BACK IN TIME
If you’re installing on a new machine, there’s no reason you have to use Microsoft’s stock ISO. Installation customization tool NTLite actually makes generating a stripped-down Windows easier, and it means you can arguably do a lot more in a lot less time. It’s also a chance to save a bunch of time postinstall, as you can integrate all the drivers, updates, and software you need into your custom installer, so it’s there straight away. What’s more, it’s a fantastic way of cutting down an existing Windows installation, as long as you pay for a license—although
you’ll only be able to create your own install image if you’re chipping away at an ISO, rather than a running system.
Let’s concentrate on trimming a new ISO—the live process is no different, just a little more narrow. Download the software from www.ntlite.com via the three-line hamburger menu, and run through its installer—you can also create a portable version of NTLite at this point by checking the appropriate box, so you can drop it on a USB drive, and take it from machine to machine if necessary. Before you run it, mount your Windows ISO (you can download one from the Microsoft website, if you don’t have one handy) by right-clicking the file, and selecting “Mount,” then copy over the files to a writable folder to prepare them before unmounting again. Open NTLite, click the “Add” button on the ribbon, and point it at the folder where you dropped your installer files. Pick the version of Windows you’re looking to hack, wait for it to mount (it may take a couple of minutes), then select “Components” below “Remove” in the left column, and accept the dire warning of potential doom that appears.
The full list of features available for removal is going to be pretty daunting, and unless you’re generating a kiosk Windows that’s designed to be impervious to interference by certain means, there’s probably little reason to go too crazy here— you can cut out some of the same services that you might have disabled previously, and really trim the size of your ISO by excluding support for every piece of hardware you know you don’t have. You’ll see a bunch of stuff in blue—these are components that you can’t remove unless you cough up € 40 (about $47) for a full license.
Check out the “Settings,” “Services,” and “Extra Services” panels, too. The former enables you to preconfigure your ISO to look and act just as you’d expect, again saving you time poking around the Settings screen and Control Panel later on, while the latter pair gives you full control over services, as discussed previously. “Extra Services,” in particular, enables you to manipulate a bunch of services that would usually be pretty inaccessible through Windows itself; switching some of these from “Boot” to “Manual” can boost your boot time, although you won’t know until you install your image, so this may be a false economy. The “Integrate” and “Automate” categories are where you include the software and drivers you want to integrate into your new ISO—anything third-party needs to go in the “Post-setup” section.
When you’re done, use the “Apply” section at the bottom of the list to finish everything off. We recommend opting for the “Save and trim” option, which cuts out everything but the specific version of Windows 10 you’ve been working on. As most ISOs contain multiple editions, and few people have any use for Windows 10 S, N, and the like, this is a good way to cut down the size of the install image.