7packages_dism-vs-vlite (based on jeronimo).pdf

Perhaps we could compile them into a github (forums get too messy)- and then all commit and add components and notes via github files and report findings in github issues.

Here are some good guides i've found using RT 7 LIte:
https://winreducer.forumotion.com/t23-slimmingdown-windows-7
https://web.archive.org/web/20130530000931/http://www.rtwincustomize.net/web/index.php?/topic/7146-components-to-keep/
https://msfn.org/board/topic/157337-rt-7-lite-components-removal-explanation/
https://msfn.org/board/topic/133491-windows-7-keep-list
https://msfn.org/board/topic/134863-windows-7-vlite-deprecated

Edited September 17, 2019 by robertcollier4

[mackyreddy]

if any one interested in my Micro OS Releases can join my Telegram Channel https://t.me/MicroOS