Slipstream a Windows reinstall

If you've got a bit of spare time over the Christmas and New Year break, why not give your PC a refresh by reinstalling Windows? If it sounds like too much of a hassle, try following the easy guide below to learn how to reinstall your copy of Windows including all the latest updates so it takes no longer than about 30 minutes! One of PC Answer's specialties over the years has been showing you how to declutter Windows. Back in the days of Windows 98, we showed you how to remove Internet Explorer, and other applications, using 98lite. Since then we've covered nLite, which enables you to customise your Windows XP install and now, there is vLite, for Windows Vista. Vlite follows in the footsteps of nLite, and in fact looks, feels and operates in a very similar manner, and you can even slipstream Service Packs into the bargain.

Grab your install disc
The aim of vLite (www.vlite.net) is two-fold, firstly to reduce the the number of applications that are installed with Vista and thus reduce the size of your install, and secondly, it enables you to create a new install disc, which includes all the latest hotfixes, patches and drivers for your system. To create a new install disc, you will first of all need a standard Vista DVD, or if your PC came with Vista pre-installed, a directory that contains the Vista install files. A recovery CD won't do, unless you can extract the installation files from it, which is usually quite difficult. You will also need to collate all the hotfixes, language packs and drivers that you want to include. Hotfixes and updates can be individually downloaded from the Microsoft site, or you may find them stored in temporary directories on your PC, at C:\windows\winsxs and C:\window\winsxs\manifests.

Trimming the fat
Before running vLite, copy the Vista install files into a directory on your hard drive, and then copy all your drivers and hotfixes into their own directories. Drivers can be stored in mutiple directories, but you will need the actual driver files (usually .inf files) and not integrated setup files (.exe). If you want to choose unattended setup, you will also need to have your Vista Key to hand. Depending on what you cut out, you can reduce the size of the install disc. We got ours down to 706MB, which just fit on a CD using over-burning. However, remember that if you cut something out that you later need, you'll have to reinstall Vista using your original disc, so choose your options carefully!

How do I use vLite?

Step 1:
Start the vLite application and browse for the directory on your hard drive where you have copied the Vista installation files. You will be prompted for the version of Vista you are using, click on the version name, and click OK.

Step 2:
Now you need to choose what you would like to remove from the default installation. Read the warnings and instructions carefully, as anything you remove here, cannot be installed later, unless you use the original install disc.

Step 3:
You can specify certain customisation options, such as turning on IE7's phishing filter, whether the Control Panel displays in classic view, and if file extensions are shown. Click the integration button to add drivers and hotfixes.

Step 4:
If you want to run an unattended setup, you will need to fill in various information areas, such as your Windows Key, name and organisation. You can also choose your language options, if UK English is not selected, you may have change it after installation, although we didn't need to.

Step 5:
Once you've finished entering your information, you will pro prompted to rebuild the install files, with your selected options, and including any patches or drivers you specified. You can choose to rebuild all versions, or just the version you normally use. By just rebuilding one version, you can reduce the image size considerably.

Step 6:
The last step is to create the actual image file for your install disc. You can split the image across several CDs if it's too large for one disc, make the image bootable, and give the image a label. It's recommended that you choose the verify option, to ensure the disc is written correctly. Next step: reinstall Windows Vista.