[chuchubi]

Hello lads,

Introduction:

As you know Nero Burning Rom package became quite bloated. I only need Burning Rom which is about 35.6mb uncompressed, but I'm forced to download/install 900mb still uncompressed file. This is absurd and unforgivable.
I tried many builds "alternative" builds of Nero, that is the infamous lite or micro build from updatepack.nl....too bad the project is kinda halted. Due all respect to the current build, it seems there have been alot of trial and error going on...too much to my liking. I started experimenting with the Nero less-than bloated package, the 6.6.1.15c to be exact.

Procedure:

Downloaded it from filehippo, extracted all the files from the archive using winrar.
Then deleted pretty much everything, actually the only folder you need is the <Nero> folder
By the way the installer <setupx.exe> doesnt work after the deletion.
I ran the Nero.exe from the <Nero> folder and it worked straight out of the box!!
Then I used it to erase a DVD-RW disc and write something to it and guess what... No problems at all.
After that I copied the <Nero> folder to <Progam Files> and make a shortcut to start menu. (I'm an organized creature)
For Nero Express shortcut, make a new shortcut pointing to <Nero.exe> and add "/w" in full: "C:\Program Files\Nero\nero.exe" /w

Registering Nero

You need to add some registry entries to register Nero permanently, otherwise its going to ask you every time to fill in the serial. The following entries worked for me(ofcourse with another serial):
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\1.0]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\CleanTool]
"Minimum Version"="1.1.6.4"
"ProductId"=dword:00000003

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\General]
"Dump3"=""
"Dump5"="0a181d00046a080c63707123282f1171050b1e7b64"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\Info]
"Serial6"="xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx"
"User"="Username"
"Company"="Company"
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Thanks to j7n by providing some feedback and reminded me of this...

Closing thoughts:
Side notes: This procedure is not point-and-click friendly, its more useful as an from the scratch deployment like placing it in the $OEM$ folder(see unattended guide of msfn for more info).

I haven't been here for awhile, so maybe there is someone who had this idea before...consider this as blog-type guide.
Its been tested in an Virtual Machine running Windows XP PRO.

Have fun burning

This post has been edited by chuchubi: 23 October 2007 - 04:48 PM

[radix]

You can also compress nero.exe from 16.2 MB to 4.92 MB using UPX.

[cool400]

Hi,

thanks for this great tip!!!

I asked myself if it's also possible to burn (S)VCDs? And what about Audio-CDs?

Best regards

cool400

[chuchubi]

I did more testing and this is what I found out:

This procedure only works with Nero 6.6.1.15c and older.
I tried it with Nero 8 and failed miserably. Now I'm trying to figure it out with Filemon...

[j7n]

Nero 7 indeed does not work. However, recent versions of Nero have concentrated on 'multimedia experience' (video encoding, everything-MP4, fat media players). Burning has not changed considerably since v6. There is a ready installer of Nero 7 Lite if you really need it for some reason.

Instead of compressing NERO.EXE right away, first have it deprotected (there is a tutorial somewhere on the Internet) and delete unused Bitmaps from it using Resource Hacker.

Under Windows 98 you'll also need to copy NEROCD95.VXD to IoSubSys directory and reboot, otherwise Nero will display a msg on every startup.

Also some of these registry values might be required for audio en/decoding to work. Here's the complete REG-file I have to install Lite Nero (12.5 MB).

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ahead\Nero - Burning Rom\Info]
"User"=""
"Company"=""
;; HIDDEN BECAUSE OF MSFN RULES
"Serial6"="0000-0000-0000-0000-0000-0000"


;; REPLACE THESE PATHS

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ahead\Shared]
"AudioPlugIn"="d:\\apps\\nero\\CommonFiles\\AudioPlugins\\"
"NeroAPI"="D:\\apps\\nero\\Nero"
"Lib"="d:\\apps\\nero\\Common Files\\"
"AudioPluginManager"="D:\\apps\\nero\\Nero\\"
"OutputPath"="D:\\apps\\nero7\\Nero 7\\Core\\MyMusic"
"EnabledOffers"=dword:0000000f