SMALL WinXP

[Spero]

Hi Everyone, new to the forum, I just signed up and I thought I'd share a little something.

I've seen numerous posts on several different forums in the past, with people wanting to know how to shrink down windows. Well I have done just that, without using embedded windows XP.
Quite some time ago I was playing with XP a bit and I managed to manually get it down to around 300 MB. (Keep in mind, all of this has to be done with no page file, or a page file on a seperate drive). Then a short while ago I got XP down to about 180 MB, with audio still working, internet explorer, able to use the internet and everything. I did remove many programmes, but the required ones for the internet and stuff were there. Although you'd need your own audio/video players like winamp, divx player, etc.

Well, now I've really done it! I wasn't satisfied with that, so I wanted to see how small I could get it, even if it meant having next to nothing on it. I have windows on here twice, and my small one doesn't need anything. I just use it to restore my main install if it's broken, or fix problems etc. So with a little help from XP lite (found at http://www.litepc.com) and a LOT of manual tweaks, about 100 reboots, and lots of testing I got it down to 150mb 3 days ago...well yesterday I got it even smaller. Currently at 73.1 MB (including the space a NTFS drive uses too, actual Windows folder size is 57.4 MB and 29 MB when put in a RAR file!)

Keep in mind not much works. But windows starts up, looks like windows, you can use programmes that you install on it, or run things from your primary windows install. I know it wouldn't be a lot of use to most people, but I just thought I'd answer some people's questions and let them know you can shrink it very small. I'd also like to know if anyone has gotten it smaller, without the embedded version. My small version is windows XP professional, no service packs, or SP1 I can't remember.

Exact instructions are not possible. XP lite as stated above will help some. I have no Program files folder, no System folder, plus thousands of other files in other folders.

Drive stats - (on a compressed NTFS drive) Documents and settings 336kb. Windows folder + sub folders - 57.4 MB, 1,044 files.
Folders directly in the Windows folder, 10.
Folders directly in the System32 folder, 2

I'm not done shrinking yet, I just got a bit tired from moving files, rebooting, moving, rebooting lol.

Ok that's a fairly long post, and possibly useless to many people, but anyone who wanted to know how small it can be, there you have it. Under 75MB, and probably smaller later. Remember, this has none of the normal windows programmes, no page file, no audio or video codecs, or much of anything. It does however have all of the drivers on it now, which some I may try to remove later. I'd love to hear if anyone's come close to this before, and if you have specific questions about it I'll try to answer them.

[mb26]

haven't tried with XP yet but i have windows 98se down to like 60mb or something? (it can go smaller if ur anal about it) fully working with programs (ie, D-X, media player, firefox, winamp, IM, bearshare, drivers for everything [audio and gfx take up quite a bit of space] etc etc) its ~120mb i thnk. brilliant . must try win2k sometime too!

[Spero]

Cool. That doesn't sound too bad. I only tried with windows 98 a small amount. If I'd had the full 98 lite and a win95 disc at the time I probably would have tried more. I also tried with win2k a little too. I can't remember what size it was, and it was when I wasn't daring and didn't put that much effort into it. It'd be interesting to see if anyone has done it with win2k though. I may try it one day, but not anytime in the near future.

[Thebranded]

where can we get instructions/guides to do this? link seems like a company that'll do it for you. (did'nt spend too much time in there though)

would be really interested in XP running at about 200 mb. (dats with audio/video support.

This will work on a P2 500 lappy? 6gb HDD?

[mb26]

the thing about ur lappy is, it probably wont have drivers for the sound and graphics made for windows XP? if its a well supported board then u might be lucky; but check it out first.
if that does work; then sure XP will work.. just not super fast perhaps (faster than 'fat' XP thou, could be fine).. i would reccomend using Win2000 thou, stable like XP but also faster, and more likely to have drivers perhaps.

the link is a company who make software that does it; u can download a version that does most of it free, but the full version u have to pay 4.. they also go to further extremes (down to like 8mb with w98)- this is the case that they have to do it for you, and pretty much only for 1 use computers for businesses (like kiosks at shopping centres)

[Thebranded]

really not sure, its a Dell Cpi system, being dell i assume drivers may not be an issue. Main thing i want is to make it load as fast as possible and be fully compatiable with win XP (rest of pcs are XP) This is going to be a lappy for my younger bro for school work, no games.