“Windows Vista from Microsoft takes a lot of resources, we all know that. vLite provides you with an easy removal of the unwanted components in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking. This tool doesn’t use any kind of hacking, all files and registry entries are protected as they would be if you install the unedited version only with the changes you select. It configures the installation directly before the installation, meaning you’ll have to remake the ISO and reinstall it. This method is much cleaner, not to mention easier and more logical than doing it after installation on every reinstall.”
“Here, take this product from a company that won’t identify itself and not affiliated with Microsoft. Give it access to your operating system before you use it. Make all sorts of changes that you know violate the EULA of the software you’re about to use and thus invalidate your license to use it, while letting us make all the changes without troubling you with fiddly little things like what’s actually being done.
You can trust us not to add anything into your operating system at a depth that can only be reached by altering the media before installation. Honest.”
Looks like we have the next Gator.
Edited 2008-01-29 19:14 UTC
I agree, seems like it is a pretty dangerous thing to do. It would be pretty hard to trust a system after that.
Well agreed on the security aspect which is truly wonderful, but not so clear about the licensing part.
First, I don’t believe that in law you have licensed as opposed to buying a copy. You walked out the store with the CD, you owe nothing further. Its no different than buying a book, and calling it by a different name doesn’t change this.
Second, I don’t believe the EULA can limit your right to use (assuming you don’t violate copyright). I don’t believe post sales restrictions on the use of products you buy are enforceable. No sales agreement can do this.
Third, its not clear that copyright is violated by the procedure. You make a copy of part of the contents of what you’ve bought, and then use this to install one copy. As long as you retain the copy, and don’t install on more than one machine, or perhaps destroying that copy immediately after installing (you can recreate it any time after all) is anyone really going to prosecute you? On what grounds?
Like, you bought a CD and then ripped some of the tracks to listen to them on your iPod. What’s the difference?
All the same, agreed, I won’t be using vlite either until we know a lot more about who it comes from and what its doing. And as we might agree, that could take a while.
On the right to do it though, it would be real interesting to see a test case.
Building custom ISOs of Windows is perfectly legit. They can’t be distributed, but it is perfectly legal for personal use with a valid license.
Ghost can do this. Dell does this with their restoration discs. MS has documentation on how to do this. Vlite is really nothing new, it just automates the entire process.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/88f80cb7-d44f…
http://blogs.technet.com/federal-vista-team/archive/2006/09/21/4578…
The author’s email address is on the website if you have concerns or questions.
http://www.vlite.net/contact.html
vLite is apparently made by the same people who make nLite, and that software has been pretty thoroughly tested by many users, including me. My only worry is that vLite is relatively new – it took a while for nLite to work out the bugs.
If you are worried, disassemble it – vLite is a .NET application, easily analyzed by Reflector. You can even download a version in binaries that don’t need to be installed.
Actually nLite still has some bugs, like random crashes… It’s still very useful though.
Is your name Cooper Lawrence in real life?
As has already been previously mentioned, the authors of vLite are the same people who brought us nLite. The code can be dissembled and checked for the types of FUD inspiring concerns you mentioned. In short you are clearly commenting from a state of ignorance.
Have you even used vLite or nLite before? If not, then why do you feel the need to comment on something you know very little about? Perhaps you should educate yourself, or at the very least ask yourself why such tools are necessary?
Better yet–ask yourself this: Why is it needed for a third-party application to remove the cruft from Windows?
Is Microsoft that incompetent to the point it needs outsiders to fix their code?
Why would anyone use code from a company with such a level of demonstrated incompetency with their own code?
–bornagainpenguin
Edited 2008-01-29 21:58 UTC
vlite and nlite cause system instability.
What happens if a Windows Update’s patch have to update 2 files related to 2 different components, but in your system a file is missing because you removed one component? You have that the patch will fail and boths components are not updated or you could not be able to restart correctly.
Edited 2008-01-29 19:47 UTC
In my opinion they merely modify system instability. Some may even see this as an enhancement [of system instability, or not]. Those with a large surface exposure or less powerful hardware, in the case of Vista, may not see this as a real deficit.
System instability is an enhancement?
And if Vista is too large for you, you really need to replace your 10 year old hard drive. They are a bit bigger and cheaper nowadays.
System instability is an enhancement?
No. But system instability can still be enhanced even though it has been significantly trending down in successive releases of ‘Doze.
And if Vista is too large for you …
I have a 2.2 GHz 64-bit CPU, 2 GB RAM and currently only have 660 GB of drives installed with another 160 GB of SCSI array sitting idle (since I decided to reduce the number of devices in my box) and can dedicate up to 256 MB of system RAM to my onboard ATI X1250 chipset.
So, no again, Vista is by no means too large or too much of a [theoretical] load on the system. I would simply never “stick it in there” to begin with.
I’m sure several people has doubts about system stability by removing some vista’s components… I’m sure most know that vLite lets you choose what components you want to get ride of… So by choosing carefully what will be removed, you can preserve the most of your system stability…
It’s ok to wait some bugfix releases, but I don’t see how the hole concept itself is going to make you have several problems… specially when the people behind the software have so much experience with windows and this kind of repackaging… at least until someone who actually had problems step up and tell about them…
is that a person made a free tool in his spare time that is benefitting the community. Microsoft should hire that guy! He made the modular Windows OS a reality. If you have half a brain and some patience to properly create a custom nLite or vLite configuration, you will see how the resulting OS image after installing is not unstabel at all. I have all my XP Pro 32 bit and XP Pro 64 bit OSes imaged through nLite and the end result for my current 64 bit image is an ISO the size of 234 MB including SP2 slipstreamed into it and my NV RAID drivers as well. XP 64 bit flies on my machine not that it wasnt fast before…but with nLited it has that added oomph. Also my understanding is that with less software in your OS you have less holes potentially.
I have not had crashes. Check out http://www.msfn.org and its forums and look at the community that has grown around the software. What the author has produced is quite awesome. Sure nLite was buggy at first but now it is quite thoroughly tested and it also shows you warnings and messages throughout when you are selecting components to remove that explain the possibel ramifications. What I do is simple I just follow the warnings and then end result is a small fast version of the OS. What is not to like?
With respect to vLite people are already getting their ISOs down to 500 MB! That is for an OS that was marketed on a DVD! That is an OS that takes up 10 gb of hard drive space after installing. Instead of bashing the tools, people should take a closer look at the took and appreciate the author’s work. Just my very long 2 cents.
that most of the comments on this topic reek with ignorance. Have any of you even researched what vlite does before spewing the crap that is MS hate?
I have used both nlite (to integrate sata drivers into an XP install disk) and vlite (to strip vista of excess files (not cuft or cruft) just excess files). Removed the inbuilt drivers folder, all the languages (except english), took out the media center, tablet pc and theme folders and lots more.
Reduced my install time and space consumed on hard drive, also reduced a ton of services which reduced my tweaking process after install. All in all a good piece of software. Highly recommended.