Extremely slimming: Create a 200MB Win XP installation disk

From the original Windows 98 takes up 500MB of disk space, and now Windows XP's nearly 2GB, Windows upgrades make the "old machine" more and more overwhelmed.

There are actually a significant number of functional components that you simply don't use. After removing them, Windows XP/2003 and other systems can be successfully installed on a computer with a lower configuration.

On the Internet, even some people have installed Windows XP SP2 on a computer with only 32MB of memory (32MB is only able to boot, and 64MB or more to achieve basic functions).

What we are going to do today is not to take out the meat from the already bloated system, but to start with a simple version of Windows by starting with the installation files. Let me introduce the tool to be used - nLite.

Weight Loss Plan in Progress

I believe you have installed nLite. Now let's introduce the basic use of nLite by taking the example of streamlining Windows XP installation files.

Step 1: Run nLite, the wizard interface appears, select “SimplifIEd Chinese” (Simplified Chinese) in the “Language” box, and nLite will automatically switch to the Simplified Chinese interface (see Figure 1). Click "Forward."


Select language, of course, Simplified Chinese
Step 2: Select the location of the Windows installation file. If it is an ISO file, please use WinISO or WinRAR to extract it into the temporary directory and then select it. The directory should contain the I386 directory and related installation files (see Figure 2). After selecting the correct directory, the version, language, path, size and the remaining space of the drive letter of the specified Windows installation file are displayed in the "Information" box of the nLite wizard (see Figure 3). "go ahead".



Step 3: Select the tasks you need to perform, including "Service Pack Consolidation", "Patch Package Integration", "Driver Integration", "Component Removal", " Unattended Installation, Options and Optimization, and Bootable ISO Mirror 7 option buttons (see Figure 4). More commonly used are "Service Pack Integration" and "Component Removal". After selecting, click "Forward" to proceed to the next step. Select the task you want to perform. Step 4: Since nLite is used for the first time, the preset file that was previously operated by the task has not been saved previously, so in the “Preset (Import other settings or load last setting)” box that appears. Click "Forward" to enter the task execution interface just selected. Since "Service Pack Integration" and "Component Removal" are checked in this example, the former setting is first performed, and the current Windows version is displayed in the dialog box. Click "Please select the service pack to be integrated" to the right of "" Select the " button, select the SP package (EXE format) to be integrated in the file selection box, such as Windows XP SP1 can integrate the SP2 package (the file operated in this article is already the latest Windows XP SP2, there is no SP can be integrated )), click "forward" to enter the next task. Step 5: The “Compatibility” dialog box that pops up may scare you (see Figure 5). Selecting the required features In this dialog you can check the required functions so that subsequent compact operations can be accidentally deleted by the components required to support these functions. In the "Component Removal" list, all the components in the system are listed in a tree directory classification: red shows the very important system components, it is not recommended to delete; black shows the parts that can be deleted, after deletion There will be no problems. In addition, when you hover your mouse over a component, you can see the detailed description and size of the component and the component information that the component depends on (see Figure 6). You can see the function selection of the component and click “Forward”. Confirm the process is started in the pop-up prompt box. After the completion, the status bar will display “Complete”, click “Forward” and then click in the last wizard interface. "Complete" and you're done. Listen to the experience of the old birds. Should the components shown as red should be deleted? Can a component that is displayed in black be deleted? Let's hear what nLite is saying: 1. Multimedia In this section you can clearly see that Windows Media Player 6.4 is displayed in red. You may think, now everyone has used a high version like 9.0, 10.0, why keep this 6.4 version? When you hover your mouse over another high-level version of Windows Media Player, the information displayed on the right will make you realize: "Dependency: Windows Media Player 6.4, I can see the component's role selection and click "Forward" In the pop-up prompt box, confirm the process begins. After the completion, the status bar will display “Complete”, click “Forward” and then click “Finish” in the final wizard interface. You can do it.
Listen to the old bird Our experience talks about whether the component shown as red should be deleted? Is the component displayed as black sure to be deleted? Listen to what nLite veterans say: 1. Multimedia nternet Explorer core", the original high version of Windows Media Player is based on version 6.4. But if your system is simply used as a server, then this component can be safely removed. 2. Operating System Options It is recommended to keep the Input Method Editor, Manual Installation and Upgrade, and Out of Box (OOBE). The "Input Method Editor" is reserved because it requires the Chinese input method. If you do not need to input Chinese, you can delete it. "Manual installation and upgrade" is used to boot from the hard disk or floppy disk to install Windows. If you only need to boot Windows from the CD, you can delete it. The component size is 44MB (see Figure 7). I often install Windows manually from the hard disk and rarely use the CD to boot the installation, so keep this component. This component is actually divided into two parts, "manual installation" and "manual upgrade". Currently, for individual users, it should be said that few people need to "manually upgrade" (that is, upgrade Windows 98/NT/2000 to Windows XP). However, in the nLite "manual installation and upgrade" is handled as a component, to deal with the "manual upgrade" this chicken rib also means that the "manual installation" is lost (for the solution, please refer to the manual batch to create nLite super Strong version"). "Out of the box (OOBE)" for Windows activation, if it is a non-activated large customer version of Windows XP (ie VOL) ​​can be deleted, but if it is a retail version of Windows XP, you can not delete the component, otherwise it will As a result of the inability to activate Windows XP, your hard-wired system may not be able to start. 3. System Service The service components displayed in black can be removed according to their own needs. For the corresponding functions and problems that may occur after deletion, please refer to the 8th issue of this year's "Service Stop". Most people will choose to turn off System Restore for Windows and remove the "System Restore" that appears red. However, the system service should not be deleted too much, so that some programs do not work properly. It is recommended to retain most of the services, just delete services that have never been used for a long time (such as "Uninterruptible Power Supply" service, I don't have UPS power, so I will definitely not use it). 4. Drivers Removing the "printer" driver does not affect the installation of the virtual printer (such as Acrobat's PDF virtual printer), but only if the "printer support" component in "Hardware Support" is retained. For hardware that is not and will not be used in the future, its driver can be removed. 5. Language It is recommended to keep Chinese Simplified and Traditional Chinese at the same time, and you will often need to use traditional encoding in Internet browsing. In addition, the bug of nLite itself will cause the deletion of Traditional Chinese and the deletion of Simplified Chinese. nLite 0.99.9Beta has a new feature, select the menu "Advanced" in "Component Removal", the "Retain or Remove Extra Files" dialog box will pop up, enter the file name that needs to be additionally deleted and retained. For example, this article retains the net.hlp and ntcmdsw.chm files on the default basis. This dialog box is also used in the subsequent article of this article, "Using Batch Processing for Self-Building nLite Super Edition".