Hey Legolash2o,

Have you had a chance to try the new Win8 versions of the tools such as DISM on Win7? I saw a write up about some of the new features here - http://www.msfn.org/...025#entry991025. An especially intriguing new feature to me is the /Remove Parameter in the /Disable-Feature command.

DISM includes a new option in Windows 8. The /Remove Parameter in the /Disable-Feature command.

The syntax is the following:

DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:<name> /Remove

If you use the Disable-Feature in Vista and Windows 7, the files from the disabled feature are still stored in the WinSxS folder and you get NO additional free HDD space when disabling a feature.

The /Remove-Flag changes this in Windows 8. NOW ALL THE FILES ARE REMOVED FROM THE WINSXS Folder!

Example:

Run DISM.exe /Online /English /Get-Features /Format:Table to see which featues you have and you see something like this:

----------------------------------------------------- | -----------------------------

Feature Name | State

----------------------------------------------------- | -----------------------------

SimpleTCP | Enabled

If you now run DISM.exe /Online /Disable-Feature /Featurename:SimpleTCP /Remove the SimpleTCP feature is disabled and the files associated with the SimpleTCP Feature are removed. If you run /Get-Features again you see this:

----------------------------------------------------- | -----------------------------

Feature Name | State

----------------------------------------------------- | -----------------------------

SimpleTCP | Disabled with Payload Removed

Payload Removed = DLLs removed from WinSxS. if you now want to enable the features, the "Turn Windows Features on or off" asks to download the missing files. So this is the safe way to disable features and getting more free HDD space.

Component Remover does this i think. Can't really use the Win8 DISM features as they won't work on Windows 7

don't know how difficult it would be, but what if it detected windows 8 and so switched to using windows 8 dsim features, would be neat.

I'll see what i can do

The /Remove feature only works when working with "/Online" It doesn't work it "/Image"

I'm way beyond my comfort zone here, but does this mean the following would work? Install the OS in VM, run DISM with /Remove, sysprep the image, capture the install.wim and then use that to make an install disk? And will this work on Win7? Just a wild thought.

Cheers and Regards