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Music servers and other computer based digital audio technologies.

Somewhat easy way to a 36mB WINDOWS OS

First off, my thanks to Grant (gjwaudio) for his insistence that nLite was the way to go.

My installation has no network and I am using the PS/2 port so I can get rid of the USB stuff. (I delete the USB drivers while connected to another machine at the end of the process)

Make an nLite install disk with the only the following remaining:
DRIVERS
IBM PS/2 TrackPoint (for obvious reasons)
HARDWARE SUPPORT
CPU Intel
Intel PCI/IDE Controller
OPERATING SYSTEM OPTIONS
Certificate Management
Group Policy Mgmt Console
Local Security Settings (this one might be done without. I will try eventually)
Out of Box Experience (if you delete this the machine will not work)
SERVICES
RPC Locator (figure cMP needs this)

Make sure you disable Windows File Protection and Prefetch.
There are other things to do that should be obvious. Look at all of the choices after the main deletion menu. Many are personal taste choices and others disable or eliminate stuff you do not want. Do not rush through here the first time. Think about what you want.

This will result in the fastest WINDOWS install you have ever experienced.

Install the chipset drivers

Implement MINLOGON

Install JULI@ - be sure to go ahead and turn off the undeletable AUDIO CODEC and to check "do not map through this device' and "do not use the mixer".

Implement AWE - when you type in ADMINSITRATORS it will tell you it does not recognize the name. Disregard the warning, cancel out, SAVE and restart.

Install cMP2 software. make sure all is working and check to see if "AWE successful" - if not go through the MMC process again.

Do the optimizations - you will find many of them moot due to this minimal installation.

On my current build I disabled the SMBus Controller in HARDWARE and now it is tricky to restart into STEPPE's BIOS. Next time I will leave this enabled. Anybody know how to RESTART without turning the PS on and off?

Disable the SERVICES. You will notice the list is much smaller and many are already disabled.

Do AUTORUNS. I took a chance (all worked out well) and checked a few of the VIDEO CODECS.

Use the Steppe REGISTRY mods all at once. Junaid's batch files make this quick and easy.

I find it better to delete the files without the batch files with the exception of Junaid's batch file of Mihaylov's last list. After this is done you no longer have access to REG or AUTORUNS. I have had problems with the batch files at times but never with that one. Use one of the lists of files to keep to know what to leave in. You can delete whole swatchs of them pretty quickly between the files you must keep.

I have found it makes no difference in what order the files are deleted. I start at the top of the alphabet and work my way down. I started this on the music machine. You will find the machine will not let you delete some of the files. No big deal, you can get those when you connect the DRIVE to another machine which is the only way to get rid of the last files.

While connected to the cMP machine I did the FOLDERS deletions. I was not able to delete the entire SXS folder but I deleted as much as the machine would let me knowing I could get rid of the FOLDER itself when connected to another machine.

I did restart the machine every forty files or so.

I followed everyone's experience with the FOLDERS, the two Serge's and Junaid's screen shots. Whoever had taken away the most was what I followed.

With this my config FOLDER is a 5.1 mB, my total WINDOWS FOLDER is 36.2 mB.

Been listening to this off and on during the day. Tomorrow will sound better after Serge's Extreme BIOS has had time to settle in.

All in all, this is still quicker, much quicker, than a standard WINDOWS install and just the cMP optimizations.

I do not think it possible to get below this. I am going to try to delete a few files just for the sake of curiosity but I have a feeling I will see only blue screens in trying to go further.


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