Put Vista on a Diet

This tool can slim down a Vista Installation immensely!

from WinCustomize Forums

If you're like me, chances are you use a version of Vista on your PC.  Chances are that you don't use nearly all of the programs & features of Vista neither;  so why bother having them installed in the first place?

If you want to dramatically increase Vista's performance, the best thing to do is reinstall the OS.  But why install from the original disk...when you don't have to?  Not too long ago, i've stumbled across a program called vLite.  vLite lets users build a custom disk image (ISO) with as many or as few features as they want.  So if you've been really wanting to get rid of the Sidebar or User Account Control, now's your chance!  Prevent these nuisances from being installed so you can have more memory for what's really important.

If you are satisfied with Vista, don't bother.  It involves a complete re-installation of the OS.  However, if you've tried everything to increase Vista's performance (Error Checking, Defragmenting, Registry Error Checking, Running 3rd Party System Optimizers, Disabling Services, ReadyBoost, etc.) and just makes it worse, try vLite.   

From my experience, I installed my custom Vista ISO on a virtual machine (for testing purposes), and so far, Vista runs with no errors, and features like Windows Update, iSCSI, Windows Sideshow, and UAC are gone for good!!  They're not listed in the Control Panel.  Not once have I received a UAC prompt. 

However, there is a catch.  In order to successfully use vLite, you'll need an original Vista installation disk, so it can extract files to the hard drive. 

For more info on vLite, visit http://www.vlite.net/about.html

 

48,933 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Cool BUT can someone who is not a Programer do it ? (some one that dose not know what the F@#5 he or she is doing)

Dose it tell you if that file is gone it will not work.?

How do/would I know what File(s) I can remove?

Would I still get updates/Patches?

can you remove that thing that says you do not have Administer Rights crap.

 

on a differant Note

what is up with all the Task managers  inside Task Manager theirs like 5 if I remmeber and

theirs Oodles and Oodles of SVCHOST like 2x to 3x more then XP.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
No programming knowledge required. Mostly, you configure it by checkboxes and drop-down lists. (If it required programming, I couldn't use it.) Just Download vLite and see for yourself (except if you don't have a Vista Disk and wimgapi.dll, it's rendered useless.) Or find screenshots on the web to have an idea of how to configure it. Click Here to download wimgapi.dll. WWW Link
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Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

you can also go here Blackviper and look up all the running services in vista. It will give you all the needed info to decide which services to turn off. you can either turn them off with Services in Controll panel or Tweakvista by SD.

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Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Or you can just turn it all off yourself.

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Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Or you can just turn it all off yourself.
Precisely what I did.I got 78 services cut down to 59 which dramatically speeds up everything fron boot-up to shutdown.This is with Home Basic,Premium may be worse.:S

My bigger problem was getting rid of all the bloatware HP thought I just HAD to have on my new PC.What a crapload of trials,redundant programs and unneeded junk!:rolleyes:

Oodles and Oodles of SVCHOST like 2x to 3x more then XP.
Yep,it owns your RAM for sure.>:(

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Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Try 16 gigs of ram... I hear it helps. \o/

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thank you,  :beer: to every one

I will have to try these when I get my HD back

and have both XP Pro and Vista Ultimate installed.

Vista Ultimate I got FREE form Microsoft (thank you MS) :inlove:

One of these days I will get another 1TB HD

I would like to have a 100TB HD  :grin:   but as far as I know one has not been made YET  >:( >:(

 

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Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

My bigger problem was getting rid of all the bloatware HP thought I just HAD to have on my new PC

The only way to properly get rid of those is to clean format. Which is what I do on any new system. There is a sticker with your CD key, I just pull out the appropriate install disk (from MS, not from those companies), and do a clean format and install from MS's disk using your serial key.

 

Anyways vlite is by the maker of nlite (same for winXP and 2000)... no programming knowledge, you put the disk in, it copies it to HDD, you then select checkboxes, it then deletes and modifies files and creates a new image which it burns to a DVD and you use that to install windows.

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I need help!  I've successfully installed the ISO on my virtual machine, but on my physical machine, the DVD's not bootable.  Why is that?   :maybe:  

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Outside of getting rid of OEM crapware (the HP garbage mentioned above should ALWAYS be forcibly removed) I would recommend people ignore hacks like vlite.  Almost everything it tries to remove or turn off is there for a VERY legitimate reason.

Instead, I would recommend that you add more RAM to your system ("RAM is cheaper than therapy") or just wait for SP2 in a month or two if you don't have any spare cash.  Both will increase the day to day feel of your system without having to go through the vlite rigamarole.

Just my two cents.

 

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I went through and removed all the HP bloatware from my laptop and there was a massive speed boost. I am re-installing a full version of Vista myself. I was thinking of trying vlite, now I am not sure. I am maxed on 2gb of ram, although I am putting a 7200rpm hard drive in which is faster than the current 5400rpm one. I hope that helps me out.

Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top

upgrading to 4GB of ram is more important. It is also not very expensive.

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I am also considering installing the 64 bit version, hopefully that will improve the performance.

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Vista would still eat all of your RAM. LOL who was that who said somewhere here in his posts: wait for SP2 ? Or better Windows 7 ? The first beta tests show there is as good as no performance gain compared to Vista. Everything after XP will always be a disaster. Take my word for it. And yes I got that f*cking VISTA OS on my LENOVO laptop. You know why ? Because I had no f*cking choice. Now if I want to install XP I must DL a ton of drivers, yes each individually, mind you, and burn them on a CD together with an original copy of my VISTA OS CD and install it all in some sort of slipstream. Sorry, I'm lost at that point. So thank you BG for shuving op OS's down ppl's throat, whether they want it or not. And while I'm at it thanks vendors of PC's for not providing drivers for XP in one nice package !!!! 

Oh yes ..... I forgot ... 2.1 Core2Duo T8100 and 3Gb of RAM should do it you think. LOL I get one explorer crash after the other. Even had an explorer crash on day 1. And I'm not even mentioning all the freeze-up's.

I think I'm gonna get me another 320Gb HD and clone my actual 160Gb to it. Afterwards see how I can get an XP OS on it on another partition and leave my data on a third partition. 

Oh yes, I would have tried VPC2007 but there's no support it seams if you've got a Premium Vista and VPC2007 does not support USB. Which leaves me with VMWare.

If anyone has other solutions I would be glad to hear them.  

Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top

do a clean format with vista SP1 (don't install vista gold and then uprade, install SP1 version to begin with).

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I would not recommend vlite/nlite to an average user.

You can easily end up removing services that you think you don't need, only to end up with a crippled system.  Some of these side-effects won't show up right away, but will reveal themselves when you try to install software that relies on these services or drivers.  The worst part is that you can't just plug those things back in, and usually need to create a brand new image and re-install the OS from scratch.

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top

You could be right. BTW I did get rid of some services but didn't notice any gain in whatever speed. I think it's all in the head. The problem with tampering with some services is that some rely on other ones.