Windows 7 Stripping down Windows 7

[MikeDre]

Im looking to drop some features I dont want off Windows 7 to lower the memory use and drop some services maybe. Any information on this?

I have it installed on a 10gb partition with about 550mb left so I need to make some room


Windows 7 x64 7068

thanks

 

[Kyle]

Turn off system restore.
Run Disk Cleanup, and select all items.
Change the Page File to manual, and set the upper and lower limits to the same size (1 GB is a safe size)

That should give you SOME room...

 

[MikeDre]

Thanks. But Im looking more for things like removing items from Windows. Much like a stripped down install.

ie. no System Rater, no Windows sounds, or services not needed

 

[davehc]

Hi Mike.
Maybe you are doing this for the hell of it??
But, if you are serious, I really see no purpose in your using windows. You should, perhaps, go for one of the smaller linux releases, where most things can be excluded if required.
There was a fantastic OS being developed at one time. It must have been more than ten years ago, called Beos. The speed, in everything, was close to instant and it had the basic items you seem to need. Unfortunately the producers went bankrupt and the OS never hit retail.

 

[MikeDre]

Hi Mike.
Maybe you are doing this for the hell of it??
But, if you are serious, I really see no purpose in your using windows. You should, perhaps, go for one of the smaller linux releases, where most things can be excluded if required.
There was a fantastic OS being developed at one time. It must have been more than ten years ago, called Beos. The speed, in everything, was close to instant and it had the basic items you seem to need. Unfortunately the producers went bankrupt and the OS never hit retail.

I dont need to run windows 7, I kind of just wanted to see what I could do to it so I could maybe fit in Office and some other stuff. Vista is still my main OS for now. I just remember my 7022 stripped down install I downloaded which had basically everything I needed in a few gig install and was wondering if you could do some of the stuff done to that post-7install.

 

[Moosetek13]

Funny, a 10GB partition to test a new OS.

Why not allocate a bit more so you can use the apps you want. Or better yet, buy a second hd to dedicate to W7. You can get a 320GB (retail kit) drive for $50 from Fry's.
Link Removed
I'm sure other stores have similar deals, some maybe even a bit cheaper.

And by the way, you are not trying to save 'memory' - you are trying to save 'space'.
Disable unneeded services to save memory, and delete unneeded files to save space. But the two are exclusive to each other.

Or, you could go back to 7022 or wait for another 'stripped' version to come along. But allocating only 10GB is really very unrealistic, in any case.

 

[mistofeles]

Thanks. But Im looking more for things like removing items from Windows. Much like a stripped down install.
ie. no System Rater, no Windows sounds, or services not needed

Second to that !
There is one great OS (IMHO). Namely eeeBuntu Base. It installs only the minimum of the OS and you can download all you need from the network when you need anything. This is how it should be.
I don't mean FREE and PUBLIC DOMAIN downloads. I have downloaded maybe hundreds of programs with limitted functionality, tested them and paid for the license, if I have found that the program is worth it.

The good thing in Linux is that most of the programs are written with C and they are using the same libraries. The bad thing is that the third party programs and browser extensions are written in any language. So, after a days work you will have in your PC a lot of stupid libraries and runtimes: Perl, PHP, JAVA, Flash, shel scripting language.......
Tee same thing goes with all the OSses nowadays. In Windows you will have all the abovementioned plus dotnet, office scripting, Flash for IE and Flash for FireFox.

Those stupid libraries and runtimes are eating your disk space and lurking in the background of your memory.
I don't (as a programmer myself) like JAVA at all, but still I would like to see a day, when there is only JAVA, because programs written with JAVA can be run in most OSses.
I'd prefer BASIC, if only there was a STANDARD inkarnation of it.

 

[MikeDre]

Funny, a 10GB partition to test a new OS.

Why not allocate a bit more so you can use the apps you want. Or better yet, buy a second hd to dedicate to W7. You can get a 320GB (retail kit) drive for $50 from Fry's.
FRYS.com*|*Western Digital
I'm sure other stores have similar deals, some maybe even a bit cheaper.

And by the way, you are not trying to save 'memory' - you are trying to save 'space'.
Disable unneeded services to save memory, and delete unneeded files to save space. But the two are exclusive to each other.

Or, you could go back to 7022 or wait for another 'stripped' version to come along. But allocating only 10GB is really very unrealistic, in any case.

Yes, 10GB to test an OS. Because all I really wanted to do was play around with it. U mad?

 

[Kyle]

Thanks. But Im looking more for things like removing items from Windows. Much like a stripped down install.

ie. no System Rater, no Windows sounds, or services not needed

At this time, you can not "lite" a Windows 7 install without ruining it.

 

[MikeDre]

At this time, you can not "lite" a Windows 7 install without ruining it.

OK thanks. Do you mean for post install? Because Ive seen the stripped down install ISO's and used one.

 

[Paulie]

Yes, 10GB to test an OS. Because all I really wanted to do was play around with it. U mad?

It is supposed to have a minimum of 20-30 gig to be properly functional, are you mad? What is the point. Its like testing a car but the engine has been took out And the wheels for good measure. Exactly mate your not going to get very far are ya?

 

[MikeDre]

It is supposed to have a minimum of 20-30 gig to be properly functional, are you mad? What is the point. Its like testing a car but the engine has been took out And the wheels for good measure. Exactly mate your not going to get very far are ya?

Not really. I have all the functions of Windows 7 right now and it runs fine. I just cant install extra programs. Its more like leasing a car and not being able to put upgrades or addons on it.

If you are talking about stripping down windows it would be like removing the rear seats that I wouldnt use to make room for a sound system.




btw not mad

 

[Kyle]

Yes, I mean post install.
Also, the ISO'd lite versions are usually messed up as well, as they're "lited" using a program designed for Vista.

 

[MikeDre]

Yes, I mean post install.
Also, the ISO'd lite versions are usually messed up as well, as they're "lited" using a program designed for Vista.

Oh, gotcha. I did have one issue with it where every other startup resulted in drivers failing to load up or something. May have been due to the "Liting" not sure. Thanks for the info tho

 

[Radenight]

To the OP...

By the sounds of it, you intend on switching to Windows 7 as your main OS once it's in final form? I say this because you said "Vista is my main OS for now..." Ok, so going by that then why not just mess around with Windows 7 the way it is for now (so you can see what it can and can't do) (as Kyle said, there's no way to make a Lite Win 7 installation as of yet) then once it's released in final form make the switch to it as your main OS.. I also am still using Windows Vista (and will continue to do so after Win 7 is done and in stores, triple boot configuration) but in the meantime I'm using 7 just as much.. It's that good and that rock solid...

Also, I'm not sure what else you want to remove from Windows 7.. as it's already very streamlined compared to Vista.. with things like Messenger, Mail, etc all being removed from the installation there's not really a large number of things left to take out... a few but certainly not as many as Vista for example...

I'd also suggest allocating more than 10GB's of space if you can spare it.. for Windows 7 to run as intended it's recommended that you use at least 20GB's of HDD space.. That's not to say 10GB won't work, because 10GB WILL work, obviously. it's just for 7 to run the best it can 20GB would be a better amount..

 

[MikeDre]

To the OP...

By the sounds of it, you intend on switching to Windows 7 as your main OS once it's in final form? I say this because you said "Vista is my main OS for now..." Ok, so going by that then why not just mess around with Windows 7 the way it is for now (so you can see what it can and can't do) (as Kyle said, there's no way to make a Lite Win 7 installation as of yet) then once it's released in final form make the switch to it as your main OS.. I also am still using Windows Vista (and will continue to do so after Win 7 is done and in stores, triple boot configuration) but in the meantime I'm using 7 just as much.. It's that good and that rock solid...

Also, I'm not sure what else you want to remove from Windows 7.. as it's already very streamlined compared to Vista.. with things like Messenger, Mail, etc all being removed from the installation there's not really a large number of things left to take out... a few but certainly not as many as Vista for example...

I'd also suggest allocating more than 10GB's of space if you can spare it.. for Windows 7 to run as intended it's recommended that you use at least 20GB's of HDD space.. That's not to say 10GB won't work, because 10GB WILL work, obviously. it's just for 7 to run the best it can 20GB would be a better amount..

I cant use it for my main OS since no flash support in x64 firefox and Cisco Clean Access doesnt let you run it. So I wouldnt mind messing up the install or anything like that. Right now Im using ICS from another computer over ad-hoc

 

[Toen]

removed IE8

I have removed IE8, it used to take 20s to load up. I use Chrome and its much faster. I use Thunderbird for e-mail and did not download any of the live mail stuff. For security I use the free Microsoft Security essentials.
Foxit reader for Abobe and Open Office Suite for all the office stuff.
This install is just under 20Gig.

 

[djarrum]

May I suggest Xubuntu? For the Poster that referred to BeOS, Haiku is the continuation of the BeOS.

 

[stueycaster]

My W7 installation is on a 35 Gb partition. I have 10.4 Gb unused space available. I have 113 programs and Windows updates installed. It saves 2 Gb for Virtual memory.

The only problems I have with this are that I can't allow much space for System Restore and I have to be careful not to store any big files in there.

When I upgrade my hardware in the future I will definitely have a bigger drive for my operating system. I feel like 35 Gb is too small but I have way too much stuff stored in other partitions on my 200 Gb harddrive. The good thing about the partitions is I have clean installed operating systems on this computer a bunch of times without ever losing a file.

 

[dtla1730]

This was such a stupid thread I had to stop what I was doing and necro.

OP asked a simple question: How can I lite Windows 7?

The stream of off-topic diahrrea that followed defied all logic. He didn't ask for your opinions or feelings about what he wanted to do. He didn't ask for your input on alternative OSes or the tired Linux sales pitch. It was a basic question and if you didn't have an answer, you could easily (and more intelligently) have moved on to a question you could actually answer.

And by the end, the answer ended up being "You can't, at the moment."

Moronic and wasteful of so much time.