Reducing Windows 7 installation size for use on small SSD

[Krane]

You can reduce your size of your OS to around 8.5Gb with a little creativity.

Why? Even a 64 GB SSD would more than suffice for W7 and a couple other essential programs. As it is, most of us have got GB to spare so OS size is really not an issue these days.

[Mats]

The biggest gain with removing components is that it will reduce the size.
The number of processes will drop to 26 processes (32-bit), and RAM maybe 270 GB (32-bit), but that doesn't make much difference on anything like Core Duo/Athlon X2 or newer.
There are a few files that takes up a lot of space, some of them are Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Natural language, Tablet, Help, Speech, Windows media center.

Windows 7 Professional uses about -

32 bit, original: 7.5 GB
32 bit, vlite: 4.5 GB
32 bit, vlite & no sxs: 2.5 GB

64 bit, original: 10.5 GB
64 bit, vlite: 7.0 GB
64 bit, vlite & no sxs: 4.0 GB

This is excluding pagefile and hiberfile, and not exact sizes.

no sxs means that winsxs will be reduced to about 200 MB, look here.
Only recommended for skilled vlite/imagex/gimagex users.

Vlite means using my preset file, which is considered safe for Windows 7 (yeah the member is banned, but I KNOW it's not because of this post).
I've been using this install daily since april on my only computer with no problems whatsoever.
If you know the basics of vlite, you should be able to do it.

Here's how my Windows 7 is configured in the vlite preset file, based on the link above. It should work with all versions of W7.
This is not an extreme removal, it's when you go under 2 GB (32-bit, no sxs) you might be missing some features.
I think most of you would agree that you can live without the listed parts, except for a few Network and System features, and of course your languages.
But none of those takes up much space anyway, unless you need Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Speech.

-USE AT YOUR OWN RISK-
1 -Open notepad, paste this code, save as C:\Program Files\vLite\presets\Last Session.ini.
2 - Load it in vlite and have a look what [COMPONENTS] you want to keep = uncheck (specifically languages),
but don't remove anything else than what's already selected in my preset file or you might run into some serious trouble.
3 - Keep going through the steps in vlite and make an iso at the end.
4 - Copy the ISO to USB drive using Unetbootin, no reason to use a DVD.
5 - Feel free to give me rep.

; vLite preset file
;
;#Environment:
; vLite v1.2
; Framework 2.0.50727.4927
; Microsoft Windows NT 6.1.7600.0 32-bit
;
;#Target:
; Windows 7 PROFESSIONAL 64-bit 
; Version 6.1 Swedish (Sweden)
;
[Compatibility]

[CustomHide]

[Components]
;# Accessories #
Accessibility
Character Map
Disk Cleanup
Games-Inbox Games
Games-Premium Inbox Games
Mobility Center
Speech Support
System Information
Welcome Center
Windows Sidebar and Gadgets
Wordpad
;# Languages #
Arabic
Brazillian
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Estonian
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latvian
Lithuanian
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Simplified Chinese
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish
Table Driven Text Input Processor
Thai
Traditional Chinese
Turkish
Ukrainian
;# Multimedia #
Media Center
Music and Video samples
Sample Pictures
Screensavers
Shell event sounds
SideShow
Windows Media Codecs
Windows Media Player
;# Network #
Connect to a Network Projector
Distributed File System (DFS)
Internet Information Services (IIS)
RIP Listener
Simple TCPIP services
Telnet Client
Telnet Server
TFTP Client
Windows Collaboration
Windows Mail
;# Services #
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience
Remote Registry
WebDAV (WebClient)
;# System #
BitLocker Drive Encryption
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Disk Quota
Help
IMAPIv2 Burning Support
Microsoft Client For NFS
Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ)
Natural Language
Parental Controls
Run a legacy CPL elevated
Security Center
Subsystem for UNIX-based Applications (SUA)
Tablet PC
Windows Defender
Windows SAT (Performance Index)
Zip Folder

[Options]
DEP (Data Execution Prevention) = Enabled only for OS components (Optin)
User Account Control (UAC) = Disabled
AntiSpyware Realtime Protection = Default
AutoPlay = Enabled
Paging Executive = Enabled
Power scheme = Power saving
Power button = Shutdown
Sleep button = Do nothing
Control Panel - Classic View = Enabled
Show hidden files and folders = Yes
Show protected operating system files = Yes
Show extensions for known file types = Yes
IE Phishing Filter = Disabled
IE Phishing Verification Ballon Tips = Disabled

[Services]
AELOOKUPSVC = Automatic (Delayed Start)
AUDIOENDPOINTBUILDER = Automatic
AUDIOSRV = Automatic
BROWSER = Manual
CRYPTSVC = Automatic (Delayed Start)
DPS = Automatic (Delayed Start)
EVENTSYSTEM = Automatic (Delayed Start)
IKEEXT = Manual
KTMRM = Manual
LANMANSERVER = Automatic (Delayed Start)
MPSSVC = Manual
MSDTC = Manual
NLASVC = Automatic (Delayed Start)
NSI = Automatic (Delayed Start)
POLICYAGENT = Manual
SECLOGON = Automatic (Delayed Start)
SPOOLER = Manual
TERMSERVICE = Manual
THEMES = Automatic
WINMGMT = Automatic (Delayed Start)
WPDBUSENUM = Manual
WUAUSERV = Manual

[Protection]
windows\system32\browcli.dll
windows\sysWow64\browcli.dll
windows\system32\Magnification.dll
windows\system32\msdrm.dll
windows\system32\msoert2.dll
windows\system32\SystemPropertiesRemote.exe
windows\system32\tbs.dll
windows\system32\wer.dll
windows\system32\werconcpl.dll
windows\system32\wercplsupport.dll
windows\system32\werdiagcontroller.dll
windows\system32\winipsec.dll
windows\system32\wmdrmsdk.dll
windows\SysWow64\wmdrmsdk.dll

[Drivers]

[Unattended]
SpecRegional
AcceptEULA
SkipAutoActivation

[Hotfixes]

[LanguagePacks]

[Tinderbox (UK)]

Looks great, but i only have Windows 7 Home Premium , and since i only have 3gb of memory , I will be using the x86 version.

Can your vLite preset file be changed to reflect this, is it just a matter of changing the setting in vLite once the presets are loaded?

[Mats]

I made the preset file for 32-bit first, and then used it for 64-bit later on, vlite changes the first lines by itself if you use it for a different version, ";" means they have no function for the program.
I've used with 32-bit Home Premium as well when I reinstalled a friends laptop.

Only warning I have is that you may or may not have a hard time installing future Service Packs, but that remains to be seen.

[Tinderbox (UK)]

I just installed vLite , but on install if says it needs "wim api" and it links to an Microsoft download that is 1.4gb download

[Mats]

Download vlite 1.1, extract it or intstall it, and copy the additional files to 1.2.
That's what I did, and those are the only files you need.