MPalmz

It would be nice if someone could just get in touch with him briefly enough to get permission to take over the project. I suppose with Windows 7 just around the corner, and with everyone so eager to upgrade the win integrator could end up being what we're really looking for at this point.

It's been a while since I've played around with vLite because my computing needs have broadened into so many realms that I can afford to remove little to none of my OS. But every time I DO drop back in here to lurk around I find basically all the same thread topics that were being discussed back in the day. vLite still hasn't been updated and users are finding more and more elaborate fixes around slipstreams and other issues that have arisen since the release of v1.2. From what I've read in the past the author of the project, nuhi, has put endless hours not only into developing it, but into providing support for nLite/vLite enthusiasts. Acknowledging that, I don't want to sound ungrateful in anyway. He's a champion of the modding realms and deserves to be knighted in my opinion. However I suspect a large number of issues we currently face as a community could be addressed by taking vLite to the next level (and perhaps birthing the next generation 7lite). I know this has been discussed a little but I haven't seen any talk about it lately and wanted to know if anyone had any up to date info regarding the future of vLite, and if not what would you guys suggest to nuhi? Retire and pass the project onto a worthy heir? Scrap it and let the movement slowly die? What are your thoughts?

Good enough! Thanks for the intel. I think I'm going to wait until the RTM release before I get into the hassle of trying to slipstream again. Whenever that is.

So why will SP2 not install from Win Update on vLited OS's? My current set-up is quite heavily trimmed down, but what if I just removed language and driver files and modified nothing else would that work? What if I modify nothing but create an unattended install? Is there configuration that works?

.inf is all you would typically need. Some times manufacturers pack 'em up in these other executables for streamlined installation. Easier for most users. Assuming you'll need all the inf files embedded in the .exe's etc. you have two options. Firstly you can extract the contents of these installers using uniextracter (Google it) and compile them into a single folder (say...on your desktop). Keep in mind that installshield installers are often difficult to extract files from even with uniextracter. Once they are compiled, and you have added the other .inf files you require for your hardware, use vLite to integrate the folder full of drivers. Another option which would be more effective at ensuring you integrate a more updated set of drivers would be to ensure that all of your machine's hardware drivers are installed and up to date. Go to device manager and use the "Update Driver" option on all of your major devices. Then download DriverMax, and launch it. Use it to EXPORT all of your machine's drivers that are currently in use. Then use that exported package of drivers for integration. When you are at the integration tab, import an entire folder and vLite will automatically grab all the .inf's it needs. Now you'll have just the drivers that you need integrated into your new OS.

Woooooow. Well bilow, you haven't got the warmest welcome...sorry. But you never insult MagicAndre1981 man. He's possibly THE most helpful person around here. Not good.

Fully agree with all of these points. Especially #3. There will be several things that MS simply won't allow removal of unless you've got an 'x'-lite.

Probably over my head. Unless there is a comprehensive guide that breaks things down step by step I'm going to have to wait until the Vista w/ SP2 RTM starts shipping. Thanks for your help though.

Agreed.

your OEM Version may be the cause. With my Technet ISO Integration of Sp2 works fine. What version of vLite are you running? I'm running the latest build (1.2 Final) and I don't even get the "SlipStream" step. I tried to dl an earlier build but can't find any around. ALSO: is there another guide present for integrating SP2? the above guide was pretty difficult to follow imo.

You guys can a person integrate SP2 if their original ISO is a SP1 ISO. My Vista is an OEM SP1 disk. Am I still going to run into the same integration issues? Rofl. Loved this...'mythical.' Classic! I completely agree. And of course a 7Lite would be amazing.

I'm beginning to fear the same.

Trouble is I cannot remember specifically what components I removed beyond simply looking at the guide I used. My INI says I only removed a couple of things. Thats simply because I preloaded my configuration with an already vLited disk. Not smart when considering problems such as this. Anywho I learned my lesson and I'm just going to start from scratch again. i was just hoping that the error was common enough that someone might be able to chime in with a quick fix. I'm a little cheeky though. My suspicion is that the program requires UAC, so I'm going to include it with my next install and simply disable the service. Hopefully I get the same uninterrupted usage I'm used to with my current config which is otherwise wonderful.

In my other thread I talk about ERROR 1904 on installing certain programs. You think this has something to do with my removing UAC? http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=130512 Too late. And this guide rules for English speaking users. Furthermore it's on MSFN! Thanks though.

When I try to install Pinnacle Studio 11 I get an error: With "ABORT" "RETRY" and "IGNORE" buttons. I'm borrowing my brother's copy which is not in use. But I just popped down to his apartment (below me) and we installed it on his non-vLited system just fine. Can anyone offer any thoughts? PS - my last_session.ini is actually a last_session of a last_session, so therefore it won't provide insight to the problem. However my configuration is almost identical to what's in the excellent guide by Randomness here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128042. EDIT: A Google search leads you to a Microsoft solution from their website explaining that the MDAC components are missing or corrupt. MS only seems to offer these components for x86 based systems.

My current installation of Vista has most of the standard crap removed. However I noticed that a few components have actually COME BACK obviously in a Windows Update. For example Help and Support was completely removed but now is back. Same with some of my accessories such as Disk Defragmenter. Just curious. What else will Windows force me to have back on my PC? And what do you guys to do stop things from coming back (besides turning off Windows Update)?

Assuming that by "installer" you mean "installation disk" or "installation ISO" you'll want to use your Home Basic machine with vLite, you'll need to grab SP1 for slipstreaming unless you don't want you're custom copy of Vista to have it (a guide is stickied at the top of this sub-forum). You'll need a standard Windows Vista installation disk, your original product key which Microsoft has licensed to you, as well as the Windows Automated Installation Kit (download it from MS's site). I would highly recommend slip-streaming SP1 even though you had problems with it. For me vLite actually made things much more stable by removing a lot of resource-hungry material. For help in the actual creation of your customized Vista ISO see Randomness's excellent guide: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128042 If it's a custom copy of XP you're after you'll need nLite. You won't need WAIK and the process is both more powerful and more complex.

I'm sorry that noone has replied to you. Quite honestly I don't know what you could remove that would inhibit photoshop's installation and useage. Have you run into issues as of yet? What does your current last_session.ini file have on it? Or are you using vLite currently? I removed virtually everything that was ok to remove according to this guide, including all of the "iffy" stuff and my own copies of Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 work flawlessly, and load quicker to boot!

The concept of integrating drivers was intimidating to me at first too. But with a little persistence and the use of vLite it all started to make sense. The .exe files are simply installers that put the .inf's in their proper places for Windows itself to find them. The fact is though, that it doesn't really matter where the drivers get extracted as long as windows can find them. Vista actually does a great job of finding driver files once they are pretty much anywhere on your PC. With vLite it could not be easier to integrate these files. As has been recommended, using an extractor program to manually extract the contents of an .exe into folder (any folder that you set-up anywhere on your system) is a good start. You can add other drivers to the same folder, or create more for other types of drivers (for other devices on your system). You can also use a program like drivermax to export all the drivers that are currently being used by your hardware to their own folder as well. Once you're in vLite and in the Integration part of the prossess, click the check-box "Enable" at the top of the Drivers section. Then rather than import a specific driver, just import multiple driver folders (each of the ones you've set aside for yourself previously). vLite will grab everything that it needs from these folders once you've imported them and you can go on to the next steps.

Copy your last_session.ini file from your installation disk and attach it here and we can take a look. Which network icons are you talking about? I've used this guide and can always find the standard network icon in the system tray portion of the task bar, and it's the only one I want to see. Are these the same network icons you are talking about?

What do you mean? Do you mean can you work with x64 iso while your machine is running x86? Yes I believe you can if that's what you are asking. Although I have no idea how slipstreaming works in this situation.

I continue to be amazed at how common loserish comments seem to appear on MSFN. Where is the courtesy these days? And the fact that there are at least two threads with dozens of posts about how to vLite Windows 7 makes this kind of input even more useless, if not ignorant. Strange reply. I've heard of a lot of people installing VLited version of Win 7 beta. Now to be of some help. I am one of those who've successfully vLited their Beta copy of 7 and had virtually no problems with errors. And contrary to what's been said I used Windows Update for several critical updates and experienced little or no stability issues (though I know some have been reported). Yes it's Beta software so my main gripe with the OS was on matters of compatibility. Some apps that are a regular part of my PC usage didn't work (i.e. the latest stable build of SKYPE) and so I was forced to put a stop to the fun and games and get back to business. But I look forward to Win 7 and even more so to Nuhi's work on helping us cut the fat. In the mean time you can for sure use vLite to slim down your own Beta copy of Windows 7. Mine was the x64 version and I used Kazuni's .ini file in the thread you've linked above. It's not as heavy of an amputation as you can do with Vista (or anywhere close to nLiting XP) because the components haven't been compiled for vLite, and more importantly due to the nature of the software there are more critical components that cannot be removed. Even trivial components like the Games Explorer. In that thread some people point out some files to protect under the protection part of vLite. Protect all those files mentioned. As usual I'm too lasy to read through and port the text over to here. Sorry. :-) It's worth reading through the lengthy thread above if you are insistent on using Windows 7 and vLiting it. And regards to activation... This shouldn't be a huge deal if your vLited 7 won't activate. I used mine for a week or more and didn't noticed a darn thing wrong with it. Where activation IS important is if you are going to be running any Microsoft Software and will be requiring an authenticity check i.e. installing WAIK on your 7-equipped machine. Of course keep in mind that the license agreement for the Beta software is only for 30 days which is why not activating wasn't a big deal for me anyway. I just wanted a test drive. Best of luck with vLiting, though my guess is if you want a truly slim system and most of the features of Windows 7, you'll be back vLiting your Vista sooner than later. :-)

I know that I'm not addressing your problem head-on, but have you tried just a strait install of a vanilla OS? vLite works on installation disks that come from PC manufacturers along with you computer, but it won't work on recovery disks or partitions. But like I say this knowledge probably doesn't help you much at this point. I don't know my way around DOS but if you could access your system files from the prompt and switch out winload.exe for an original you'd be much better off. I don't know any other way to get to those files given you can't boot to a GUI. The only other thing I can think of would be either obtaining a recovery disk from your manufacturer or a vanilla Windows Vista and throwing it on there. You want to keep the license agreement you've made with MS and your vendor, but if it's legal to just obtain an image of the OS that came bundled with your machine, you could then boot from it and install windows with your own product key. Then vLite the existing disk image, and reinstall. But don't ask me where you'd find a Vista image. I'm sure they are out there, somewhere. I'd also recommend deleting/merging the recovery partition now that it's pooched.

Indeed. I wouldn't ever remove File and Printer Sharing, or IE for that matter. F & P Sharing is a must keep though, and IE is just too integrated. Have you guys looked at Randomness's guide? http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=128042 El Barry, are you really a Schizophrenic whore?

On my Vaio I get that before booting from the recovery partition, but it only lasts a few seconds and then gives me boot options. Has mod2wim altered your winload.exe? I took ownership and modified mine recently and ended up having to...boot from my recovery partition...lol. What does mod2wim do? Are you saying you copied the recovery partition as an image and it somehow modified your winload.exe? I'm really not a tech expert on this issue, but I just went through something similar. Does your PC manufacturer supply recovery disks? That's obviously a last resort because you'll probably have to pay for them if you can't use the integrated partition. Personally I hate the recovery partition idea.