Question for 'nLite' Users

[Aaron Here]

I'm interested in getting opinions about using nLite to remove unwanted Windows components (resulting in a lighter Windows XP) ...and if doing that actually produces a faster OS.

Of course, any other observations about using nLite are welcomed.

[MikeNAS]

Here is mine:

[Main]
Env = 1.4.5 beta 2 - 2.0.50727.42.Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3
Target = Windows XP Professional SP3 - 5.1.2600.5512 - English (United States)

[Tasks]
Remove Components
Unattended Setup
Tweaks
Create a Bootable ISO
Options

[Components]
;# Applications #
Accessibility Options
Briefcase
Calculator
Charmap
ClipBook Viewer
Defragmenter
Games
Internet Games
NT Backup
Paint
Pinball
Screensavers
Wordpad
;# Drivers #
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Cameras and Camcorders
Display Adapters
Display Adapters (old)
Ethernet (LAN)
IBM PS/2 TrackPoint
IBM Thinkpad
ISDN
Logitech WingMan
Microsoft SideWinder
Modems
Multifunctional
Portable Audio
Printers
Scanners
SCSI/RAID
Serial Pen Tablet
Sony Jog Dial
Sound Controllers
Tape drives
Toshiba DVD decoder card
Wireless Ethernet (WLAN)
;# Hardware Support #
Brother Devices
Gravis Digital GamePort
Iomega Zip drive
Multi-port serial adapters
Ramdisk
Smart Cards
Teletext codec
Windows CE USB Host
;# Keyboards #
Albanian keyboard
Arabic (101) keyboard
Arabic (102) AZERTY keyboard
Arabic (102) keyboard
Armenian Eastern keyboard
Armenian Western keyboard
Azeri Cyrillic keyboard
Azeri Latin keyboard
Belarusian keyboard
Belgian (Comma) keyboard
Belgian (Period) keyboard
Belgian French keyboard
Bengali (Inscript) keyboard
Bengali keyboard
Bosnian Cyrillic keyboard
Bosnian keyboard
Bulgarian (Latin) keyboard
Bulgarian keyboard
Canadian French (Legacy) keyboard
Canadian French keyboard
Canadian Multilingual Standard keyboard
Chinese (Simplified) - Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 keyboard
Chinese (Simplified) - NeiMa keyboard
Chinese (Simplified) - QuanPin keyboard
Chinese (Simplified) - ShuangPin keyboard
Chinese (Simplified) - US Keyboard keyboard
Chinese (Simplified) - ZhengMa keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - Alphanumeric keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - Array keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - Big5 Code keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - ChangJie keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - DaYi keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - New ChangJie keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - New Phonetic keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - Phonetic keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - Quick keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - Unicode keyboard
Chinese (Traditional) - US Keyboard keyboard
Croatian keyboard
Czech (QWERTY) keyboard
Czech keyboard
Czech Programmers keyboard
Danish keyboard
Devanagari - INSCRIPT keyboard
Divehi Phonetic keyboard
Divehi Typewriter keyboard
Dutch keyboard
Estonian keyboard
Faeroese keyboard
Farsi keyboard
Finnish with Sami keyboard
French keyboard
FYRO Macedonian keyboard
Gaelic keyboard
Georgian keyboard
German (IBM) keyboard
German keyboard
Greek (220) keyboard
Greek (220) Latin keyboard
Greek (319) keyboard
Greek (319) Latin keyboard
Greek keyboard
Greek Latin keyboard
Greek Polytonic keyboard
Gujarati keyboard
Hebrew keyboard
Hindi Traditional keyboard
Hungarian 101-key keyboard
Hungarian keyboard
Icelandic keyboard
Inuktitut Latin keyboard
Irish keyboard
Italian (142) keyboard
Italian keyboard
Japanese Input System (MS-IME2002) keyboard
Japanese keyboard
Kannada keyboard
Kazakh keyboard
Korean Input System (IME 2000) keyboard
Korean keyboard
Kyrgyz Cyrillic keyboard
Latin American keyboard
Latvian (QWERTY) keyboard
Latvian keyboard
Lithuanian IBM keyboard
Lithuanian keyboard
Luxembourgish keyboard
Malayalam keyboard
Maltese 47-key keyboard
Maltese 48-key keyboard
Maori keyboard
Marathi keyboard
Mongolian Cyrillic keyboard
Nepali keyboard
Norwegian keyboard
Norwegian with Sami keyboard
Pashto keyboard
Polish (214) keyboard
Polish (Programmers) keyboard
Portuguese (Brazilian ABNT) keyboard
Portuguese (Brazilian ABNT2) keyboard
Portuguese keyboard
Punjabi keyboard
Romanian keyboard
Russian (Typewriter) keyboard
Russian keyboard
Sami Extended Finland-Sweden keyboard
Sami Extended Norway keyboard
Serbian (Cyrillic) keyboard
Serbian (Latin) keyboard
Slovak (QWERTY) keyboard
Slovak keyboard
Slovenian keyboard
Spanish keyboard
Spanish Variation keyboard
Swedish keyboard
Swedish with Sami keyboard
Swiss French keyboard
Swiss German keyboard
Syriac keyboard
Syriac Phonetic keyboard
Tamil keyboard
Tatar keyboard
Telugu keyboard
Thai Kedmanee (non-ShiftLock) keyboard
Thai Kedmanee keyboard
Thai Pattachote (non-ShiftLock) keyboard
Thai Pattachote keyboard
Turkish F keyboard
Turkish Q keyboard
Ukrainian keyboard
United Kingdom Extended keyboard
United Kingdom keyboard
United States-Dvorak for left hand keyboard
United States-Dvorak for right hand keyboard
United States-Dvorak keyboard
United States-International keyboard
Urdu keyboard
US English Table for IBM Arabic 238_L keyboard
Uzbek Cyrillic keyboard
Vietnamese keyboard
;# Languages #
;Arabic
Arabic (Algeria)
Arabic (Bahrain)
Arabic (Egypt)
Arabic (Iraq)
Arabic (Jordan)
Arabic (Kuwait)
Arabic (Lebanon)
Arabic (Libya)
Arabic (Morocco)
Arabic (Oman)
Arabic (Qatar)
Arabic (Saudi Arabia)
Arabic (Syria)
Arabic (Tunisia)
Arabic (U.A.E.)
Arabic (Yemen)
Divehi (Maldives)
Pashto
Syriac (Syria)
Urdu
;Armenian
Armenian
;Baltic
Estonian
Latvian
Lithuanian
;Central Europe
Albanian
Bosnian (Latin, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Croatian
Croatian (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Czech
Hungarian
Polish
Romanian
Serbian (Latin)
Serbian (Latin, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Slovak
Slovenian
;Cyrillic
Azeri (Cyrillic)
Belarusian
Bosnian (Cyrillic, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Bulgarian
FYRO Macedonian
Kazakh
Kyrgyz (Kyrgyzstan)
Mongolian (Mongolia)
Russian
Serbian (Cyrillic)
Serbian (Cyrillic, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Tatar
Ukrainian
Uzbek (Cyrillic)
;Georgian
Georgian
;Greek
Greek
;Hebrew
Hebrew
;Indic
Bengali (India)
Gujarati (India)
Hindi
Kannada (India)
Konkani
Malayalam (India)
Marathi
Nepali (Nepal)
Punjabi (India)
Sanskrit
Tamil
Telugu (India)
;Japanese
Japanese
;Korean
Korean
;Simplified Chinese
Chinese (PRC)
Chinese (Singapore)
;Thai
Farsi
Thai
;Traditional Chinese
Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.)
Chinese (Macau S.A.R.)
Chinese (Taiwan)
;Turkic
Azeri (Latin)
Turkish
Uzbek (Latin)
;Vietnamese
Vietnamese
;Western Europe and United States
Afrikaans
Basque
Catalan
Danish
Dutch (Belgium)
Dutch (Netherlands)
English (Australia)
English (Belize)
English (Canada)
English (Caribbean)
English (Ireland)
English (Jamaica)
English (New Zealand)
English (Philippines)
English (South Africa)
English (Trinidad)
English (United Kingdom)
English (Zimbabwe)
Faeroese
Filipino
Finnish
French (Belgium)
French (Canada)
French (France)
French (Luxembourg)
French (Monaco)
French (Switzerland)
Frisian
Galician (Spain)
German (Austria)
German (Germany)
German (Liechtenstein)
German (Luxembourg)
German (Switzerland)
Icelandic
Indonesian
Inuktitut (Latin)
Irish
Italian (Italy)
Italian (Switzerland)
Luxembourgish
Malay (Brunei Darussalam)
Malay (Malaysia)
Maltese
Maori
Mapudungun
Mohawk
Northern Sotho
Norwegian (Bokmal)
Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Quechua (Bolivia)
Quechua (Ecuador)
Quechua (Peru)
Romansh
Sami, Inari (Finland)
Sami, Lule (Norway)
Sami, Lule (Sweden)
Sami, Northern (Finland)
Sami, Northern (Norway)
Sami, Northern (Sweden)
Sami, Skolt (Finland)
Sami, Southern (Norway)
Sami, Southern (Sweden)
Spanish (Argentina)
Spanish (Bolivia)
Spanish (Chile)
Spanish (Colombia)
Spanish (Costa Rica)
Spanish (Dominican Republic)
Spanish (Ecuador)
Spanish (El Salvador)
Spanish (Guatemala)
Spanish (Honduras)
Spanish (International Sort)
Spanish (Mexico)
Spanish (Nicaragua)
Spanish (Panama)
Spanish (Paraguay)
Spanish (Peru)
Spanish (Puerto Rico)
Spanish (Traditional Sort)
Spanish (Uruguay)
Spanish (Venezuela)
Swahili
Swedish
Swedish (Finland)
Tswana
Welsh
Xhosa
Zulu
;# Multimedia #
Acm Core Codecs
ActiveX for streaming video
AOL ART Image Format Support
DirectX diagnostic tool
Images and Backgrounds
Intel Indeo codecs
Luna desktop theme
Media Center
MIDI audio support
Mouse Cursors
Movie Maker
Music Samples
Old CDPlayer and Sound Recorder
Speech Support
Tablet PC
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player 6.4
Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
Windows Sounds
;# Network #
Client for Netware Networks
Communication tools
Comtrol Test Terminal Program
Connection Manager
FrontPage Extensions
H323 MSP
Internet Connection Wizard
Internet Explorer
Internet Information Services (IIS)
IP Conferencing
MSN Explorer
Netmeeting
Network Diagnostic
Network Monitor Driver and Tools
Network Setup Wizard
NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Protocol
Outlook Express
Peer-to-Peer
Share Creation Wizard
Synchronization Manager
Vector Graphics Rendering (VML)
Web Folders
Windows Messenger
;# Operating System Options #
.NET Framework
Administrative Templates
Administrator VB scripts
Blaster/Nachi removal tool
Color Schemes
Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Disk Cleanup
Document Templates
DR Watson
FAT to NTFS converter
File and Settings Wizard
File System Encryption
Help and Support
IExpress Wizard
Input Method Editor
Manual Install and Upgrade
MS XML 2.0
Out of Box Experience (OOBE)
Private Character Editor
Search Assistant
Security Center
Service Pack Messages
Shell Media Handler
Symbolic Debugger (NTSD)
Tour
User account pictures
Web View
Zip Folders
;# Directories #
DOCS
SUPPORT
VALUEADD
;# Compatibility #

[KeepFiles]
msconfig.exe

[RemoveFiles]
clock.avi
yahoo.bmp
swtchbrd.bmp

[Options]
CABMerge
ClassicSetup
BlackSetupBack
DupeFiles
ProfilesDir = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings"
TargetPath = "WINDOWS"
temp_dir = %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Temp
NoWmpComp
NoKeepCp
RemoveMUI
CleanBiosInfo
AdvTweaks
NoISOPreset

[Patches]
TcpIp = 16777215
DoUxTheme
DoSFC

[Services2]
Eventlog,2
PlugPlay,2
AudioSrv,2
winmgmt,2
WZCSVC,2
LanmanWorkstation,2
Alerter,4
ALG,4
AppMgmt,4
wuauserv,4
BITS,4
ClipSrv,4
EventSystem,4
COMSysApp,4
Browser,4
CryptSvc,4
DHCP,4
TrkWks,4
MSDTC,4
DNSCACHE,4
ERSvc,4
EapHost,4
FastUserSwitchingCompatibility,4
hkmsvc,4
HTTPFilter,4
HidServ,4
ImapiService,4
CiSvc,4
PolicyAgent,4
dmserver,4
dmadmin,4
Messenger,4
SwPrv,4
NetLogon,4
NetBT,4
NetDDE,4
NetDDEdsdm,4
NLA,4
xmlprov,4
NtLmSsp,4
SysmonLog,4
Spooler,4
ProtectedStorage,4
RSVP,4
RasAuto,4
RasMan,4
RDSessMgr,4
RpcLocator,4
RemoteRegistry,4
NtmsSvc,4
RemoteAccess,4
seclogon,4
SamSs,4
LanmanServer,4
ShellHWDetection,4
SSDPSRV,4
SENS,4
srservice,4
Schedule,4
LMHosts,4
TapiSrv,4
TlntSvr,4
TermService,4
Themes,4
UPS,4
upnphost,4
VSS,4
WebClient,4
SharedAccess,4
StiSvc,4
Wmi,4
W32Time,4
Dot3svc,4
WmiApSrv,4
napagent,3
Netman,3
MSIServer,3

[Tweaks]
Boot and Shutdown-Auto-End tasks immediately
Boot and Shutdown-Auto-Kill hung applications immediately
Boot and Shutdown-Auto-Kill hung services immediately
Boot and Shutdown-Ctrl-Alt-Del at logon-Enabled
Boot and Shutdown-Disable automatic restart on System Failure
Boot and Shutdown-Disable logging on System Failure
Boot and Shutdown-Disable saving Last Good state at boot
Boot and Shutdown-Do not Parse Autoexec.bat
Boot and Shutdown-Logon Page-Classic
Boot and Shutdown-Numlock-Off
Boot and Shutdown-Setup Prefetch-Cache-Disabled
Boot and Shutdown-Status Messages-None
Desktop-Desktop icons size-32
Desktop-My Computer icon-Hide
Desktop-My Documents icon-Hide
Desktop-My Network Places icon-Hide
Desktop-Recycle Bin icon-Show
Desktop-Wrap icon titles-Disable
Explorer-Add 'Command Prompt' to folder context menu
Explorer-Classic Control Panel
Explorer-Disable Autorun
Explorer-Disable Beep on errors
Explorer-Disable Prefix: Shortcut to
Explorer-Disable shortcut arrow
Explorer-Remove Send To on context menu
Performance-Disable Info Tips on Files and Folders
Performance-Disable Last accessed Timestamp on files
Performance-Disable Optimize harddisk when idle
Performance-Disable paging of kernel and core-os
Performance-Disable Tracking of Broken Shortcut Links
Performance-Disable Warn on low disk space
Performance-Disable WBEM logging
Performance-Do not cache thumbnails
Performance-Minimal Power Management
Performance-Processor scheduling-Programs
Performance-Run 16-bit Windows applications in a separate process
Performance-Use Windows classic folders / No Tasks Sidepanel
Start Menu-Control Panel-Display as a menu
Start Menu-Disable and remove Documents list from the Start Menu
Start Menu-Disable Drag and Drop
Start Menu-Disable Highlight newly installed programs
Start Menu-Do not use Personalized Menus
Start Menu-Hide Search button in Start Panel
Start Menu-My Computer-Don't display this item
Start Menu-My Documents-Don't display this item
Start Menu-My Music-Don't display this item
Start Menu-My Network Places-Don't display this item
Start Menu-My Pictures-Don't display this item
Start Menu-Network Connections-Don't display this item
Start Menu-Number of programs on Start menu-0
Start Menu-Printers and Faxes-Don't display this item
Start Menu-Reduce popup delay
Start Menu-Remove Logoff User
Start Menu-Remove Search the Internet from Search
Start Menu-Remove Set Program Access and Defaults
Start Menu-Remove User name
Start Menu-Remove Windows Catalog shortcut
Taskbar-Disable Balloon Tips
Taskbar-Disable Group similar Taskbar buttons
Taskbar-Disable Hide inactive icons
Taskbar-Disable Language-Bar
Taskbar-Hide Volume Control Icon in System Tray
Taskbar-Lock the Taskbar-Yes
Visual Effects-Active window tracking-Disable
Visual Effects-Active window tracking speed-Zero delay
Visual Effects-Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing-Disable
Visual Effects-Combo box animation-Disable
Visual Effects-Cursor shadow-Disable
Visual Effects-Display mouse pointer trails-Disable
Visual Effects-Fade out selection-Disable
Visual Effects-Gradient captions in windows-Disable
Visual Effects-Keyboard shortcut underline-Disable
Visual Effects-Menu animation-Disable
Visual Effects-Menu shadows-Disable
Visual Effects-Menu style-Flat
Visual Effects-Show translucent selection rectangle-Disable
Visual Effects-Show window contents while dragging-Disable
Visual Effects-Slide taskbar buttons-Disable
Visual Effects-Smooth edges of screen fonts-ClearType
Visual Effects-Smooth-scroll list boxes-Disable
Visual Effects-Tooltip animation-Disable
Visual Effects-Use a background image for each folder type-Disable
Visual Effects-Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop-Disable

[Unattended]
DisableOem
ComputerType = Default
HibernationNo
AutoLogon = MikeNAS
FirewallOff
CustomLocales
DisableSRestore
MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk = 12
RestorePointLife = 30
DesktopTheme = Default||
DataExecProt = 3
AutoUpdates = 4
AutoUDay = 5
AutoUHour = 15
ProgFilesPath = "\Program Files"

[NetAdapter1]
connname = ""
macaddress = ""
ipaddress = "192.168.0.1"
subnetmask = "255.255.255.0"
defaultgateway = ""
dnsserver1 = ""
dnsserver2 = ""
winsserver = ""
netbiossetting = "0"
ipxnetworknumber = "00000000"
ipxnetworkframetype = "0xFF"

[GuiRunOnce]

[Drivers]

[Hotfixes]

Removed quite many components but not a single service. If some needed then it's easier to activate it than installing later. Clean desktop and start menu plus faster boot and shutdown and eye-candy off <- with tweaks. Of course totally unattend setup plus that file is private only

[Aaron Here]

Thanks for the reply Mike, but I don't think you answered my question. After removing all those components, Windows is obviously much smaller, but did the removal of components make it faster, or was it the tweaks that accounted for faster operation (startup/shutdown)?

[Franklin]

Yep I use an nLited XP install and I also go over to Bold Fortune's slimming XP guide and delete a bit more after install.

The system seems to run as quick as a normal install but the speed factor comes into play when creating ghost images which are much smaller, performing a defrag and any malware scans take less time as there is less data to scan/defrag.

[Brian K]

Mike, when first installed, how much space does your WinXP take up on the HD? How large is your page file if it's in the C: drive? Is Hibernation enabled?

[MikeNAS]

Originally Posted by Aaron Here

Thanks for the reply Mike, but I don't think you answered my question. After removing all those components, Windows is obviously much smaller, but did the removal of components make it faster, or was it the tweaks that accounted for faster operation (startup/shutdown)?

Of course it's faster if disable most of services etc.

[MikeNAS]

Originally Posted by Brian K

Mike, when first installed, how much space does your WinXP take up on the HD? How large is your page file if it's in the C: drive? Is Hibernation enabled?

I use always 2048MB Page File. Same than my ram amount. Hibernation is of course disabled. Whole C drive without any additional software is 2,43GB (include page file). Not the smallest but full functionality.

EDIT: Mem usage is around 40MB without any additional. You can go little bit lower if you replace explorer shell with BBClean. Then you don't need explorer.exe anymore

[Aaron Here]

Originally Posted by Franklin

The system seems to run as quick as a normal install but the speed factor comes into play when creating ghost images which are much smaller, performing a defrag and any malware scans take less time as there is less data to scan/defrag.

That makes good sense (hadn't really considered that).

[WSFuser]

Look at this thread: Does nlite make XP faster, or only smaller?

BTW for me a fresh nLited XP install is around 500-600MB iirc.

[Brian K]

Mike, so WinXP accounts for around 400 MB. That is small. A typical install (minus the page file) is around 1 GB.

[Aaron Here]

Originally Posted by WSFuser

Look at this thread: Does nlite make XP faster, or only smaller?

BTW for me a fresh nLited XP install is around 500-600MB iirc.

Thanks for the link.

[Hairy Coo]

Just carried out a nLite install of sp3.Recommended.

I can confirm that if you reduce all the unecessary components and services,which is easy and safe to do,the final smaller Windows install does indeed feel faster and a lot more responsive.

The starting point with nLite was about 550mb,but this was easily reduced down to 324mb including drivers,without any penalties at all so far.

[Aaron Here]

Thanks for all the feedback... I just have one final question before getting my feet wet.

Using nLite to slim-down Windows, can this be done incrementally? That is to say after removing some Windows components with nLite, can I then re-load my 'nLited' version and tweak it even more with nLite?

[markymoo]

Yes it faster and much lighter match it with RAID 0 and your system be lightning. You need to experiment in VirtualPC with it then you not wasting CD's and fine tune it to exactly how you want alot easier. Taking out too much can reduce the functionality too much. nlite is better these days for taking out more.

No you need to start with an original Windows. Copy 2 windows to your hard drive from the CD not 1 as nlite makes the changes to one you have to copy the CD all again.

[Aaron Here]

gotcha - and thanks.

[farmerlee]

Originally Posted by Aaron Here

Thanks for all the feedback... I just have one final question before getting my feet wet.

Using nLite to slim-down Windows, can this be done incrementally? That is to say after removing some Windows components with nLite, can I then re-load my 'nLited' version and tweak it even more with nLite?

Yeh you start off with a the standard windows install and from there you can tweak it then test, then go back and tweak some more until you get it right. For me it took quite a few tries before i got it exactly how i want it, however i'm quite picky about my setup!