Tiny version of Windows 7 install

N

needmorecarnitine

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
4,609
anyone know where I could find good info on reducing the size of a Win 7 install that has already been installed?

I know of vLite that works when you are doing a new install.
 
There's really not much you can do, Windows 7 is actually pretty small as an installed OS (under 10GB for the OS itself, seriously - and yes I know that seems awfully huge compared to a Linux distro that can be fairly lean, and OSX is fairly large itself).

But what you can do to reclaim some space, aka "The Big Three":

1) Disable hibernation if you don't actually use it. The hibernation file matches the amount of installed RAM (4GB RAM, 4GB hibernation file, etc). You disable hibernation by opening an Administrative Command Prompt (Start - Programs - Accessories - Command Prompt; right-click on the shortcut itself and choose "Run as administrator") and use the following command:

powercfg -h off (then press Enter)

You won't get any confirmation of any kind, but if you then change to the root directory (type cd\ and press Enter) meaning C: and type:

dir /ah (then press Enter)

you'll note that there's no hiberfil.sys anymore - that's the hibernation file. You can obviously check on the file and it's size before disabling it.

2) Shrink the page file. I'm not suggesting you delete it or turn that aspect of Windows off, that's just not the recommendation, but the standard page file will match the amount of system RAM just like the hibernation file so, if you have 4GB of RAM, that's 4GB gone - 8GB, that's 8GB, etc. My recommendation is to use a static page file, meaning the size is a constant one so it doesn't get resized for any reason. You do this by opening the System properties either by pressing Windows+Pause (the fastest way), by clicking Start and typing "advanced" and the finding "View advanced system settings" and selecting it.

When that dialogue appears, click Settings on the Performance tab, then the Advanced tab, then the Change button in the Virtual memory section. Uncheck the box for having Windows automagically adjust the page file size, and then highlight the C: drive, select Custom size, then put 1024GB in both the minimum and maximum size boxes. That's my recommended size for any machine - if later on you require more or Windows complains about "not enough virtual memory" you can go back and add more, like 1536MB (1.5GB), or 2048MB (2GB), or whatever.

But a 1GB static page file is practically guaranteed to be enough on modern machines with 2GB of RAM or more unless you're a seriously hardcore user - and if you are/were, you wouldn't be asking for these kinds of tips anyway: you'd already know this stuff. :)

After you adjust the size parameters, click OK, then Apply, and then OK and it'll tell you a reboot is required (which it is) so be prepared to do the reboot. You don't have to reboot at that actual moment, but for those new page file settings to kick in, you do.

3) Disable System Restore if you don't actually use it. System Restore can take up a considerable chunk of space depending on how large your system partition is. Mine is never more than 40GB so it's a non-issue, but I disable System Restore anyway since I make complete system partition images every 24 hours or so.

To disable System Restore, bring up the same System properties you did for the page file, and select the System Protection tab - if it shows that the system drive aka C: is being protected, click Configure, then select Turn off system protection, click Apply, and wait a moment or two for good measure. When you've waited a moment or two, click the Delete button just to be sure and then click Continue on the warning that appears. It'll say "The restore points were deleted successfully" even if you don't have any, it's just how it works.

Now, at that point, those 3 steps alone should have garnered you back a chunk of free space on the drive, anywhere from probably 4GB to as much as 20GB or more depending on a) the amount of system RAM installed and b) how long it's been since the installation happened and how much space was actually being put to use by System Restore for restore points.

If you want, you can enable System Restore at that point and it'll be in use but because you just wiped out all previous restore points, it won't really be using any space at all.

As for anything else you can do to "shrink" an installation in place, there's not much aside from installing applications to other drives/partitions. That's realistically the 3-step method for reducing the footprint of a Windows 7 (and Vista) installation fast an easy, but once it's done, the installation will start using space once more with respect to System Restore IF you enable it after cleaning out the restore points.

Run CCleaner on the system and clear out a lot of temp junk if necessary, but don't expect it to have too much of an effect on the overall amount of free space unless you have a shitload of files in the Temp directories.

That's about it.

As for vLite, I was an alpha/beta tester of both nLite and vLite when they were created, and I used them for learning purposes so I could better help people understand them, but all I'll say is this: if you're dealing with XP, nLite is very cool and surprisingly useful. If you're dealing with Vista or Windows 7 but most especially Windows 7, I personally highly recommend you not use that tool lest you break something and end up redoing your system again and again and again to get it right.

It's just not worth the hassles, but that's my opinion. It's your machine, your OS (licensed, of course), do what you want with it but, if things get busted and you come looking for help and people know you used vLite, it taints them in terms of assistance. Most of us just don't prefer to spend time trying to "fix" the problems that some folks cause for themselves thinking that a tool like vLite is going to make any significant difference in how Vista or Windows 7 are designed to function. Best recommendation of all is still and always will be:

Leave it alone. ;)
 
Last edited:
thanks for the answer Joe

Since you have used vLite, what aspects of it did you like and not like. This install is about 3 days old. Hibernation off, pagefile disabled and system restore was turned off within 5 min of install. At that point it was around 7.4GB and I've seen installs at sub 4GB. What were the problems you noticed with vLite and could you ever track any of them down to a specific part that was not installed? Or did you just give up on it?
 
It's not that I gave up on it or that I personally had issues with vLite, it's that after I got my hands on the very first "leaked" beta of Windows 7 way back in oh, October of 2008 or so, and I started using it - even in the beta stage I knew that I was done with tweaking an OS, and that was that. Even as a beta OS, Windows 7 was so much better and remains so much better than Vista and certainly XP ever dreamed to be. That's my personal opinion so, if other people want to flame me and dare me to say "prove it's better" well, it's not gonna happen - it just is better. :D

I see you're using that Crucial M4, and I know 64GB ain't a lot but, honestly the difference between 4GB and 7.4GB... I've never heard of a Windows 7 install under 4GB unless it's been thoroughly gutted, and that obviously means using vLite but it could have been done using that other tool called RT Seven Lite or whatever that does basically the same stuff.

Like I said, it's your OS, gut it if you're so inclined. I'm just of the mind that doing such things will cause a problem or problems somewhere down the line, but again that's my opinion. I can't really imagine there's a lot to cut out that makes any difference in the OS's performance and only offers the potential to save a few megs of hard drive space, potentially a few gigs.

Even with a space-limited small capacity SSD, I wouldn't do it myself. My system partition has been 40GB for the past decade now, and it'll probably stay that way for years to come. This installation I'm on is about 4 months old now (that's pretty much a record for me, seriously), and it's currently sitting at 15.9GB and that's with effectively every app I use on a regular basis - and there's 1.6GB of "stuff" in my Downloads folder I need to move to my storage partition later anyway, so it's about 14.5GB for the OS and everything necessary for me to use my machine the way I like.

YMMV... as always.
 
Well, the other week when I setup Windows 7 on a PC with 8 GB of memory and a 60GB SSD it took up half the disk space just for the OS!!! All I had was Windows, updates, and a few of the freeware apps I always install like Paint.net, Notepad++, and Firefox/Chrome/Opera... I might have had one game installed already to though: Civ V - I think that eats up about 5GB? :eek:

(8GB hiberfile + 8GB swap file = 16GB!! :O almost made me think I'd rather have 4GB because I like hibernation, the system boot so fast though I could almost do without hibernation.)

It still disturbs me how huge and bloated Windows 7 is (relatively) when I think back on my Apple IIGS w/the 20 MEGAbyte hard drive I had... Imagine if Windows was as efficient and it's responsiveness and performance had scalled linearly with increases to CPU speed, system memory size etc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_GS/OS
 
gibber said:
It still disturbs me how huge and bloated Windows 7 is (relatively) when I think back on my Apple IIGS w/the 20 MEGAbyte hard drive I had... Imagine if Windows was as efficient and it's responsiveness and performance had scalled linearly with increases to CPU speed, system memory size etc... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_GS/OS
Click to expand...

You're comparing an OS that was released in 1993 to an OS that was released in 2009. I don't think there would be many people who would be impressed to see a <20MB Windows installation when they find out about the huge tradeoff in the amount of features sacrificed to obtain such a small footprint. :rolleyes:
 
If you want small install Windows 2000. Mine is running a quad Phenom II on the latest Gigabyte mobo, Win2000 is tiny and runs faster than any OS available today. There's a thread on msfn.org forums on how to do it.
 
reb00tin said:
If you want small install Windows 2000. Mine is running a quad Phenom II on the latest Gigabyte mobo, Win2000 is tiny and runs faster than any OS available today. There's a thread on msfn.org forums on how to do it.
Click to expand...

Does windows2000 support hyperthreading? If so this may be perfect for a project of mine.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top