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How To: Streamline and Customize your Vista Installation

Mark Edward Soper — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 19:32:02 -0500

Tired of Vista installation bloat? Looking for an easy way to set up an unattended install process? Wishing for a faster way to tweak your favorite settings after Vista is installed? There’s an easy solution for all these scenarios, thanks to a little program called vLite.

VLite allows you to create a customized Windows Vista installation disc that contains only the features you need and leaves out all the drivers and components you don’t use. The program also lets you perform an unattended install and configure a variety of post-installation tweaks.

Maybe you want to make your next Vista installation faster and easier by creating a one-button install disc. Maybe you want to put Vista on a diet. Hands-down, vLite is a great customization program that belongs in any power user’s arsenal. However, while the process is straightforward, we recommend that you test your disc on a virtual machine, such as the free Virtual PC 2007 (www.microsoft.com), before doing a full install.

Time: 45 mins

What You Need

vLite
Free, www.vlite.net
Windows Vista DVD
Upgrade or Full Version
$100-$400, www.microsoft.com
(you can’t use a restore DVD or
partition with vLite)

1. Get Started with vLite

VLite can be downloaded as either a 1.56MB installer or a leaner 1.43MB self-extracting archive. You need administrator-level access to run the application, so right-click the executable and select the Run as Administrator option—which is right below the Open command.

When vLite opens, the program prompts you to browse to the folder containing the Windows Vista installation files. Insert your Windows Vista DVD, click Browse, navigate to the optical drive, and click OK. Then click OK again on the Copy Files dialog and select a folder for storing the Vista installation files. Use the Make New Folder button to create a new folder if necessary. It takes about 10 minutes to copy the files from the Vista DVD.

Next, select the Vista edition you want to configure. VLite is a “world citizen,” so it’s compatible with non-U.S. editions such as Home BasicN, BusinessN, and Starter, as well as Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. Once you’ve made your selection, click OK. After you complete the copy and selection process, the vLite screen lists the location of the Vista files and the version information.

Before continuing, use the Options menu to check the location of the temporary files folder. The program displays a message if there’s not enough space, so you can select a folder on a different drive. Click OK to close the Options menu; then click Next to continue.

After vLite copies your Vista DVD’s contents, it’s ready to customize the install files.

2.Choose a Task

In vLite’s Tasks tab you can select or deselect the parts of your install process you would like to customize:

Integration: integrates hotfixes, drivers, and language packs
Components: removes unneeded components to reduce the size of the Vista install image and the installed size of Vista
Tweaks: adjusts the Vista configuration to save time and steps after installation is complete
Unattended Setup: automates Vista setup to save time
Bootable ISO: creates a bootable ISO image or burns the image to CD or DVD.

By default, all options are selected. We recommend you clear the “Enable before apply” option; otherwise, you might forget to apply changes, and you’ll wonder why you created an ISO image identical to the original. When you disable this option, the program forces you to make and apply changes before it lets you make a bootable ISO. If you want to create only an unattended install image, clear all but the Unattended Setup check box. Click Next to continue.

3. Add a Side of Hotfixes and Drivers

The more hotfixes you add to Vista SP1 now, the fewer you’ll need to install later.

Now you’re in the Integration menu’s Hotfixes tab. If you’re customizing Vista SP1, you will see already-integrated hotfixes, but you can add additional hotfixes introduced post-SP1. (To locate them, go to www.microsoft.com/downloads and search for updates for Windows Vista SP1. Be sure to save, rather than run, hotfixes.) Click Insert, navigate to the folder containing the hotfixes you want to add to the installation, select them, and click Open.

To add drivers, click the Drivers tab. Use the Insert button and navigate to the appropriate folders to add drivers, which then appear at the bottom of the dialog.

Note that drivers included as a standard part of Vista or Vista SP1 are not listed. To add language packs, click the Language Pack tab. The current language in use is listed. Use the Insert button and navigate to the appropriate folders to add language packs. Click Next.

4. Kick Unwanted Features to the Curb

The Compatibility dialog opens next. Within the Features tab you can deselect the Vista features you want to remove. (We kicked Scanners and Cameras and Windows Fax and Scan to the curb, since we’ll eventually use third-party apps for picture transfer and scanning.)

The Applications tab lists a few popular third-party apps that depend on Vista components, such as ACDSee/XnView and Halo 2. If you plan to install a listed application, click the empty check box next to it. Keep in mind that checked items will be included in the Vista installation image. Click OK to continue.

5. Remove Components to Slim Vista

Selecting components to remove can be tricky. Keep an eye on the Help window to the right for suggestions and warnings.

The Components dialog can be tricky. Unlike the Compatibility dialog, the Components dialog is used to remove components in particular categories, such as accessories, drivers, and hardware support. Checked items will be removed from your image. As you select each item, a help dialog on the right side of the display lists the size of the item, what it does, and under what situations it should be kept. Items that can be particularly dangerous to remove are listed in red type.

We removed Paint, Snipping Tool, and Wordpad from Accessories (they won’t be missed), almost all items in the Driver category except for some storage controller listings (we’ll install updated video drivers ourselves), all games (Vista’s games are pretty lame), fax and iSCSI support from the Hardware Support category, Asian language support from the Languages category, sample files from the Multimedia category, and IIS from the Network category. We kept all of the services.

The original Windows Ultimate installation includes 172 total items. We selected 68 for removal. Once you have your list ready, click Next to continue.

6. Tweak Now, Save Time Later

If you’re always tweaking these settings anyway, let vLite do it for you, and you won’t have to make the changes ever again!

The Tweaks dialog allows you to preconfigure commonly changed settings in four areas. The Security option lets you edit Anti-Spyware Realtime Protection, Data Execution Prevention, and UAC options. The System section allows you to set AutoPlay and paging executive, hibernation, memory requirement, Power button, and Sleep button options. Explorer lets you edit view settings for the Control Panel, file extensions, hidden files and folders, and operating system files. And finally, the Internet Explorer option allows you to edit the IE Phishing filter and phishing verification balloon tips. Click an item you want to change (such as the Power button), and a pull-down menu arrow appears to the right of the current setting. Select the setting you prefer. Click Next to continue.

7. Run an Unattended Installation

The Unattended dialog helps you create an unattended installation. In the General tab, you can select your preferences for the install process. “Select this version on install” refers to the version of Vista you specified when you started vLite; the “Protect your PC” button lets you choose an automatic-update setting. In the Regional tab, you can specify the UI language, time and currency format, keyboard or input method, and time zone.

8. Burn a New Installation Disc

You get a few different options for making your final disc, based on how much time you want to spend!

Once done with the Unattended tab, click Apply to open the Apply Method dialog. Of the three options given, use Rebuild One (the default) to create the smallest ISO image and smallest installation size (select the others to see suggestions on when to use them). Click OK. It takes about 15 minutes to complete changes to the install image. Click Next when prompted to open the ISO menu. You can create an ISO file on disk, CD, or DVD. You can adjust burn speed, verify the image after writing it, perform a simulated test write, or split the image to fit onto multiple CDs. After you create an install disc, use the Preset menu to save your configuration for reuse before exiting vLite.

Put Vista on a Diet with vLite

Mark Soper — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 23:21:36 -0600

First XP, Now Vista's on a Diet

Computerworld reports that Dino Nuhagic, the college student behind nLite, the program that helps you remove unnecessary components in Windows XP (and Windows 2000), has done it again with vLite, his customization utility for Windows Vista.

Getting Started with vLite

vLite 1.1 is a 1.55MB installer, using 4.9MB of disk space when installed. It requires administrator privileges.

After installation, you are prompted to install a DVD reader utility. After it's installed, you are prompted to select the folder containing your Vista installation files. Insert your Windows Vista DVD and Browse to the root folder. Next, choose an empty folder (or create one) for the installation files. vLite immediately begins copying your Vista DVD's installation files to the folder. The copy process takes a few minutes. After the copy process is over, choose the version of Windows Vista you want to configure, including non-US versions such as HomeBasicN, BusinessN, and Starter. Click Next when prompted to continue. You can select from five optional pages, including

Integration (integrates hotfixes, drivers, and language packs)
Components (select this option if you want to put Vista on a diet by removing components you don't use)
Tweaks (tweak the Vista configuration to save time after installation)
Unattended setup (automates setup to make it even faster)
Bootable ISO (creates a bootable ISO or burns it to CD or DVD)

I selected all of them. Read on to find out what you can do with vLite.

Build a More Up-to-Date Vista with the Integration Menu

The Integration menu has three tabs.

Click Hotfixes to add hotfixes you have already downloaded
Click Drivers to integrate already-extracted drivers
Click Language to add languages

If you've been in the habit of running, rather than downloading hotfixes and drivers for installation later, vLite gives you a really good reason to mend your ways.

Customize (and Shrink!) Vista with Components

When you select the Components category, the Compatibility Features dialog opens first. Select the components you want in the optimized image. Click each option to see which features are included. Because some components have feature overlap with others, you may be able to skip installing some features without losing functionality you need.

Click the Compatibility Applications tab to select support for Halo 2, Paint.NET, and other popular Vista programs.

Next, the main Components menu opens. Unlike the pop-up compatibility window, the Components menu is used to remove components in the following categories:

Accessories
Drivers
Games
Hardware Support
Languages (Asian)
Multimedia
Network Services
System

As you make selections, keep an eye on the right pane, which lists the size of each component, what it's used for, and when to keep it. Items listed in Red can cause problems if they are removed. I removed 60 components, including the entire Printers category (I prefer to download customized drivers, and I just don't need dozens of old drivers for printers I'll never see cluttering up my system). As you will see later, it makes a difference in the size of the install image.

Save Time After Installation with Tweaks

The Tweaks menu lets you preconfigure options in four areas:

Security (UAC and others)
System (AutoPlay, power button behavior, and others)
Explorer settings (showing hidden files and others)
Internet Explorer (phishing settings)

Walk Away and Let Vista Install Itself - Completely

The Unattended dialog provides options for inserting your product key, accepting the EULA, providing your user name, configuring the Welcome Center, and selecting regional settings such as currency and time zone.

Apply Your Changes and Watch Vista Shrink

After making changes on these menus, click Apply, and choose what changes you want to make to the image. To create the smallest image, select the version you specified when you started the process. At the end of the process, you will have an optimized image ready to create an ISO image or bootable disc.

Creating the ISO - How Small Can You Go?

The ISO menu provides options for creating the image, burning it directly to a disc, splitting it across multiple discs, and configuring advanced options. My (rather modest) changes reduced the size of the Vista image to 1.8GB, down from 2.6GB. If you target a less-feature rich version of Vista and strip out more components, you can create a much smaller image. The Computerworld story I cited at the beginning of this article reports that one user crunched Vista Home Basic down to a 525MB ISO file (small enough to fit on a CD) that created a 1.3GB installation! See this forum thread for various user reports.

Vista SP1 and vLite

Before you perform your next (or first) Vista installation, take a look at vLite. Keep in mind, though, that a vLite-customized version of Vista isn't compatible with SP1. However, once SP1 starts showing up in DVD form, you'll be able to use vLite to customize and reduce it in size as much (or as little) as you want.