just curious if anyone here has played around with these programs and made a decent customized install that works well?? i've currently got an ultimate build that is a 1.79gb image that takes up 6.5gb installed--so far it all works in VMware, haven't tried a real install yet, but i'm going to say that if it can work great using 512mb of memory in VM then it will surely be great on the actual pc... attaching my last session.ini if anyone wants to take a look. i used vlite btw, mainly because rt7 lite is crap with it's freezing for 2 hours and taking nearly 3 hours to finish a simple job--pretty pathetic in my opinion... same process took less than 20 minutes in vlite, though it has fewer options it's the better of the two, here at least. and contrary to popular belief vlite does work exceptionally well with 7 if you have a small clue as to what you are doing--i think whoever started the whole mess of it not working didn't know what they were removing / disabling in the first place probably will probably play with DISM @ some point as i've been messing with this for the last two days and i've learned a lot about what it has to have and what is not needed @ all unless you personally need it, though the one i'm sharing is not gutted, only minutely slimmed. View attachment Last Session.ini.txt
But for the no-SP1-source dudes, its better to avoid using vLite (support.microsoft.com/kb/2498452#method5)
yeah I played a bit with it but at the last minute I changed my mind. The only gain for me would be a reduced installation time. Did it install faster than normal win 7 in your virtual machine ?
Correct me if I am wrong. Both this statement and your vLite preset clearly shows that your customized image was not originally Windows 7 SP1 image. I mean that it is not Windows 7 with SP1 integrated in it. Thus, this Windows 7 RTM can be vLited with no problem. However, if you directly customize Windows 7 SP1 (MSDN) image though vLite without any prior modification, you will encounter error during Windows installation. This is the reason why many people realized that vLite is not compatible with Windows 7 SP1 (MSDN) image. For that, users have to perform an additional step of extracting the image through Gimagex, before the image can be safely used with vLite. I know different people have various ways of customizing their Windows image, and I fully respect that. Nevertheless, the customized Windows image should have SP1 integrated. If you install SP1 after Windows installation, then your installation will not be clean. This is just my opinion, though.
i see. but the link mits posted to M$ says that sp1 won't be offered if the image is modified using vlite which is bogus and just an attempt by M$ to keep people from doing it. still, i don't know why your "opinion" is that a modified 7 image without sp1 is not "clean" so to speak... i don't really understand your logic. if you are referring to the component cache (winsxs) not being as small as it could be i might be able to understand that, but otherwise this just makes no sense to me. to each his own, though, and i mean nothing by that line of thinking. seems not everyone who is running 7 is running sp1 anyway, just like people have done with every service pack for all win os's in the past, especially for the fact that not much software (from what i can tell) for 7 is requiring it to be installed either. aside from that, i am working on an image that is "lighter" and fully functional (in terms of what is left intact after the modifications--an oxymoron otherwise lol), and there is no better way to test that than to let windows update run just like it would if i installed from the iso my image was made from, which as you've noticed does not include sp1. no sense in slipstreaming sp1 to my image to only have other updates in the future fail--which from what i've read many places is very common when using vlite and integrating sp1... aside from that, i'm not going through the trouble of downloading another 7 iso that has sp1 for the simple fact that the build i have (7601) is perfectly fine...
Again, all of this is just my opinion. I see you have a different methodology in customizing your Windows image, hence the disparity in our opinion. Still, I fully respect your opinion. Probably, your image is not heavily slimmed down. If Windows Update detects your Windows installation being lack of major components, Windows Update may not offer you SP1. There are users who first install Windows 7 RTM and then install SP1 though Windows Update. There are another groups of people who either use RT 7 Lite 2.6.0 Beta to slipstream SP1, or use reverse integration. Both of these groups reported that backup files created when installing SP1 cannot be removed, even with Disk Cleanup. This is a clear sign that images other than Windows 7 SP1 (MSDN) image are not clean. I suppose that it is nothing wrong with you installing Windows 7 RTM, and subsequently updates it through Windows Update. Thus, it is not that much different from Windows 7 SP1, as SP1 does not provide significant difference. As for me, I used RT 7 Lite to slim down Windows 7 SP1 (MSDN) image by removing quite significant numbers of components. Hopefully, though trial and error, I will be able to perform the following steps to achieve the perfect image in my view: Gimagex (make my image compatible with vLite) > DISM (integrate updates) > vLite > RT 7 Lite (integrate drivers and remove components) > Gimagex (execute batch removal to remove fonts) > End result: my customized image.
well, i can understand your ideas when explained that way. i totally respect your opinion as well, and sorry if any of my previous post did not seem that way. i'm having trouble finding the link--didn't bookmark it apparently--but i had actually found a method for removing the backup files generated from the sp1 installation, the ones in component cache (winsxs), which are the only backups created that i know of, of course i'm no expert at all on this subject, really just getting started with it honestly. but i'm pretty sure that if you do a good search you will find the same result i did where someone had found a way to remove those files, although this makes it impossible to uninstall sp1, which i really didn't think it could be uninstalled once it was applied, but again, i'm no expert. i just started fooling with 7 a lot in the last week. but if what you are saying is true about the MSDN 7 SP1 image, then they must not be integrating but replacing one by one (though using a more reasonable method) each file that sp1 updates, ie building around sp1 as opposed to the RTM image. i'm sure if someone wanted to take the time to do this they could, although i personally don't see the benefit for at most 700 or so mb of space saved, which it could be less than that (or way more) as i don't really know for sure. i haven't unpacked sp1 to check it out, but i'm assuming it isn't too much considering the installer was under 200mb. i'm just curious what the install space is when compared to RTM and sp1 "clean" (in the terms you outlined) images without anything removed. knowing this would be the deciding factor for me to know if the trouble is worth it. but then again, this problem will come up with each subsequent service pack which would make the whole process futile in the end, and would be cause to find another way to delete the backup files once again...
This is the main reason of using Windows 7 SP1 (MSDN) image, instead of integrating SP1. M$ rebuilt almost all files in Windows 7 image, thus eliminating unnecessary wastage in hard disk space. No matter how you integrate SP1 to Windows 7 RTM image, there are certain files that cannot be updated, such as setup.exe. My point is that you can choose to install Windows 7 RTM image instead and there is not a problem. You may have certain software not working in Windows 7 SP1, hence the need to use Windows 7 RTM image. No matter what image you use, remember to use Windows Update to ensure your Windows stay up-to-date.