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You do realize that OS X also bundles tons of drivers for third party hardware (such as printers) so that things "just work" when you plug them in? The reason is the same in Windows. People want it to work with the least amount of hassle. Support likes it this way too.
Hell if you told an average person that Windows XP was 2GB and Vista was 8GB they'd probably say "Wow! 8gigglybytes so it's 4 times faster?" It simply doesn't matter. What matters is they plug their camera in and the pictures of their kids pop on the screen.

Given how cheap hard drive space is now, I really would rather have the convenience of having the drivers on disk anyway. Windows used to require putting the OS disk in during new hardware installs. I would imagine they 9and OEMs) have saved a ton of money on support just by putting the install files on the HD. Most of the idiots I know throw out or lose the CDs that came with their PCs.

And if you don't want it on your HD you can take it out. There are also tools like Nlite for creating stripped down Windows XP installs. Additionally you can turn of a ton of services that are on by default if you don't have a use for them. If you are comfortable tweaking Linux it isn't any harder to make a stripped down Windows system.

Christ, why didn't you just roll your own install CD? It's not like it's that hard.

Well, they have announced on WU/MU that SP1's joining SP0 in EOL come October, IIRC.

And if all else fails.. nLite is your friend.

I concur with the parent as far as building unattended installs goes:
a few resources (some of which were mentioned earlier):
MSFN.org
nlite
BartPE
Technet XP Deployment ref
Disclaimer: Scan anything you download thoroughly for viruses. The worst thing you could do is inject a vulnerability in your image framework.

If you are in the position to need to reload your systems for any reason remotely I would suggest using a PXE deployment solution of some kind. Ghost/Altiris both provide good PXE and post-install config utilities. We use altiris and deploy our images through PXE. This allows for imaging in place after the fact, something that we try do semi-anually.

Every major vendor provides UNDI-Driver capable on-board nics now-a-days, so the headache of PXE (nic specific) boot images is pretty much a thing of the past (unless you were one of the saps who bought the Gateway E-4300s.)

There's something about booting to your nic, loading an image on a station in 8 minutes and monitoring the unattended install from a remote TS console miles away from the station you're reloading.

So does this allow you to "install" programs into the ISO file

Yes, that's exactly what it's for. I did this when I last upgraded my PC, because I was going SATA RAID, knew that the drivers wouldn't be available on my XP Pro CD (it predates SP1), and couldn't be bothered to buy a floppy drive (I've not had one for years). I integrated the drivers, Service Pack 2 and a few other hotfixes.

Have a look at this article, which details using nLite to perform the slipstreaming (note that the link in the article is dead for me).

It took me a couple of goes to get right, but ultimately that was my fault for not paying proper attention. The tool itself is pretty cool, and lets you integrate pretty-much anything appropriate into the installation CD, as well as allowing you to set defaults, including the product key; if you wish, you can make a completely unattended setup disk - literally allowing you to boot off the CD and walk away.

Maybe the extensive review is a tribute to the OS in question: Bulky and unnecessary.

All I have to say is http://www.nliteos.com/ (nlite Windows software) to the rescue.

Mucking about with things that are new or unfamiliar to you may have deleterious unintended side effects on your system. The same mucking about may also lead you to learn a few new tricks. I personally encourage trying new things but I would also like to strongly recommend that if you are unsure of yourself, practice on a system that is not relied upon for work or school. Missing deadlines can be bad; losing a nearly complete master's thesis can cause you to do things that will land you in jail. By contrast, toasting the install on a completely spare system may just give you an excuse to try the latest Linux/BSD/Solaris install that you've been itching to play with.

With that said.

A google search for "TCPIP.SYS patch" will turn up a little information on this.

The tool I used to change mine was nLite, which allowed me to make the changes to my install media prior to performing a fresh install. The desired setting in this program is in the 'Patches' area.

Another tool is available from a small German website that claims to allow you to change the settings without requireing a complete re-install. I have not tried this tool myself yet (since when I did my last install, this tool did not support x64) so I would recommend that you manually create a backup of your tcpip.sys file and set a windows restore point before you test it.

As for modifying your torrent client. I would recommend trying BitComet and playing with the connection settings paying particular attention to the effects of throttling the Global Upload rate, Max connections per task and max half-open connection settings. Other clients may have similar settings but you'll have to find those for yourself.

Hopefully this information was helpful and does not toast your system.

Part of using WindowsXP is knowing how to use XP, faults, quirks and all. It is well known that XP doesn't come with drivers for much of the new hardware out in the past few years. However, it is actually very easy to get around XP's install limitations by creating an XP cd that has the drivers you need slipstreamed in. See http://www.nliteos.com/ for a free tool that lets you slipstream service packs, updates, and drivers with a few clicks. I know we all love to hate Microsoft, but maybe we should spend some of that energy on solving our problems instead of just complaining.

I do it all the time.Use it for making a more secure machine for those that aren't computer savvy.Just install a better browser(I install Kmeleon,Firefox,Opera,And Seamonkey and let them choose what's best for them) and leave mshtml.dll for those programs that use it in their help files.

If you want to strip it from an exsisting pc,Here you go--http://www.litepc.com/xplite.html.It's not free,But $39.95 isn't a lot to pay when you consider all the MS crapware that it lets you toss.Not to mention the Malware can't exploit what isn't there.

Ok some tools I use to make my life easier (all free):

• nlite (creates unattended installs, needs dotnet) slipstreams automatically service packs and hotfixes and allows other unattended options (more then MS tools). w2k and higher only. http://www.nliteos.com/
• autopatcher contains all the hotfixes, tweaks and third party extras like dotnet 1,2, flash, shockwave, java. http://www.autopatcher.com/ **
• driverpacks contains all the winxp drivers in existence (I think) http://driverpacks.net/Projects/DriverPacks/
• RVM packs, contains hotfixes and some extras. And is compatible with nlite. http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/ **

Basic usage:

• Drop the contents of your winxp install CD onto your HD. Download the latest service pack.
• Start and Point nlite to both.
• Choose any option that you like but don't create an iso.
• It will automatically integrate the service pack.
• About integrating hotfixes see RVM packs, which is compatible with nlite. http://www.ryanvm.net/msfn/ (also more info about appz integration)
• Again options, choose what fits you. (Talking about nlite)
• Save
• Now follow the driverpacks site instructions to add the drivers to your install CD/DVD.
• About integrating extra applications see: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/page/list /switch/ for general info look at its home site: http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ and google for specific appz.
• After first boot run autopatcher latest version. (if needed, RVM packs if done well, don't need this step)
• Run your personal little script.
• Now you have a working winxp installation with all tools and most actual updates.
• Deploy!

You can make a bartpe dvd with all the drivers installed to work on most hardware.
There is a DVD floating around on BT sites that have an updated winxp with all patches/drivers and some needed applications. But I recommend making one yourself for security reasons. (rootkit/etc)

Driver packs and Driverpacks.net
Ryan's windows xp updates
nlite to help modify a windows install.
Bart PE - bootable dvd/cd for windows install.

You may want to take a look at nLite (http://www.nliteos.com./ It is essencially a graphical front-end to Unattended, and allows you to create a fully working installer image with imbedded applications in less than 5 minutes (after you figure your way around). Very useful tool.

Seems no one is giving serious answers so i guess i will be the only one

Freeware or open source software:
01. Firefox, http://www.getfirefox.com/
02. Winamp, http://www.winamp.com/
03. Miranda, http://www.miranda-im.org/
04. Media Player Classic, http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli
05. ffdshow, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
06. CDBurnerXp Pro, http://www.cdburnerxp.se/
07. Daemon-tools, http://www.daemon-tools.cc/
08. uTorrent, http://www.utorrent.com/
09. XnView, http://perso.wanadoo.fr/pierre.g/xnview/enhome.htm l
10. ExactAudioCopy, http://www.exactaudiocopy.de/
11. Dev-C++, http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
12. 7-zip, http://www.7-zip.org/
13. Real Alternative, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Real_Alternati ve.htm
14. QuickTime Alternative, http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alte rnative.htm
15. Process Explorer, http://www.sysinternals.com/utilities/processexplo rer.html
16. Uniform Server, http://www.uniformserver.com/
17. nLite, http://www.nliteos.com/ (sp+hotfix+driver slipstreaming and ability to remove almost anything from the windows installation disc, including wmp, ie, drivers, services, etc, you can get your windows install disc down to 180MB with a 70MB RAM footprint after boot).

Commercial/Shareware software.
01. NOD32, http://www.nod32.com/ - simply the best antivirus software out there
02. Cinema4D, http://www.maxoncomputer.com/ Great modelling/rendering program (also available for OS X)
03. mIRC, http://www.mirc.com/ not the best irc client, but it has a tiny memory footprint/feature ratio
04. Directory Opus, http://www.gpsoft.com.au/ replace Explorer with a far better file manager.
05. UltraEdit, http://www.ultraedit.com/ great editor for many textbased formats
06. Visual Studio, http://microsoft.com/
07. Nero Burning ROM. http://www.ahead.de/ my burning program of choice

Despite the fact that this article has little to nothing to do with the "slowness" of Windows loading/execution (which is, of course, debatable depending on the app in question), I'll indulge the M$ haters and throw this into the mix.

If you want faster Windows, use nLite. It's a beautiful tool that lets one take a Windows XP installation CD and make any number of modifications to it: remove unwanted components/drivers, preset Windows settings, slipstream hotfixes and service packs...even completely automate the installation process by presetting all installation information (license key, etc.). Then, it generates a brand spanking new ISO for you to burn and use for installation. It's glorious.

After nLite-ing my personal XP installation, I must say I have never been happier with Windows. I've left it running for weeks with no problems. A fresh installation of my nLited XP is just over 1 GB of HDD space (whereas the typical XP installation can top 3 GB). It could have been less, but not without removing several components that I wanted to keep.

Granted, this tweaking is not without its quirks. I do occasionally get a warning about "unrecognized file versions", but thus far ignoring them has not caused any problems. I would suggest the following though: I know it's tempting to remove IE right off the bat, but trust me when I say don't. It is needed for some very important functions (such as updates). Also, I would caution against removing Windows Media Player as well. Sure, you may never use it (hell, I never did), but if you remove it, it takes its codecs with it, which can cause other apps to not function properly (such as Winamp). I guess you never know what you have until it's gone. If you're bound and determined to remove it, then I highly recommend the ACE Mega Codecs Pack as a replacement.

Happy hacking!

Linux on the other hand, IME, is not quite as easy to get running too well. I've tried several distributions, but have not tried Xubuntu as of yet. Even on a fairly modern system (2GHz, 1GB RAM, etc, etc) it seems that Linux is lacking in a few areas. As someone else said, it still uses a 20 year old (is it really that old?) method of talking with the video card, while the kernel is set to talk to most of the other hardware.

Going along with a few posts up, Linux is great and all because one can make their own OS, technically, and not get fried for it. For those of you that want some more customization from 2000/XP/2003, get http://www.nliteos.com/

I've used it on a few of my machines to add drivers and whatnot before installing XP, and they work just great! You can even add some security by taking some components out before installing it, even. With Linux, I believe that's a little harder, since you have to do everything yourself before you can do anything with it.

Mind you, I am all about open-source and everything, but Linux is not as easy to setup and use as Windows XP, or even Mac OSX, for that matter.

it SHOULD be possible to make your own automated install disc (fun job! what a PITA!) that will not only answer questions for you, but will have SP2 in it, avoiding the whole problem entirely.

Use nLite to apply SP2 to the disc, silly. :-P

http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/ plus a convenient list of patches from http://www.kuku.co.il/windows_xp_sp2_patches.htm , the data from your XP install CD and http://www.nliteos.com should get you a long way on the road to slipstreamed glory.

I've been working on this for a while, it's harder than it should be but it's certainly possible.

The place that helped the most was MSFN Unattended, the documentation there takes you through this kind of stuff step-by-step. They also have forums and driver packs that will help you install to almost any system you can imagine without needing extra driver disks, the BTS DriverPack is the greatest driver collection I've ever seen.

To make your life easier, nLite will automate a bunch of the steps you'll want to use, plus it can strip out a bunch of stuff that you don't want in your install anyway.

http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html lots of features to put onto xp install cd

Nlite can do this. It can slipstream all the post-SP2 hotfixes, your own drivers, make tweaks, and then reduce the installation process to about 4 clicks.

Use Microsoft Security Bulletin Search to find all the hotfixes you need, making sure you tick the box that reads 'Show only bulletins that contain updates that have not been replaced by a more recent update.'.

For those with never enough time to be as nitpicky as they'd like:

Nlite is a wizard which will prep custom XP or 2003 install discs for you. It will slipstream service packs and hotfixes in, add drivers (including storage or net drivers for the initial installer), remove drivers and services, allows you to setup unattended install, plus has tons of other tweaks and adjustments. You can then install directly from the modified install folder, or have Nlite prep an ISO and burn a bootable CD.

I recently used it to strip XP down to run in under 64MB RAM on an older laptop. Runs like a charm, and needed no updates when installed.

Also perfect for preparing an initial install image for use with RIS and sysprep.

Of course, you still have to find and download the hotfixes, but I think some of the other posts in this discussion have pretty well covered that part.

Nlite is a great tool designed exactly for this. I've used it for several installs, and have created a CD that will install XPSP2 with hotfixes and all my drivers, and none of the extra crap that gets installed by default. It starts up in my LCD's native res, includes all my critical apps (firefox, etc.) right on the CD, and is completely unattended.

A lot of people just use it to update with SPs, but you can use it for regular updates and drivers, too. If you need help, you can use a utility like AutoPatcher or nLite to get you started.

Download nLite.

I've been building pre-patched ISO's using nlite. Slipstreams in all the service packs and lets me pre-patch. The original parent asked why... nothing like an hour of downloading little patches to make me want a roll up of some sort.

I can find service pack 3 just fine.. It's at this site called autopatcher. Also there's this tool to make slipstreamed and unintended installs, here. Also, windowsupates works just fine in firefox.

Fine tools from the folks NOT at microsoft..

Try the Windows Powertoys TweakUI.

Makes it easy to move not just /My_Documents/ to another drive/folder, but also /Program_Files/.

You want to move /Program_Files/ to your D: drive (big IDE drive.) Photoshop will thank you btw, it creates its own magic swap file, and prefers it to not be on the same disk as window's swap.*

If you want to trim up windows, investigate nLite (http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html). It is a menu-driven program for making windows install cd's, which you can use to tweak almost every parameter, down to which services are disabled/manual when it is installed. It will slipstream in hotfixes, and you can in fact slipstream in applications, should you wish to do so. (The last requires hacking the installers for those apps with a hex editor. Not for the fainthearted.) nLite does NOT remove the requirement for authentication or for product keys, so no free lunch to you warez folk.

-r.



*allegedly making window's swap a constant size also improves performance/prevents fragmentation. To fix it on an existing install, create a new swapfile on D:, remove swap from C:, reboot, defrag C:, create a new swapfile on C:, get rid of swap on D: Given a constant size, it shouldn't spill all over you harddisk. See WindowsXP Annoyances, 3rd ed.

If you are fanatical about performance, move the applications to another HD on a different ide channel (not slave) or onto a scsi or SATA channel that is separate from the OS. If you are really fanatical, put the os and swapfile on a SATA raid 0 configuration, and separte data and programs as suggested. None of these last solutions have been tested by me, your milage may vary.

And I call BS on you. There are a ton of resources available for experienced Windows users to allow an incredibly customised Windows installation, along with integrating SATA/RAID drivers.

As you noted, XP doesn't go out of it's way to offer every single option under the sun within it's installer, and describes every process it's going through, which can be helpful to the average user. And I admit, especially in the case of the floppy drivers, RAID/(some)SATA setups can be irritating if you don't want to have to go customise your installation CD, but let's face it, pick any Linux installer from before 2003 (release date of SP2 for XP, I could've used XP's release date... but I decided to be lenient ;) and you'll find that just as much messing around is needed to get everything working 'out-of-the-box'.

Back to your point, there are a ton of resources around that allow fairly easy creation of a customised XP CD (I define 'easy' as 'I can do it'... I'm far from an expert =P) with integrated drivers, program installations and a more openly explained process of the XP installation. Try these resources:

- Integrated Drivers for XP
- Great at removing unneeded items, setting up automatic installation, and lots of other handy things
- An amazing and comprehensive guide to creating a customised XP installation
- Microsoft's own deployment tool

You're better off with using nLite. This will strip down the install cd, then lets you create a new iso that you can burn to cd. I don't see a mention on the XPlite site of this capability. And, nLite is free whereas XPlite is paid software.
I've used nLite to strip XP sp2 to a 130MB iso and installed it on the laptop from work. It has 512 MB ram but I can run two virtual XP sessions with Virtual PC, have Firefox open with a dozen tabs, nvu, several rdp sessions, plenty of explorer windows, some other smaller utilities and the only time it slows down is when I haven't used it for hours and switch desktops with Virtual Dimension.

Well the cost of customers having viruses and spyware maybe but not the license :-)

Some of the time thats the fault of the OEM's. Some even come with (spy|crap)ware out of the box ffs. A friend of mine recently bought a cheap OEM machine which had SP2 installed just fine, but not a single hotfix since. Spybot S&D found several (albeit minor) issues straight away.

Worse still is most OEM's give you a rubbish recovery disc that restores this poor condition, with no Windows disc to be found. (I always use Magic Jelly Bean's keyfinder, to find the CDKEY used by the OEM, and burn off an XP OEM disc myself, with SP2 and all the post-SP2 hotfixes slipsteamed using nLite. For my friend I also made his disc as unattended as possible and included some useful batch files and drivers)

If you want to avoid the second issue you mentioned you have to goto a small time box builder that'll give you a quality installation, unfortunately I suspect you're going to get hit with the real cost of the Windows license.

You can remove IE from windows, nlite.

It is possible using a program such as nLite to create an XP ISO without the executable itself, although the rendering core (Trident) still needs to be installed unless you want a huge headache (as tons of stuff depends on it).

The following registry tweaks should be used with caution:
IoPageLockLimit: increases the amount of pages that can be locked into memory. Changing this setting can improve performance although there is some controversy over this setting's effectiveness. Make sure that you have at least 256MB of RAM. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CONTROL\CURRENTCONTROLSE T\CONTROL\Session Manager\Memory Management\IoPageLockLimit. If it is no there you can create it. This is DWORD value. For systems with at least 256MB of RAM, 8000 hex (32768 decimal) or 10000 hex (64536 decimal). You can use 20000 hex (131072 decimal) on systems with 512MB+ of RAM. Warning: this setting may not be compatible with some drivers; especially video drivers. Enabling this option could cause critical processes and services to fail. You might not be able to log in.

LargeSystemCache: This setting is primarily used for servers but can help improve performance. Again, it's effectiveness may be controversial. It is located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CONTROL\CURRENTCONTROLSE T\CONTROL\Session Manager\Memory Management\LargeSystemCache. If the key is not there, you can create it. This is a DWORD value. 0 for disabled. 1 for enabled.

DisablePageExecutive: Again this is a controversial setting. You may or may not notice a difference in performance and it is driver sensitive so be forewarned about using it. It too has the potential to cause crashes after being enabled. This setting prevents kernel memory from being paged. It is located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CONTROL\CURRENTCONTROLSE T\CONTROL\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive. This is a DWORD value. 0 for disabled. 1 for enabled.
Note: Any problems encountered from changing these settings will be noticed on next boot. They are a "either it's fine or it isn't" settings.

To reduce boot time, you can disable autodetection of devices on IDE controllers that have no devices connected to them. This can be done from the device manager. Also, adjust Windows for best performance and turn off the themes service.

Lastly, there's XPlite which can help cut down on some of the fat. Also, be sure to check out TweakXP.com for more XP performance tweaks. And there's nLite. Unlike XPlite, nLite allows you to remove Windows components before installation. It also has service pack integration.

Another idea along the same lines. Use NLite to get a good basic install of WinXP with SP2 and post-SP2 patches slipstreamed. This can be fully unattended. Personally, I leave the computer name field blank. During the install, the only thing I have to do is partition the hard drive and then fill in the computer name.

http://www.nliteos.com/

Once you have the laptops up and running, log into your domain and allow the Active Directory system to push additional software to the laptops. You can configure AD to push and install MSI packages as soon as they login to the domain. I think all the packages have to be in the MSI format. But I'm not too sure about that.

http://www.nliteos.com/ allows you to create a custom windows install disk eg removal of components(like IE)/integrated hotfixes/servicepacks.

You can remove IE, as well as Windows Media Player and half of the other junk included with Windows.
Check out nLite
http://www.nliteos.com/

These hardware requirements are just to push manufacturers to their limit by making higher performance parts. Thus, parts that will most likely run Vista (and definatly XP) at a minimum smooth speed will be cheaper. This is all a good thing.

Is that a bloated OS in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Seriously, Bart's PE probably takes up 300MB. Double that for some fancyness in the full blown windows XP that MS ships.

Seriously, check out nLite, and also at the nLite forum, especially this FAQ. This is a free Win2k and XP customisable installer. You can use this to get a seriously stripped down install that should run on your old dogs. Worth checking out other parts of this site if you've got to admin Windows.

You need to use "nlite-os" to create a bootable Windows CD with the required drivers on. I had the same problem as you.

http://www.nliteos.com/

See nLite, a method of customising Windows installers, that among other things lets you add your own drivers to the CD image. (You will need to prepare this on a PC running 2k or XP though.) There's a forum if you have any problems.

Check out NLite to slipstream service packs, hotfixes, answer files, and drivers. It works really well for all my custom windows disks. Get it here: http://www.nliteos.com/

I'd just say:

Nlite, nuff said.

But then you wouldn't see how this measures up to the article in question. So I'll say it like this:

Windows XP SP2 running on a Pentium 166 mhz with 32 meg RAM, only possible with Nlite.

I ran this along with Xampp to provide myself with a nice little development box that could still use Firefox/Thunderbird so roommates could read the web, play web games, and check their email.

I didn't hear any complaining except during playback of certain XviD and DivX files in BSplayer.

I'd just say:

Nlite, nuff said.

But then you wouldn't see how this measures up to the article in question. So I'll say it like this:

Windows XP SP2 running on a Pentium 166 mhz with 32 meg RAM, only possible with Nlite.

I ran this along with Xampp to provide myself with a nice little development box that could still use Firefox/Thunderbird so roommates could read the web, play web games, and check their email.

I didn't hear any complaining except during playback of certain XviD and DivX files in BSplayer.

I agree that Microsoft's Windows installer is hopelessly antiquated--it doesn't look like it's changed much since Windows NT--but there actually is a way to get SATA drivers installed without a floppy. This program can, given your Windows CD, generate a bootable ISO with your SATA drivers (plus the latest service pack if you want) pre-installed.

Combine that guide with this:

http://www.nliteos.com/ ... and you dont even have to go into commandline

Well, they'll probably never give it to you, but you can definitely have it.

http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html allows you to pull unwanted components from your windows install cd's, including media player, messenger and internet explorer. If you're so inclined I highly recommend making your own personalized install.

It also comes in particularly handy when you want to keep people from using IE after their machine gets hosed by malware.

As an aside, I find it much easier to just write the new install files into my CD image rather than burn a new one from folders on the disk and as a bonus the CD is typically smaller that way as well.

It allows you to customize a install cdrom for XP, i.e. no Media Player or Movie Maker. (Can also remove a whole lot more.)

Try Nlite:

Have you ever wanted to remove some Windows components like Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, Messenger...

How about not even to install them with Windows ?

nLite is a GUI for permanent Windows component removal by your choice. After removal there is an option to make bootable image ready for burning on cd or testing in virtual machines. With nLite you will be able to have Windows installation which on install doesn't include, or even contain on cd, unwanted components.