[winxp] GUIDE: Making your windows folder smaller!

[MulletRobZ]

XP Lite is another good way to delete some unnecessary crap off that PC, but thanks for the info, NeoMayhem. That DLLCache deletion would serve me good! :)

[Oblivion]

very nice software :)

[Mister Lamar]

I got Minez down to 671MB, but I can't use XP search anymore :pinch: I have to use tweak XP and set explorer to use classic search

[Bold_Fortune]

bolf_fortune ----> your link dont work

Sorry. Here you go. The first link below is about the overall slimming down of XP. The second link below is about individual system32 files which can be deleted. Again, these lists are two big to post here, so that is the reason for the links. Enjoy.

http://www.bit-quest.com/forums/index.php?...opic=1697&st=15

http://www.bit-quest.com/forums/index.php?...opic=1087&st=30

[bachikho]

in a hole afternoon, with XPlite Pro and Bold Fortune's guide, I got my winxp MCE folder (include directx 9.0b, WMP 9, PC-cillin 2k4...) reducing to 366M size on disk, is it worth to do? It'll take lot of time to know if it'll cause any problems!

[bachikho]

it's so terrible to fight with Bold's (.dll in system32) list, is there any automated files to delete these files instead?

[bachikho]

oops, so much problems with Bold's XPlite, I think it better using XPlite Pro, it's much more safer!

[Wildies]

Thanx man alot for this helpfull giude , i used it and it help me alot (Y)

[VazaGothic]

What about disabling some services in WinXP - it should speed up things a bit :)

I've used the information put on this web site:

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

to disable about 30% of services running on my wife's computer

(she has pretty slow computer - PIII 500MHz) and it seemed to work pretty well :)

[Bold_Fortune]

VazaGothic, yes, disabling some unnecessary Services can help out with your system's performance. Seeing you post that here makes me think that you may be thinking that deleting some system files will improve performance also. Well, I wouldn't count on that too much. If you do see some improvement, great. I can't say I do really. If I do, it's more like...you know when after you've just finished washing and waxing your car? You sware to God it drives faster now. But I don't think it does. Deleting files for me is more of a hobby. I enjoy discovery the meanings and applications of files. But deleting files, for the most part, is just something to do.

[Pink Floyd Veteran]

wow 546 mb deleted! thanks a lot!!

[Guest]

dont mean to sound ignorant or anything, but say i have a big harddrive, whats the point making the win directory any smaller, surely if you are going to back it up by fitting it on a cd, wouldnt you need windows installed before you could restore, Please explain, lol :D

[Bold_Fortune]

That's pretty simple. Say I have all my programs installed, all my settings made, all my updates current, and all on a 700MB CD backing it all up. Now, say I get mess up, or I get a virus, and it wipes out everything. Then I re-install Windows...and immediately install Drive Image 2000...then I pop in my backup image on the CD...copy it to another partition...and then replace my fresh install with that one. Get it now? See, I don't have to redo everything. It's already done.

There are other methods of backing up your system. All good. This is a method I thought up because I don't like the idea of creating boot disks and such. This is the backup system I use. I'm not suggesting it. It just works for me, as they say.

[lnmnky]

i went through this and gained 500~600mb.

however, I can no longer install option windows components.

Not a real biggy, just I hope I never need to....

Luna

[Bold_Fortune]

lunamonkey, that is usually related to deleting ".inf" files in C:\WINDOWS\inf. I do not reccomend deleting all the .inf files. What I do suggest is deleting the ".PNF" files ONLY. These are cache-type files which directly correspond to their .inf file. A good example of this is...delete all the .PNF files ONLY. Now, go to your Optional Components Manager, and search around and play around in their for awhile. Then reopen C:\WINDOWS\inf and notice all the .PNF files that were re-created. See, you need certain ".inf". If you delete them, some things aren't going to work.

C:\WINDOWS\inf

I deleted all .PNF files in this folder.

(PNF files, are cache-type files that will be re-created when and if their corresponding .inf file is called upon.

Per relder: It's a "pre-compiled" version of the ASCII .INF file that gets created when the Setup first processes a particular .INF file. It's done to speed up searches of the .INF files (as you've noticed there are LOTS of those on the system in Windows 2000/XP); if the dates of the .INF and .PNF files compare favorably (.PNF is later than .INF) the corresponding .PNF file will be used (if present).

If, and only after you give it some time, (say 30 days), a corresponding .PNF file is not re-created alongside the .INF file, it most-likely means you aren't using the .INF file. I go ahead and delete them. (What I do sometimes instead of waiting, is run through every application on my system and then delete (or save) all the .INF files that haven't created a corresponding .PNF file beside it.)

However, in the meanwhile, and I picked this tip up from NeoMayhem, who like me, is also is also into trimming down his XP installation: "Do a search for mdm*.* and delete everything that comes up. These are all modem drivers, and it is very unlikely you will ever need them because you either have a modem installed already, or if you do add one, it will come with newer drivers." I also delete the "mdminst.dll" (Modem Class Installer) from the system32 folder. It'll also come up with the search.

(Total Savings: 35.9MB, and 878 files )

Edited December 2, 2003 by Bold_Fortune

[NeoMayhem]

However, in the meanwhile, and I picked this tip up from someone who, like me, also is into trimming down his XP installation: Do a search for mdm*.* and delete everything that comes up. These are all modem drivers, and it is very unlikely you will ever need them because you either have a modem installed already, or if you do add one, it will come with newer drivers. I also delete the "mdminst.dll" (Modem Class Installer) from the system32 folder. It'll also come up with the search.

(Total Savings: 35.9MB, and 878 files )

I mentioned that in the guide, I picked up that mdm*.* tip from using 98lite a few years ago :p

[Bold_Fortune]

Ah, thanks, NeoMayhem. I couldn't remember who or where I got that from. I'll be sure to enter your name to it for full credit.

[Bizkit]

Someone should make the guide and everyone's posts into a pdf that we can download to use offline.

Also, I am thinking of partitioning my harddrive just to put the pagefile on it. I have a 40gb harddrive and 512mbs of ram. How big should I make the partition?

[zachman123]

ouch... my windows folder is 2.4 gigs... time for spring *erm winter cleaning.

[Bold_Fortune]

Oops. Please disregard

[Bold_Fortune]

You just have to see this. A guy named krazyzone has made a Bat file for my Individual System32 Files List. It backups up the files it is deleting to a folder to your root and then proceeds to delete the files. One click perfection. It's absolutely fantastic! I can't say enough good things about his efforts. I made a few modifications to his Bat file, and I am adding input as he goes along. He may go to work on my Slimming Down XP Files, (files outside of the System32 directory), too. People have been asking for this for the longest time. So praise to krazyzone for helping me in my efforts. Scroll down to near to the bottom of the page for the most updated Bat file.

http://www.bit-quest.com/forums/index.php?...opic=1087&st=45

[precjednik]

I was toying for a couple of days last month, just now I see this thread.

I was able to slim down windows folder to 124 MB and to preserve stability and functionality.

All drivers, codecs, DX (also slimed down) are installed.

My machine is dedicated to video/audio editing, capturing, complete multimedial centre :)

And also, all other segments are functioning. Internet, gaming blahblah...

No BSOD, no errors...

Nice.

Cheers!

[honoriak]

good work :o

[precjednik]

Oh!

Just some more nfo:

Windows Professional Edition

bah. Can't attach file list now... Not home ATM... maybe later.

When I got time, I'll do some benchmarking, I haven't done that yet.

Cheers!

[precjednik]

Here is the list.

Best with Total Commander's lst viewer

Cheers!

WinXP_Pro.zip

Edited December 9, 2003 by precjednik