Windows should come with a minimal install option.

[joshnz]

minimal install is one feature I like with linux.

[goontron]

Re: Windows should come with a minimal install option.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd184075.aspx

[joshnz]

Re: Windows should come with a minimal install option.

That is for server I am meaning for retail versions.

[Used_Cars]

Re: Windows should come with a minimal install option.

minimal install is one feature I like with linux.

Back in the day there was a software named "nLite" and after Win7 I think it evolved into "vLite". I stopped messing with it before vLite.

What nLite would do is take your Installation CD and add-in whatever updates and hotfixes and service packs and tweaks, and then output either a burned CD or an image file (ISO) so that you could make as many installation disks as you wanted.

It was aimed I think primarily at computer professionals that worked in large corporations (IBM, Dell, etc...) where they had to maintain dozens, hundreds of computers. So they could configure a single installation disk "their way" and then distribute it throughout the company and each installation would be exactly the same. The number of options was incredible. If you could imagine a way for something to be done in advance prior to the install, so that you wouldn't have to do it after the install, nLite would do it. There was another guy named "Ryan" and he would make "Ryans VM Packs" (or similar language) which were all the updates from Microsoft (updates, service packs, hotfixes, whatever) and he'd consolidate them into a single, compressed file. So, within the nLite gui, you'd take one (for example) Win7 Installation CD (or image file, mounted using something like Daemon Tools), the latest Ryans VM pack, and a file that you had made previously with all your tweaks (it was an nLite specific data file, made by nLite, for nLite and then copied to a directory so that you could duplicate whatever it was that you did another time), anyways nLite would take A + B + C and make a Installation disk (or image) that would do a completely "hands off" install. (There was another buzz-word they actually used, but I can't remember it.) You'd insert the disk, turn on the system, the machine would start the install and maybe 2 hours later, after numerous restarts and what-not, the machine would be completely done and ready for perhaps a final few handful of Windows Updates (machine-specific drivers and whatever updates were released by MS since the last Ryans was made available.

So that, you could run installs on perhaps 20 different computers (all at the same time) and they'd all be done within 3 hours. Compared to doing one computer in 3 hours, where you have to stand there and watch the stupid thing, and click "Yes" and "Continue".

I used the thing because I fiddled with my machine, constantly. Got infected regularly. Porn, torrents, hacks, etc... everything bad you can imagine was what I went out looking for. I'm older now and more conservative. The payoff was just not worth the risk and when things went south, they went bad HARD. I lost a few hard drives due to screwing around with software that "did things" to the BIOS. You learn, after a while.

But nLite was highly safe. So, if you are one of those people that advocating reinstalling windows every time it burps or farts, looking into vLite or whatever is doing it's job now might be useful to you.

On that subject, the "frequent reinstallers" demographic, I used to mock and laugh at those people but after many years I have come to the belief that sometimes it's the best, fastest and easiest way to fix things. I can reinstall my O/S in half a day (while doing other things), or I can fiddle around with it for weeks and still fail to fix the problem. Trick is to get your important data stored on a separate hard drive, or at least have the ability to port it off the target HD quickly. Doing a mirror, or making an image, or whatever. Knowing where that "important data" is, is also very important. Oh, and never trust the Windows data back up. It's crap. Total crap. Example back in the day, data backed-up using Windows Vista would not import into a freshly installed version of Windows Vista, Service Pack 1. Just one of the many reasons why Bill Gates should be crucified while hanging upside down, and then covered in gasoline and set on fire. Allah Akbar. People seem to have stopped hating him, so for those of us that still remember, it's important to keep those flames of hatred alive.

[joshnz]

Re: Windows should come with a minimal install option.

Back in the day there was a software named "nLite" and after Win7 I think it evolved into "vLite". I stopped messing with it before vLite.

What nLite would do is take your Installation CD and add-in whatever updates and hotfixes and service packs and tweaks, and then output either a burned CD or an image file (ISO) so that you could make as many installation disks as you wanted.

It was aimed I think primarily at computer professionals that worked in large corporations (IBM, Dell, etc...) where they had to maintain dozens, hundreds of computers. So they could configure a single installation disk "their way" and then distribute it throughout the company and each installation would be exactly the same. The number of options was incredible. If you could imagine a way for something to be done in advance prior to the install, so that you wouldn't have to do it after the install, nLite would do it. There was another guy named "Ryan" and he would make "Ryans VM Packs" (or similar language) which were all the updates from Microsoft (updates, service packs, hotfixes, whatever) and he'd consolidate them into a single, compressed file. So, within the nLite gui, you'd take one (for example) Win7 Installation CD (or image file, mounted using something like Daemon Tools), the latest Ryans VM pack, and a file that you had made previously with all your tweaks (it was an nLite specific data file, made by nLite, for nLite and then copied to a directory so that you could duplicate whatever it was that you did another time), anyways nLite would take A + B + C and make a Installation disk (or image) that would do a completely "hands off" install. (There was another buzz-word they actually used, but I can't remember it.) You'd insert the disk, turn on the system, the machine would start the install and maybe 2 hours later, after numerous restarts and what-not, the machine would be completely done and ready for perhaps a final few handful of Windows Updates (machine-specific drivers and whatever updates were released by MS since the last Ryans was made available.

So that, you could run installs on perhaps 20 different computers (all at the same time) and they'd all be done within 3 hours. Compared to doing one computer in 3 hours, where you have to stand there and watch the stupid thing, and click "Yes" and "Continue".

I used the thing because I fiddled with my machine, constantly. Got infected regularly. Porn, torrents, hacks, etc... everything bad you can imagine was what I went out looking for. I'm older now and more conservative. The payoff was just not worth the risk and when things went south, they went bad HARD. I lost a few hard drives due to screwing around with software that "did things" to the BIOS. You learn, after a while.

But nLite was highly safe. So, if you are one of those people that advocating reinstalling windows every time it burps or farts, looking into vLite or whatever is doing it's job now might be useful to you.

On that subject, the "frequent reinstallers" demographic, I used to mock and laugh at those people but after many years I have come to the belief that sometimes it's the best, fastest and easiest way to fix things. I can reinstall my O/S in half a day (while doing other things), or I can fiddle around with it for weeks and still fail to fix the problem. Trick is to get your important data stored on a separate hard drive, or at least have the ability to port it off the target HD quickly. Doing a mirror, or making an image, or whatever. Knowing where that "important data" is, is also very important. Oh, and never trust the Windows data back up. It's crap. Total crap. Example back in the day, data backed-up using Windows Vista would not import into a freshly installed version of Windows Vista, Service Pack 1. Just one of the many reasons why Bill Gates should be crucified while hanging upside down, and then covered in gasoline and set on fire. Allah Akbar. People seem to have stopped hating him, so for those of us that still remember, it's important to keep those flames of hatred alive.

I have used nlite before I was saying as a stock option.

[diif]

Re: Windows should come with a minimal install option.

I think you are referring to Zero Touch installs Used Cars. nLite was more for computer repair shops than Enterprise as there are better tools for deploying images over a network.
It took about 30 minutes to deploy a 20GB Windows image. That was from PXE booting to logging on to a fully updated Win 7 with all the software installed.

[Uranium-235]

Re: Windows should come with a minimal install option.

I think windows millennium edition was the last one that did