Wednesday, May 12, 2010

nLite Slipstreaming options for Windows XP

I posted about Slipstreaming Windows XP in July 2009 after reading the Lifehacker article about slipstreaming Service Pack 3.

I was a little timid to do a completely unattended installation of Windows XP, so I chose the Hide Pages unattended option and did not enter the Users information.

The biggest time saving options are:

  • Enter the product key. Under the General tab.
  • Skip the Windows tour. Under the General tab, check "Skip OOBE".
  • Set the language and regional time option. Under the Regional tab.
  • Disable error reporting. Under the Tweaks Privacy section.

When I actually went to install Windows XP with the slipstreamed disc, the only setup options I was prompted with after the blue screens were for the Regional time settings, language option, and the Admin account password setup.

The default installation size of Windows XP Pro Service Pack 2 is 574MB. After I slipstreamed Service Pack 3 and removed a few components, the total installation size was 616MB and nLite said "the installation was reduced by 17.65MB."

It was only an hour* to reinstall Windows XP from the time that I restarted the computer to boot from the install disc to the time when the install was finished and I was greeted with a login screen.
* The formatted drive was only a 30GB hard drive and the CD drive was a 52x speed drive.

The next time around, I would add these steps to make an even better slipstreamed install disc.
  • Setup the admin user and password to have a fully unattended install
  • Set the language and regional options.
  • Slipstream Internet Explorer 8 and it's updates.
  • Remove MSN (to fit more Windows updates)
  • Add as many critical updates as possible



Automatic Updates setting
Unattended installation option



Disable Error Reporting
Under the Tweaks Privacy section



Show file extensions and Show Statusbar in all windows
Under the Tweaks Explorer section




Disable Windows Tour popup and Disable Hide inactive icons
Under the Tweaks Taskbar section

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