The Components dialog can be tricky.
Unlike the Compatibility dialog, the
Components dialog is used to remove
components in particular categories, such
as accessories, drivers, and hardware sup-
port. Checked items will be removed from
your image. As you select each item, a help
dialog on the right side of the display lists
the size of the item, what it does, and under
what situations it should be kept. Items that
can be particularly dangerous to remove are
listed in red type.
We removed Paint, Snipping Tool, and
Wordpad from Accessories (they won’t be
missed), almost all items in the Driver cat-egory except for some storage control-
ler listings (we’ll install updated video
drivers ourselves), all games (Vista’s
games are pretty lame), fax and iSCSI
support from the Hardware Support
category, Asian language support from
the Languages category, sample fi les
from the Multimedia category, and IIS
from the Network category. We kept all
of the services.
The original Windows Ultimate
installation includes 172 total items. We
selected 68 for removal. Once you have
your list ready, click Next to continue.The Tweaks dialog allows you
to preconfi gure commonly
changed settings in four areas.
The Security option lets you edit
Anti-Spyware Realtime Protection,
Data Execution Prevention, and
UAC options. The System section
allows you to set AutoPlay and
paging executive, hibernation,
memory requirement, Power but-
ton, and Sleep button options.
Explorer lets you edit view set-
tings for the Control Panel, fi leextensions, hidden fi les and folders, and
operating system fi les. And fi nally, the
Internet Explorer option allows you to edit
the IE Phishing fi lter and phishing verifi ca-
tion balloon tips. Click an item you want to
change (such as the Power button), and a
pull-down menu arrow appears to the right
of the current setting. Select the setting
you prefer. Click Next to continue.The Unattended dialog helps
you create an unattended instal-
lation. In the General tab, you
can select your preferences
for the install process. “Select
this version on install” refers to
the version of Vista you speci-
fi ed when you started vLite;
the “Protect your PC” button
lets you choose an automatic-
update setting. In the Regional
tab, you can specify the UI lan-
guage, time and currency for-
mat, keyboard or input method,
and time zone.Once done with the Unattended
tab, click Apply to open the Apply
Method dialog. Of the three options
given, use Rebuild One (the default)
to create the smallest ISO image and
smallest installation size (select the
others to see suggestions on when
to use them). Click OK. It takes about
15 minutes to complete changes to
the install image. Click Next when
prompted to open the ISO menu.
You can create an ISO fi le on disk,
CD, or DVD. You can adjust burn
speed, verify the image after writing
it, perform a simulated test write, or
split the image to fi t onto multiple CDs.
After you create an install disc, use the
Preset menu to save your confi guration
for reuse before exiting vLite.5 Remove Components to Slim Vista
Tweak Now, Save Time Later
Run an
Unattended
Installation
Burn a New
Installation Disc
6
how 2 IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
Selecting components to remove can be
tricky. Keep an eye on the Help window to
the right for suggestions and warnings.If you’re always tweaking these set-
tings anyway, let vLite do it for you,
and you won’t have to make the
changes ever again!You get a few different options for making your
final disc, based on how much time you want
to spend!64 MAXIMUMPC | MAY 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
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