Windows without shades, curtains, or blinds

Please forgive the odd title, it was the best I could come up with.

Anyway I have:
- A working, legit copy of Windows Vista RTM
- Two old Compaq tablets that can run Vista... very, very slowly

And I want:
- To create an image of Vista with SP1 and SP2 installed
- To remove all functionality that I don't intend to use
- To have a final image less than 700 MB in size; preferably half that or less

Now the tricky part: I want to do this manually. On a Linux system. Without the aid of VLite or such.

Or to put it another way: I want to recreate something like Windows Server Core from scratch.

Are there any guides for doing stuff like this? I know that Vista DVDs basically store the OS in a big CAB file, but I have no idea what files are needed for what features...

Edit: argh, wrong forum. Could a mod please move this? Thanks!

Edit 2: possibly helpful:

http://www.webupd8.org/2013/07/how-to-create-bootable-windows-pe-iso.html

 

This can be done using waik. Should work for vista too:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5753

Are you in a mood for a lot of command line?

Mrk

 

Ah, thanks! And yes, the more command line the better.