Carpe Techno

After using a Windows XP computer for a while, the OS tends to get all clogged up and your computer’s performance worse day after day. You wish you had a Mac or had a one-click-reinstall windows button.

Reinstalling windows is not only a tedious task, but a time-consuming one too. After going through the installation process which usually takes about one hour (one a medium-budget computer), you have to install all the programs you use and get the latest update packages (takes a lot of time on slow connections) and remove all these pointless components you never asked for.

Enter nLite.

nLite is a tool that lets you “re-master” or “edit” the windows XP CD. Its main features are:

* integration of a service pack (ex: include SP2 on an SP1 CD)
* removal of useless components.
* have various software pre-installed (firefox, skype, etc.).
* unattended setup (set personal settings in advance).
* integration of drivers.
* Inclusion of hot fixes and update packs.
* registry tweaks.

1. Getting nLite

First things first, you’ll have to download nLite. Through this guide, I will be using v1.3.0.4 Final. You can get it here: http://www.nliteos.com/download.html

Note: It requires the .Net Framework 2.0 - [for x64, get it here]

If you don’t want to get the whole framework, you may get FrameworkLite, which is an unofficial alternative to the .net framework that contains only the files vital for nLite to work. It only weighs 6.9 MB.

>> get it here: http://nlite.boot-land.net/nlite/new/nLruntimeR3.exe
>> instructions here: http://www.nliteos.com/files/runtimes.txt

2. locate and copy

select the path to your XP (or 2000) CD, then select where it should be copied. The copying process might take some time.

3. Start Tweaking!

I won’t go step by step on telling you how to tweak each component but keep in mind that disabling critical process/components might affect the good functioning of you computer.

(BONUS). Where to look for hot fixes?

checkout the ” Xables Light Post XP-SP2 Update Pack “, it includes lots of updates in one pack that you can include easily in your installation. It is continuously maintained so don’t worry about it being outdated.

>> Get it here: http://udp.xable.net/slipstream.php

You’re done! enjoy your new windows installation