nLite is a great application for anyone running Windows or planning to install it anytime soon. It basically lets you cut out all the parts of Windows you don’t need so you can run a leaner, faster version of Windows. You can slipstream service packs and also include specific drivers as part of your installation, so you don’t have to add them post-install. You can also integrate additional programs that will be installed as part of the Windows install process (check out the nLite forums for Application Add-ons).
Other parts of the Windows installation process you can customise include pre-adding a CD key and location & language settings, to make your installs completely unattended, meaning you can just boot from the nLite CD you create and leave it alone until Windows is up and running for you. There is a massive amount of other settings and tweaks you can make and the program comes with a pre-loaded “safe” setting so you can get the hang of using nLite before you really trim down your Windows to the bare essentials.
Notable tweaks and options include ;
- removing Internet Explorer (so you can just run the web browser of you choice, such as Firefox)
- removing unused languages and keyboard layouts
- removing the annoying ‘error reporting’ that usually appears when an application crashes
- the ability to control what services run by default
- get rid of unwanted utilities such as the Internet Connection Wizard and Desktop Cleanup
…plus a laundry list of other feature
If you run Vista, there is a different version for that called vLite (http://www.vlite.net).
