This tutorial will show you how to slim down your Windows XP install using the program nlite. A few people have followed this tutorial and I haven’t heard any reports of people having problems installing drivers or software afterwards so it’s pretty safe to do. Completing this tutorial will shrink your XP installation down to 687mb from the usual 1.5 gigs.
You can click on the images to download a higher res version if you are having problems seeing them.
1. Download nLite from http://www.nliteos.com/download.html I’m using version 1.4.
2. Download hotfixes from http://www.nliteos.com/addons/. I’m using “Xable’s XP post SP2 lite update pack”. The direct download link is http://udp.xable.net/files/XUpdatePack_v3.0.3.7z .
3. Also you can find a lot of addons in http://www.nliteos.com/addons/. For more addons, you can find them from here http://www.winaddons.com/.
4. Install nLite.
5. Create a folder and copy XP installation files (everything) from CD to that folder.
6. Run nLite, in the welcome window, click Next to Locating the Windows installation window. Click Browse button to locate the folder that you created. Click Next, nLite will check the Windows version infomations.
7. Click Next to Preset window. In the first run, you don’t have any preset ini files. It will show empty here. Click Next.
8. In Task Selection window, select all except Service Pack and Drivers. Because we don’t have any service pack that newer than sp2. If you select driver, nLite can embed the drivers into XP installation. I think it is not good idea to add EEE drivers into XP installation, because we need run ACPI before install EEE drivers.
9. Click Next to Hotfixes, Addons and Update Packs window. Click insert to insert hotfixes and addons. I didn’t add Adobe Acrobat Reader, Windows Live Messenger and Divx addons, somehow these don’t work well for me.
10. Click Next to Components window, and popup Compatibility window. This is just for preventing accident remove some important components for selected function. Don’t need select anything and click OK.
11. In Components window, you can select the listed items that you feel don’t need for EEE.
Here is my selections:
Applications:
I think Defragmenter is no use for 4G SSD, but I keep Defragmenter anyway, no biggee.
Drivers:
Select all to remove cause we have EEE driver CD.
Hardware Support:
Keyboards:
Select remove all then recheck the ones you need.
Languages:
Select all to remove except the language that you need.
Network:
I kept windows messengers because Live messenger has annoying ad bars. It is not good for 800×480.
Operating System Options:
Directories:
12. Click Next to Unattended window. In General tag, put you XP serial number here, then it will not ask for it during installation. Also, check Turn off Hibernate.
Users tag:
Owner and Network ID tag:
Regional tag:
Desktop themes tag:
Display tag:
For other tags, you can leave as is.
13. Click Next to Options window. In general tag, don’t need to change anything.
In Patches tag, choose Disable SFC.
14. Chick Next to Tweaks window.
Here are my settings in General tag:
Boot and Shutdown:
Desktop”
Explorer:
Internet Explorer:
My Computer and Network
Performance:
Privacy:
Start Menu:
Taskbar:
Visual Effects:
Windows Media Player:
I didn’t change anything in Services tag:
15. Click Next, nLite will process changes base on these customization.
It will take a while. After it is done, it shows the new installation files size.
16. Click Next to Bootable ISO window. Click Make ISO button to generate ISO file.
17. Use Nero to burn ISO file, and then you are ready to install Windows XP for EEE.
Once you have the ISO created you can install from usb flash drive if you want or from a cd, if you decide to go with usb check out the install xp from usb flash drive tutorial.