Windows 7 (32 BIT)

Feature removal & optimization Guide

Developed By Liquid0624 & Written By Liquidzgurl

This simple guide is for Windows 7 Home Premium and Ultimate Editions. Please be aware that this guide is to be “USED AT
YOUR OWN RISK” and we are not liable for any data loss or any other issues you may encounter, nor will we be held
accountable. This guide is intended for the more advanced user, but can be followed by an average user, as well. If you DO
NOT understand what you are reading, it is NOT advisable that you PROCEED ANY FURTHER! We DO NOT condone PIRACY;
therefore you MUST OWN a LEGAL COPY of the Windows 7 Software. NOTHING contained in the included files or in this
guide will ACTIVATE any software. Windows Product Activation is your OWN responsibility. If you DO NOT wish to alter the
built in features or modify the functionality of the Operating System, PLEASE STOP NOW! If you follow this guide accurately
STEP BY STEP, you will achieve a smaller version of Windows; that is still completely functional, very stable, perform more
efficiently, cutting your system memory usage in half and greatly reduce the hard drive space being used. The file
“imagex.exe” is referenced to and used in this guide but HAS NOT been included due to COPYRIGHT and LAWFUL reasoning.
We hope that this easy GUIDE along with the SCRIPTS helps you achieve the same REWARDS and BENEFITS that it has for US!
ENJOY AND GOOD LUCK!

1) Download and install the Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows Vista SP1.

2) Download, then install vLite v1.2 Final and make sure that it has been properly configured for use.

3) Extract the entire contents of the archive you have selected “7elite32.rar”, “7media32.rar” or
“7xtreme32.rar” to your “Local Disk (C :)” hard drive using compression software such as, WinRAR.

4) Create an image of your Windows 7 Setup DVD using imaging software such as, PowerISO or UltraISO.
Extract all the contents of your image into the “source” folder; or you can copy the entire contents of
your Windows 7 Setup DVD and paste all the files manually into the “source” folder. The “source” folder
was extracted to one of the following: “C:\7elite32”, “C:\7media32” or “C:\7xtreme32” in STEP 3.

5) A copy of the file “imagex.exe” must be placed into the “wtools” folder. This folder is located inside the
same folder as the “source” folder. We are using 32 bit processor architecture for this guide and the
correct “imagex.exe” file is located in the “C:\Program Files\Windows AIK\Tools\x86” directory.

6) If you extracted the contents of the archive to your “Local Disk (C :)” hard drive in STEP 3 then continue
to STEP 7. If you extracted the archive somewhere else, then you must edit the file “setupcfg.txt”, which
is located inside the “batch” folder. There are three folder locations within the “setupcfg.txt” file, you
must edit the file so that all three folder locations point to the contents of the archive you have chosen:
“7elite32.rar”, “7media32.rar” or “7xtreme32.rar” and then save the changes you made and exit.

7) The default settings are for: Home Premium Edition. If you are not using Home Premium Edition, you
will need to edit the value of the “%image%” variable. The variable is located inside the “mount.bat” and
“removal.bat” files which are inside the “batch” folder. If you are using Home Premium Edition, you can
ignore this step and continue to STEP 8. To edit the value in each of the batch files, right click the file and
then left click to select Edit or Open with Notepad. You will see a line of text near the top of the file that
says: “set image=3”. If using Ultimate Edition, change the “image” value from “3” to “5”. Save changes
and exit. Reminder, that the “image” value must be the same value in both of the batch files listed.

8) To open Command Prompt with the prompt preset to the correct location; right click the “batch” folder
while synchronously holding down SHIFT. Left click Open command window here and the Command
Prompt will then appear running as administrator with the prompt already set to the correct location.
9) Type “mount” at the prompt and hit ENTER. This mounts the “install.wim” image into the “mount”
folder and executes the “install_wim_tweak.exe”, which will take ownership of all registry hives.

10) Type “removal” at the prompt and hit ENTER. This removes all the packages that vLite cannot making
your install more compact. Watch this process until it completes and make sure that no errors occur. If
an error occurs, it will be listed in the Command Prompt next to the package. Pay attention and make
sure there are no errors or scroll up and down to double check after the removal process has completed.
If an error has occurred type “discard” at the prompt and hit ENTER. This will prevent saving any changes
that were made during this session and will unmount the image. Return to STEP 8 and repeat. Do not
continue unless all packages are 100% successfully removed. If you need any further assistance; post a
reply including names of the packages that caused errors, on the thread inside the MSFN vLite Forums.

11) Upon successful completion of STEP 10, type “commit” at the prompt and hit ENTER. This will save all
changes during this session and unmount the image. Exit Command Prompt and continue to STEP 12.

12) A copy of the preset “7elite32.ini”, “7media32.ini” or “7xtreme32.ini” file, which is included in the
archive, must be copied and pasted into: “C:\Program Files\vLite\presets”, before using vLite.

13) Open vLite and browse to the “source” folder. Select the edition that you are working with in order to
modify; for example, “Windows 7 HOMEPREMIUM”. Load the included preset using the top menu bar.
Carefully uncheck components that you wish to keep or you may safely leave them be. Click “Apply” and
then ignore all dependency warnings that appear, by clicking “No”. The rebuild method dialog box will
appear; make sure the default option, “Rebuild One (HomePremium)” is selected; then click “Ok”.

14) Refer to STEP 8; to use the simple method to open Command Prompt again; then continue to STEP 15.

15) Refer to STEP 9; type “mount” at the prompt and hit ENTER. The “install.wim” should now be mounted.

16) At the prompt type “cleanup” and hit ENTER. If the cleanup was not successful, type “discard” at the
prompt and hit ENTER. Return to STEP 16 and repeat. To verify that it was successful, you should see the
phrase: “The operation completed successfully.”, three times before the prompt re-appears.

17) After verifying that the cleanup was completed successfully, type “commit” and hit ENTER to save the
changes during this session and unmount the image. Exit the Command Prompt and continue to STEP 18.

18) Open vLite and browse to the “source” folder. Make sure to uncheck all of the components and do not
change any of the tweaks. Then, click “Apply” and when the rebuild method select dialog box appears;
once again make sure the default option, “Rebuild One (HomePremium)” is selected; then click “Ok”.
Wait for vLite to finish then minimize the window or just let it running in the background; but do not exit!

19) Go to Computer and navigate to the folder where you originally extracted the archive: “7elite32”,
“7media32” or “7xtreme32”. Open the “source” folder contained within this location. Pay attention to
this next part so you do not become confused. Inside the “source” folder, you will see a sub folder
named “sources”, open this folder. After opening the “sources” folder, select all of the files, then
deselect the files “install.wim” and “boot.wim” by synchronously holding down CONTROL and clicking
on them; Right click the selected files, then left click to delete them. Minimize the Computer window.
20) In STEP 4, you had to either create an image of your Windows 7 Setup DVD or you had to copy the entire
contents of the Windows 7 Setup DVD to the “source” folder. If you used an image, open your imaging
software such as, PowerISO or UltraISO to browse the files. If you used an actual Windows 7 Setup Disc,
you will need to insert the disc into the DVD drive and navigate using Computer. The concept is that vLite
removed the “setup.exe” file, but you need the original “setup.exe” file or your install will not work but
will fail instead. Right click the “setup.exe” file and left click to copy the file; then continue to STEP 21.

21) Go to the Computer window from STEP 19 that has the “sources” folder open. Right click and paste the
“setup.exe” file there. You should have only three files left: “boot.wim”, “install.wim” and “setup.exe”.

22) Return to the vLite window from STEP 18 that was left running in the background. Click the last tab on
the bottom left side in vLite, which is called: “ISO”. Create an appropriate label for your image. Some
examples that could be used are: “7ELITE32”, 7MEDIA32” or “7XTREME32”. Then click: “Make ISO”.
Choose a name and the location of your choice, where your image will be saved and click “Save”. Wait
for the image creation process to complete successfully, at which point you may exit vLite.

23) Download and install a virtual machine, my recommendation is: VirtualBox. VMware and Virtual PC are
suitable options, as well. VMware is the only one of the three choices listed that is not a free application.

24) Open the virtual machine software that you have chosen and mount the image you created in STEP 22.
Install the operating system and thoroughly test all the features that you are going to utilize. If you are
satisfied with the results and everything you need is functioning as it should; then continue to STEP 25.

25) Burn a DVD of the image from STEP 22 or copy the entire contents of the “source” folder to a USB drive.
Note: if you are using a USB drive, make sure it is properly formatted to use the FAT32 or NTFS file
systems before using it. Copy all the contents of the “source” folder to the USB drive once it’s formatted.

26) Finally, it should now be ready to install onto your physical machine. You may either install using the
DVD that you burned in STEP 25, as you would normally do; by setting your BIOS to boot using the DVD
drive OR set your system BIOS to boot from the USB drive, instead.

YOU’RE FINISHED, CONGRATULATIONS!