Updating WinXPproSP2 Install CD - nLite

Erik, since you have tried FolderMover, are you saying that it can not move the entire "Documents and Settings" folder from C: to D: ?

 

That's right. MS Powertoy TweakUI, can't do it either. They both move certain folders under "C:\Documents and Settings" but not the complete folder.

 

Upto now I was lucky. Most of the softwares I use, have a default folder for created files, I only have to change that folder in the settings.
For Notepad, I changed the "start in:" folder in the icon properties.
I don't like to move any files manually.
For Firefox and Thunderbird, I was able to move the folder "profiles".
I'm very happy with this separation, I don't have to worry anymore about my personal files and I can do what I want in my system partition.
Besides that, data and system files are not the same and need a different approach.

 

I can see a great deal of logic in that, but I'm just not sure what moving the whole of 'Documents and Settings' from your system to the data drive is going to give you - other than some system instability.
What would worry me about moving the whole of Documents and Settings from the C:drive is that some of these subfolders in 'Docs. and Settings' (particularly the All Users folder and its Application data subfolder) almost behave like a 'system' folder rather than a 'data' folder e.g. Crypto,Network, Media Player, HTML help subfolders, which I would guess XP only looks for in that one place.
Moving subfolders such as 'My Documents', 'My Music' and 'My Pictures' will get your Firefox and TB profiles as well as all essential data over to the partition you keep your data files.
As an experiment I tried moving it manually and couldn't do it even using unlocker.
I then tried in safe mode and it was possible but borked system completely on reboot to normal mode.FD-ISR couldn't rescue me (data anchoring...) and I had to restore using TI. Not a good experiment
I suspect the reason these programs don't move the whole of 'Docs and Settings' is for that reason....

 

I agree with you, but you can't blame me for trying. If it turns out to be a disaster, I can tell other people not to use nLite for moving the folder "C:\Documents and Settings".

IMO the solution of nLite is TOO SIMPLE TO BE TRUE and I'm quite surprised that nLite provides this parameter to give the user the illusion that it is possible to move this folder by simply changing "%SystemDrive%" in to "D:".
But I will give nLite at least one fair chance to do it.
With nLite I can create different WinXPproSP2 Installation CD's at will and I have 3 harddisks to do it easily and safely.

 

nLite is a remarkable way of intergrating drivers and tweaks into your bootable OS. Not only that, but it is probably the best way to remove all traces of window's bloat.
I have been using nLite for over a year and a half now and although it took me several attempts to build an OS which would still be compatable with my hardware and software requirements, i now have what i think is the perfect OS for my setup.
Below is a copy of my .ini file:

[Main]
Env = 1.0 beta 6 - 1.1.4322.573.Microsoft Windows NT 5.1.2600.0
Target = Windows XP Professional Sp2 - build 2180 - English (United States)

[Tasks]
Remove Components
Unattended Setup
Integrate Drivers
Patches
Tweaks
Create a Bootable ISO

[Components]
;# Applications #
Accessibility Options
Briefcase
Charmap
ClipBook Viewer
Defragmenter
Internet Games
NT Backup
Paint
Pinball
Screensavers
Wordpad
;# Drivers #
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
Cameras and Camcorders
Display Adapters
Display Adapters (old)
Ethernet (LAN)
IBM Thinkpad
ISDN
Modems
MultiFunctional
Portable Audio
Printers
Scanners
SCSI/RAID
Sony Jog Dial
Sound Controllers
Tape drives
Toshiba DVD decoder card
Wireless Ethernet (WLAN)
;# Hardware Support #
Brother Devices
Smart Cards
Teletext codec
Toshiba IDE Bus Driver
VIA IDE Bus Driver
;# 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)
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
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
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 (Zimbabwe)
Faeroese
Finnish
French (Belgium)
French (Canada)
French (France)
French (Luxembourg)
French (Monaco)
French (Switzerland)
Galician (Spain)
German (Austria)
German (Germany)
German (Liechtenstein)
German (Luxembourg)
German (Switzerland)
Icelandic
Indonesian
Italian (Italy)
Italian (Switzerland)
Malay (Brunei Darussalam)
Malay (Malaysia)
Maltese
Maori
Northern Sotho
Norwegian (Bokmal)
Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Quechua (Bolivia)
Quechua (Ecuador)
Quechua (Peru)
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 #
ActiveX for streaming video
AOL ART Image Format Support
DirectX diagnostic tool
Images and Backgrounds
Intel Indeo codecs
Luna Theme
Media Center
Mouse Cursors
Movie Maker
Music Samples
Old CDPlayer and Sound Recorder
Speech Support
Tablet PC
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player 6.4
Windows Sounds
;# Network #
Client for Netware Networks
Communication tools
FrontPage Extensions
Internet Connection Wizard
Internet Information Services (IIS)
IP Conferencing
MSN Explorer
Netmeeting
Network Monitor Driver and Tools
NWLink IPX/SPX/NetBIOS Protocol
Outlook Express
Peer-to-Peer
Synchronization Manager
Vector Graphics Rendering (VML)
Web Folders
Windows Messenger
;# Operating System Options #
Color Schemes
Desktop Cleanup Wizard
Document Templates
File and Settings Wizard
Framework
Help
Input Method Editor
Manual Install and Upgrade
MS Agent
Out of Box Experience (OOBE)
Private Character Editor
Search Assistant
Security Center
Service Pack Messages
Tour
Web View
Zip Folders
;# Services #
Alerter
Application Layer Gateway
Autoupdate
Background Intelligent Transfer (BITS)
Beep Driver
Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC)
Error Reporting
Fax Services
Imapi
Indexing Service
IPSEC Policy Agent
Message Queuing (MSMQ)
Messenger
Network Provisioning
QoS RSVP
Quality of Service (QoS)
Remote Registry
Removable Storage
Secondary Logon
Service Advertising Protocol
System Restore
Telnet Server
Text Services Framework
Uninterruptible Power Supply
Volume Shadow Copy
WebClient
Windows Time
;# Directories #
DOCS
SUPPORT
VALUEADD
;# Compatibility #
Compat01
Compat02
Compat09

[KeepFiles]
msconfig.exe

[RemoveFiles]
blastcln.exe
clock.avi

[Options]
ClassicSetup
BlackSetupBack
AdminName = "Tony62"
AdminNChange
ProfilesDir = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings"
TargetPath = "WINDOWS"
DelDrivers
SrvpEnabled
NoKeepCp
RemoveMUI
RemoveCDPrompt
;#ISO maker#
isovol = WinLite
isoatt = -allow-multidot -relaxed-filenames -allow-leading-dots -N -l -d -D -joliet-long -duplicates-once -no-emul-boot -b boot.bin -hide boot.bin -hide boot.catalog

[Patches]
DoTcpip
TcpIp = 100
UsbPoll = 125
DoSFC

[Services]
AppMgmt,3
Browser,2
CryptSvc,2
DcomLaunch,2
DHCP,2
TrkWks,2
DNSCACHE,2
EventLog,2
HTTP,3
HTTPFilter,3
HidServ,4
IpInIp,3
IpNat,3
IpFilterDriver,3
Ip6Fw,3
NDProxy,3
NetLogon,3
Netman,3
NetDDE,4
NetDDEdsdm,4
NLA,3
xmlprov,3
NtLmSsp,3
SysmonLog,3
PlugPlay,2
ProtectedStorage,2
RasAuto,3
RasMan,3
RpcLocator,3
RemoteAccess,4
SamSs,2
LanmanServer,2
Srv,3
SENS,4
LMHosts,2
TapiSrv,3
Themes,2
AudioSrv,2
SharedAccess,2
Wmi,3
LanmanWorkstation,2

[Tweaks]
;# Boot & Shutdown #
Auto-End Tasks
Auto-Kill Hung Apps
Auto-Kill Hung Services
Disable saving Last Good state at boot
Do not Parse Autoexec.bat
Applaunch & Boot enabled
;# Desktop,Taskbar & Startmenu #
Disable Status Messages
Remove Internet Explorer icon
Remove My Computer icon
Remove My Documents icon
Remove My Network Places icon
Remove Recycle Bin icon
;# Explorer #
Advanced Search: preconfigure options
Disable Autorun
Disable Beep on errors
Disable Prefix: Shortcut to
Disable shortcut arrow
Launch folder windows in a seperate process
Remove Send To on context menu
Show all files and folders
Show Drive Letters in front of Drive Names
Show extensions of known file-types
Show Statusbar in all windows
;# File Open/Save Dialog #
Preset Places Bar to: C: D: E: DESKTOP LAN
;# Internet Explorer #
Disable Download Complete notification
Disable information bar when popup is blocked
Disable Internet Explorer link creation
Disable Market Place bookmark
Disable Media Player 6.4 created bookmarks
Disable Password-Caching
Disable Show Desktop on quick launch
Disable sound when popup is blocked
Preset Homepage to google.com
Set Internet Explorer to accept 10 connects a time
Set popup-blocker to high
;# My Computer #
Remove Shared Documents
;# Network #
Disable administrative shares
Disable automatic search for network folders and printers
Disable DCOM protocol bindings
Disable LM HOSTS lookup
Disable Microsoft-DS (close port 445 TCP/UDP)
Disable restoring mapped network drives on logon
Disable Simple File Sharing
Hide PC in Workgroups/Domains
;# Privacy #
Clear most recently opened documents list on logoff
Disable and Remove Documents List from Start Menu
Disable Driver Update Internet prompt
Disable Logging & Reboot on System Failure
Disable Logging of executed programs
Remove Alexa Spyware
Use single TEMP folder for all users
;# Security #
Classic Logon
Disable DCOM
Disable Web Open With prompt
Remove and Disable Access to Windows Update
Unhide Administrator account
;# Speed #
Classic Control Panel
Disable Info Tips on Files and Folders
Disable Optimize harddisk when idle
Disable paging of kernel and core-os
Disable Warn on low disk space
Do not cache thumbnails
Increase Foreground Process Priority
Speed-up Access to AVI Media Files
Use Windows classic folders / No Tasks Sidepanel
;# Start Menu #
Disable Highlight newly installed programs
Disable popup on first boot
Do not use Personalized Menus
Expand Connect To
Reduce popup delay
Remove Logoff User
Remove My Music
Remove Search the Internet from Search
Remove Set Program Access and Defaults
Remove Username
Remove Windows Catalog from Start Menu
;# Visual Effects #
Disable: Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing
Disable: Show translucent selection rectangle
Disable: Show windows contents while dragging
Disable: Slide taskbar buttons
Disable: Transitions and Shadows
Disable: Use common tasks in folders
Disable: Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop

[Unattended]
UnattendMode = FullUnattended
ComputerType = Automatic
ProgFilesPath = "C:\Program Files"
HibernationNo
AutoLogonYes
Resolution = 1280x800
BitsPerPel = 32 bit (True Color)
Vrefresh = 60 Hz
MaximumDataStorePercentOfDisk = 12
DefaultThemesOff
IISInstall = 2
DataExecProt = 0

[Drivers]
D:\Data Temp\Audio Drivers\WDM\stac97.inf,0
D:\Data Temp\Broadcom 440\WinXP\v4.23\bcm4sbxp.inf,0
D:\Data Temp\CONEXANT\del5422k.inf,0
D:\Data Temp\Nvidia Drivers\NVDM.INF,0
D:\Data Temp\Touch Pad Drivers\Apfiltr.inf,0

[Hotfixes]

Once you have made your custom OS and installed it, then i'd suggest resizing the OS partition to 2 GB and making an image using Drive Snapshot for example. You can then deploy your new OS in literally a few minutes next time you want to start from scratch.

 

Fantastic guide Tony.
My feeling is that nLite is a really good tool for customizing your XP install but of course each user's requirement is as different as their PC so there can never be a 'safe' guide of what to take out or integrate.
I'm afraid it's a case of trial and error for everyone but it's fun playing with and certainly it can safely strip out a lot of XP 'bloat' once you know what your doing and found out what you need to keep...

 

Agreed,
you'll also learn alot during the process

 

Tony~

I would be interested in your observations regarding performance improvement (if any) as a direct result of 'thinning-out' WinXP using nLite. I can understand the value of reducing XP's size on a legacy PC, but if one has a late model PC with a large & fast HDD, I don't think its worth the bother (and risk) to use nLite just to save disk space. Performance improvement on the other hand, is always welcome!

I would also place value on using nLite to safely 'detach' personal data files/folders from the system drive, placing them on a secondary drive (as Erik has discussed).

~pv

 

For me, it's simplicity. For someone who has spent a considerable amount of time tweaking my system i.e. services and registry hacks to the removing of some of windows vulnerable areas.
Why have all those unnecessary files, such as language packs which have to be scanned by your AV or defragged by your defragger?
If you compare a good example of an nLite OS to a default OS installation, then you will see a huge difference in start up and shut down timings, much faster defragging, no open ports, no dodgy services running and less time setting up your OS the way you like it. Besides probably the best part is that the entire installation can be automated.
With regards to detaching folders, then the only folder that i have detached is my peronal Documents folder as i have never considered documents and settings to be under any threat. I use Total Uninstall to monitor any applications that i install and i use GhostSecurity Suite to cover the rest (AV,AT,FW of course).
At the end of the day is of course night No, at the end of the day, it is up to the user to decide on what they want to remove providing they know exactly what they are doing. Some people are daring and take the guess work approach and then there's those who are a little more apprehensive. Either way it's fun to play with and i think you'll be supprised on how little of the OS you actually need to suite your needs.

 

Can you use nLite to specify a non-default windows folder (something other than C:\windows)?

If yes, then using nLite would be the best option seeing how many other benefits it provides.

If you are going to install XP in a non-default directory and going the double install route, you might as well install once, make your slipstream CD, and then install a second time from that with all your updates and separated application data folders.

 

I see from Tony62's ini file there is a TargetPath option, so the answer seems to be yes you can install to a non-default windows folder with nLite.

 

just to add to tony62's post, nlite can remove many components that could be a security risk, and it can lower the number of hotfixes that your windows may need.

 

You are right about the removal of components, but you are not entirely right about the hotfixes.
You are right that not all hotfixes are included in the nLite Windows CD, but "Windows Update" will add the missing hotfixes.
I have already 69 fixes. If I install Windows with my old CD, "Windows Update" will re-install all 69 fixes again + the latest fixes. That won't happen with the nLite Windows CD.

 

I had WinXP optimized (12 processes, 810 MB free RAM after startup) before I used nLite, but even then I got about 25 MB RAM (835 MB free RAM). Also nLite will save a little place as well, my Windows folder has 486 MB (after instal Win folder has 350 MB and Program Files has 0 MB).

I removed EventLog & WMI (do not recommend it), so Win does not create countless logs now.
As WSFuser said, the main point is security, the number of needed hotfixes (I have none now).

 

It has been quiet for awhile around nLite, but I was really fascinated by this "Profiles path" under "Options" of nLite and I did some pre-tests.

So I created a nLite WinXPproSP2 CD with only two changes :
1. Hotfixes and Update patches
2. Profiles path = "D:\Documents and Settings" (default value = "%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings")

First, I cleaned my two harddisks [C:] and [D:] and then I re-installed my computer from scratch, using my new nLite WinXPproSP2 CD.
I wasn't planning to do a complete install, I only wanted to know if it was promising enough to continue or not.

After a complete installation of Windows, I checked three things :

1. Windows Explorer
a. The folder "Documents and Settings" did NOT exist anymore on the system partition [C:]
b. The folder "Documents and Settings" was completely moved to my data partition [D:] with ALL its users
and subfolders.
c. Also the virtual folder "My Documents" on top was available in the system partition [C:]
That was a good sign.

2. Registry
I didn't check all of them, I just wanted to know if there was a change or not.
I checked about 100 registries containing "Document and Settings" and they were all changed from "C:" to "D:"
That was a good sign too.

3. MS Office
I installed MS Office 2000 Pro, because I wanted to know if the default folders of MS Word and MS Excel were also changed or not.
Each default folder was changed from "C:" to "D:". I created one document and one spreadsheet and both were stored in the right folder on [D:] and also stored in the virtual folder on [C:]
That was an excellent sign.

I was stupified, I never expected this to be THAT good.
Of course I'm not too enthousiastic, but it looks promising enough to continue with a full installation of all my application and to see how each software reacts on this separation.
Maybe my dream comes true after all or it will be my next nightmare.

 

Erik, thanks for informing us 'nLite wantabies' of your test results. That's good enough news for me to start 'playing' with it. ~pv

 

There is indeed an option to change the Windows folder in something else, like : LINUX, SOLARIS, UNIX, DEVINCO, ERIKALBERT or any other word in order to fool the malwares with hard coded "C:\WINDOWS" or hackers, but I didn't test it yet.
The main problem is that testing an OS takes alot more time, than any other software. I already lost hours with my tests and I have to restore my old configuration to get back in business.
Keep in mind that such a change has to be tested with Windows Update.

 

Thanks Erik.

Installing Windows to a non-default folder does work with Windows Update 100%. I've tested this many times.
There are no side effects to using a non-default folder other then when someone tells you to look in the C:\windows folder, you need to look in the C:\[non-default folder] instead.

 

Thanks for telling me. In that case we most probably won't have any problems with "Windows Update" either, when we give the windows folder another name in nLite.

 

Erik - Have you ran into any more problems with your Docs and Settings being on a seperate drive? I set my ISo up this way and used VMWare to test it last night, i didn't run into any issues but i was hardly doing a worthwhile test of the system.

I'm also curious how you guys cut so much space out. My fresh install on a 5GB virtual drive (in VMWare) was eating up about 3GB. I stripped out as much of the language stuff as i could find, sa well as unneeded components, etc. Are there some large areas of fat to be trimmed that i have missed or am i just requring too much stuff and i'm screwed because of it?

 

an unmodified windows xp install uses more or less 1gb of space and my nlite'd install uses ~400mb iirc.

maybe your pagefile and recycle bin is using some space?

also keep in mind: dont be hasty in removing components. remove a few that your sure you wont need, otherwise leave it alone. u can also visit teh forums and see what components some programs may need..

 

Those were all pre-tests, I need a full installation of all my softwares, I only tried MS OFFICE 2000 PRO and that was good. Firefox and Thunderbird are more interesting to test.
I just wanted to know, if it was promising enough to do a full install. Keep in mind, I have to do this in my freetime. I can't install my computer manually in just one evening and I want to do this in a real situation, not in a virtual environment, I don't even know how to do this.
I will be glad, if I can move "Documents and Settings" completely in such an easy way. I have seen ALOT WORSE methods on the internet.

EDIT: my first real install won't have any removal of components, because that was not my original plan and it will take a long time before I do the next re-install.

 

I am not so sure about the benefits of moving the whole documents and settings folder. Because the Windows Registry is going to be moved too.

That is good because then all your programs will still be install when you restore a backup. It is also good that ALL your programs data will be safely stored on the data partition without having to move and configure each and every program to look in the new location.

It is bad because if the cause for restoring is that something in the registry got messed up (not uncommon), then restoring the backup won't fix Windows. The problem will remain.

I don't know which is better.

What does everyone else think about the benefits versus the problems of moving the documents and settings folder?

 

WSFUser: I've been aroudn teh block with Windows, i'm not doing anything with nLite i don't already do to my system anyway, except now i'm shaving about 40 minutes off my install time by not having to go tweak every setting individually. PLus the extras that i can load now is just fantastic.

Yeah i have the same issue of not being abl eto do everything in one evening, but nLite looks like it can help there by shaving some precious minutes off my setup time.
As far as doing it virtually, VMWare Server is now free and very, very cool, if somewhat of a resource hog. It was a pain to do because i actually had to use a normal windows iso to create the pair of paritions on the virtual drive, format them both to NTFS, THEN reinstall windows using my custom nLite ISO. Otherwise it died during install because iether the virtual CD ROm was taking the D:\ drive letter, or the D:\ partition wasn't formatted so couldn't be written to at install time. THese two small hurtles aside (easily remedied hurdles might i add) it worked great. My next two weekends are booked, but the following weekend i'll ghost this machine and then attempt it to see what happens. I'll try to post and share my results (from what i've seen so far they will be positive!)

To the best of my knowledge the registry is not stored in your Docs and SEttinsg folder. At least not the Global registry, according to the stuff i'm looking at it is in windows\system32\config. Now your hkey_current_user would be in Docs and Settings, but that's not that big of a concern to me, if the registry gets corrupted on either end i'm going to have bigger problems at hand that will probably require more than a backup/reformat anyway.

Offloading My Documents, My Music, etc is fine and dandy, except i'm looking for a full solution. The way that i use my system i end up reformatting and reinstalling quite often, if i can get an XP disc that will let me do that without having to go through the hassle of having ot backup and restore my profiles, settings, etc, i'm all about it.

Maybe I'm just too used to Macs where you can copy the Users directory to another drive (or partition), symlink it back to the root disk, make a couple of tweaks to the NetInfo dbase and you're golden. Might be the reason why i have a new Mini en route from California as i type this