WinReducer 7.0 - FINAL Builds

Torrentus, my friend, you are a KING :    !!!!

  

I will have some time today, so I will release a test build, in few hours, with an updated winsxs cleanup expert option !!!!

I've updated WinReducer 7.0 and ... It works perfectly !!!! Thank you very much Torrentus !!!!

Finally, the annoying (and probably unnecessary) WinSxS folder has been slimmed down using the Torrentus safe way !  

Not sure what is going on but I can't get WR to work. I gets stuck at the first items (Accessories). I even tried running it from an OS installed in a VM to eliminate it was my (host) OS but the same problem there. Has anyone tried this from a Win7 host OS? Winterstorm, when you tried it, did you have Win8.x as a host OS? I've been having this problem with the last 4 releases of WR and I had not heard one person use WR since then on the forum, so maybe no one has even tried these releases yet? Can't figure out what is wrong. I tried several different configurations (different removal options) but no luck. I tried the log option but it doesn't list anything, it just hangs.

Winter, can you add a hard kill for WR in case it hangs? You need to be able to force a dismount and cleanup or mounted volumes don't get properly unmounted, etc. There is a way to incorporate this in the app; the LastOS Builder I used to use had that programmed in there too and you could always hard kill and force dismount, wherever you were in the process. If you want I can find out what method they used for that so you can program it into WR. I've been having to use Unlocker and reboots to get it to delete, etc. I've tried running WR from different drives and partitions, that didn't help either. I'm running Win7 x64 Pro as host OS.

It seems you experienced troubles since I updated the removing process (aka since 2.99.2.0) ... Which ISO are you using ? Have you tried to find the SHA-1 to see if your ISO is an original untouched ISO from Microsoft ?

I've made a test in an untouched installed Windows 7 virtual machine (vmware player v6.0.1) and it worked with x86 and x64 (home premium and ultimate) with only Net Framework 4.5.1 installed (= NDP451-KB2858728-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe).

I don't say that your system is not working, because I'm agree with you I haven't got enough feedbacks for the moment to say anything more. The only thing I could tell is that it is working for me ...

EDIT : I've also made the same test with the same ISO updated with February 2014 updates ! And same results : it worked.

EDIT 2 : Yes, I will add a possibility to kill the process in case something goes wrong and I will try to add it in the public release (v2.99.4.0) if I will have enough time ...  

parapher wrote:

Has anyone tried this from a Win7 host OS?

Hey since i got a new Notebook (Yay...)

i use as host os windows 7 professional N x64 and i tried version .3 which was yesterday released. I removed features and components till now and everything was ok so far.

1. Could you add options to use mounted windows (mounted with wintoolkit, dism ect.) ?
i get error "unable to find valid version" no matter what i do.

2. Its fully replaced rt7lite ?

@parapher the latest Winreducer build works great, I do not have any problems whatsoever, I am also using my stripped down Win 7 SP1 x64 Ultimate Micro Edition. Maybe you have used vLite? In this case vLite installs the WIM Driver which could cause the problem. You can detect it easily if you start WinToolkit, the program detects it automatically and removes it in order to work properly. This could cause a conflict with DISM in other programs.

@Winterstorm I have tried out the new Winreducer with your updated WinSXS cleanup. 
Currently WinSXS still needs a diet my friend  . You forgot to remove following stuff, look closely at my list:

Delete following folders in root:
amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.7601.17514_none_3bd2e487d8e769d3
amd64_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_655452efe0fb810b
x86_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.7601.17514_none_83801b5eed6392d9
x86_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0935b76c289e0fd5

Delete following files in Manifests:
amd64_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.7601.17514_none_3bd2e487d8e769d3.manifest
amd64_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_655452efe0fb810b.manifest
x86_microsoft.windows.gdiplus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.7601.17514_none_83801b5eed6392d9.manifest
x86_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7600.16385_none_0935b76c289e0fd5.manifest

Also @ALL I forgot to mention I deleted following 6 files from these two folders:

In folder:  amd64_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.17514_none_678566b7ddea04a5  remove:
apds.dll
helpcins.dll
OEMHelpIns.dll

In folder:  x86_microsoft-windows-servicingstack_31bf3856ad364e35_6.1.7601.17514_none_0b66cb34258c936f  remove:
apds.dll
helpcins.dll
OEMHelpIns.dll

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have updated and added it to the winsxs list, if you have done everything correctly your winsxs folder in the install.wim = 
46,7 MB - 126 files, 18 folders  like mentioned in the list. Thanks!

exe98123q wrote:

1. Could you add options to use mounted windows (mounted with wintoolkit, dism ect.) ?
i get error "unable to find valid version" no matter what i do.
2. Its fully replaced rt7lite ?

Hello and welcome,

1. To be honest, it's not planned for the moment, but maybe in the future.
2. YES, it will fully replaced RT7Lite !

KrX wrote:

parapher wrote:

Has anyone tried this from a Win7 host OS?

Hey since i got a new Notebook (Yay...)
i use as host os windows 7 professional N x64 and i tried version .3 which was yesterday released. I removed features and components till now and everything was ok so far.

Hey KrX,

We are really happy to see you, my friend ! Thank you for the feedback !

Torrentus wrote:

@parapher the latest Winreducer build works great, I do not have any problems whatsoever, I am also using my stripped down Win 7 SP1 x64 Ultimate Micro Edition. Maybe you have used vLite? In this case vLite installs the WIM Driver which could cause the problem. You can detect it easily if you start WinToolkit, the program detects it automatically and removes it in order to work properly. This could cause a conflict with DISM in other programs.

Thank you for your feedback, and I've learned something !   

Torrentus wrote:

@Winterstorm I have tried out the new Winreducer with your updated WinSXS cleanup.
Currently WinSXS still needs a diet my friend . You forgot to remove following stuff, look closely at my list:

Ah OK, but where are my glasses ? ...    No, I'm joking, I will update what I've done with .3, with your excellent advice !

Hey Guys, Billy asked me a really interesting question which I also worked on 9 months ago but I never really finished it to make it work properly. 
Maybe some of you guys can solve the problem?? It would be great!!

Billybully: Hey, torrentus, have you ever tried playing around with the registry hives of a mounted image? I just checked mine's and it contains A LOT of garbage.

My answer: Yes I know, this is also one of the last secrets I need to find out and currently working on it. But I can give you a hint. 
Download the latest CCleaner portable version! http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download/portable/downloadfile
Download the latest Wise Registry Cleaner portable version! http://www.wisecleaner.com/soft/WRCFree.zip
Download the Glary Utilities 2.56.0.8322 portable version! http://download.glarysoft.com/guportable.zip

These 3 are the best registry cleaners in my opinion. Also you download the portable version because it will not put any new entries onto your existing registry.

If you removed everything and think you are finally finished you do it like this. Install your final stripped down Windows in VirtualBox.
Then install only VBoxGuestAdditions in order to share files from your current running Windows to your virtual Windows. 
This could be done via your current virtual running Windows, at the top of your window go to Devices - > Insert Guest Additions CD image. 
Then go to Computer and you will see the mounted VBoxGuestAdditions. Double click and install VBoxWindowsAdditions-amd64.exe.   

Make a folder for sharing. Go to VirtualBox -> Settings and add the shared folder. Click on Auto-Mount. 
Now restart your virtual Windows and in Computer you will see the shared folder.

Now copy the 3 registry tools to your desktop in your virtual Windows. 

Start with CCleaner. It will detect lots of stuff to remove from your registry. Click on fix selected issues and then MAKE A REGISTRY BACKUP. 
Now open the registry backup with notepad. In order to remove registry entries you need to put an - in the beginning of it like this:

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SharedDLLs]
"C:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework\\v1.0.3705\\vsavb7rt.dll"=dword:00001000

if there is no - in front of HKEY it will add the entry to the registry. with the - it will remove the entry.

So I just go in Notepad to Edit -> Replace and type in Find what: [H  and in Replace with: [-H
This will add in front of every [H the - and you don't need to manually edit all these entries 
Then save it. Now you could put the reg file into a post installer and it will automatically remove all these faulty entries during Windows installation.

This works but it will also destroy my Windows fonts, you will get screwed symbols if you restart your Windows... this means that in some entries you can not remove the whole entry but only the value...

You could do the same with the other 2 programs ( Wise Registry Cleaner and Glary Utilities ). Make a huge single registry list and put it into a post Installer. 
But I need to find out the error about the broken Windows fonts. It would be worth it, because then you would not need to run after Windows installation all 3 registry cleaners, 
it could be done during Windows installation 

Edit: A thought came up to me maybe it will work. First install Windows in VM then make full registry backup. Run all 3 registry programs till everything is clean. After that make once again a full registry backup and compare it with the original registry backup. I think you could compare both registries with WinMerge, select all different entries, make a new reg file, paste the different entries and put it into the post installer. I will test it and let you know.

WinReducer 7.0 already deletes unneeded registry keys according to what you are removing, but there are still registry keys left behind.

And as far as I know, some of them are also visible when you install an untouched windows 7 ISO. But I already asked myself, sometimes ago, if those registry key are hardware dependent. So if it's not the case, I could integrate them in WinReducer to clean the system during or before installation.

WinReducer has been updated with :
- Update winsxs cleanup (Torrentus work) : it seems OK this time !   
- Activated remover red cross window, during removing, to kill the process and properly exit winreducer by cleaning your system.
A build will be available in less than one hour ...

hey winterstorm,

i removed all components till now but at control panel Anytome Upgrade is still there oO


EDIT:

<Element Category="Remove - Accessories" Name="Anytime Upgrade" Selected="OK" x64="2.18 Mb" x86="" />

( i couldnt find anything at winreducer under Control Panel to remove Anytime Upgrade)

Yes, I'm looking at ...

EDIT : OK, got it, and it's a bug, I'm fixing it and release the v2.99.3.2 in few minutes ! Thanks !

winterstorm2050 wrote:

Did you use "Presets - Automatic Removing" ? Otherwise you need to select the associated control panel by yourself ...

In fact :
- Activate "Presets - Automatic Removing" is the automatic way that fits for beginners !
- If not activated, then you need to check the box manually (for expert !    ) !

i always use the Automatic Preset,

and btw i now checked 3 times this fonts to remove



and it is still shown at winreducer

at the reduced windows the static cache is removed BUt Meiryo and Meiryo UI is still present (maybe because of the Office Preset?)

but static cache should be removed from winreducer

Sorry, recheck my post, I've modified it !

winterstorm2050 wrote:

Sorry, recheck my post, I've modified it !

THANKS

KrX wrote:

at the reduced windows the static cache is removed BUt Meiryo and Meiryo UI is still present (maybe because of the Office Preset?)

Yes !

Yes Meiryo is required to install Office without error messages so if you have Office protected it will leave those fonts in.

Thanks for the suggestions about running WinToolkit to detect any WIM filter driver, I'll check that. If that doesn't work I'll restore or reinstall because I'm thinking it may be my install got botched as I've done way too much with this install already

Thanks, winter, for adding in the kill option!

Torrentus, what I normally do is make what I call a 'base' image in sysprep. I don't update that image but since using sysprep requires a live OS running (in VM) you can install the non-integrateable updates that you can't integrate offline. I further clean that install with CCleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner, and I use Windows 7 Manager reg cleaner which is very good on all base images. So when I make updated images the registry has already been cleaned. You only have to do this once for each architecture to make Win7 SP1 base images. You can then use offline integration on them or sysprep, it doesn't matter. But I think it really is best to make base images via sysprep as you can clean the installs, install non-integratable hotfixes, etc. Once you got those base images you can updated them as you like (offline or sysprep).

Since I use sysprep to make updated builds as well, I don't like installing Guest Additions as that can potentially add files and drivers to the install and thus the resultant images when using sysprep. Instead, what I do is just create an .iso out of the files you want to have access to (like CCleaner, etc.) in the VM and then mount that .iso inside the VM. That way you don't have to install Guest Additions    If you use sysprep to make updated builds then it would serve you well to delete all possible leftovers in AppData folders and the registry that some cleaners and other progs can leave behind

@parapher This means you install Windows on VM, run all registry cleaners, then use sysprep to capture the image?
Is this method hardware independent? That would be great if so, I will definitely look into it!

Because it is true what Winterstorm said, you can't just copy your installed Windows registry
into the install.wim , this won't work I have already tried it. That's why I am using the post-installer method, Windows installs the original registry then the post-installer
installs the clean registry via a reg file so it won't get any conflict or get corrupted...

Edit: I have installed my slimmed down Windows 7 SP1 x64 Micro Edition and made a full registry backup. The reg file is 129 MB big. 
After using CCleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner and Glary Utilities they removed over 4000 faulty registry entries. After that I once again made a full registry backup and the size
was only 79,4 MB big. That's nearly 50 MB smaller, totally insane if you ask me...

Torrentus wrote:

@parapher This means you install Windows on VM, run all registry cleaners, then use sysprep to capture the image?
Is this method hardware independent? That would be great if so, I will definitely look into it!

Edit: I have installed my slimmed down Windows 7 SP1 x64 Micro Edition and made a full registry backup. The reg file is 129 MB big. 
After using CCleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner and Glary Utilities they removed over 4000 faulty registry entries. After that I once again made a full registry backup and the size
was only 79,4 MB big. That's nearly 50 MB smaller, totally insane if you ask me...

Yes, it will be hardware independent completely.

Basically, what you do is install your Win7 original image in a VM; VirtualBox (which is what I use) lets you create a VHD for your VM, so when you create it, create is as a VHD (not VDI which is default). Then go about installing Windows 7 as usual. Then, as you get presented with the window to create your user account name, instead of logging into Windows, you press CTRL-SHIFT-F3. This will make your install reboot and run in Audit mode. After reboot it will automatically boot to desktop but the little sysprep window will pop up. Just exit it (X). Also, the network (Home, Public, etc.) window will come up so go ahead and exit that (it won't appear anymore after first boot). The sysprep window will pop up every time you reboot Windows, but you can reboot as many times as you want, it doesn't matter. Just exit the sysprep window every time. So install your non-integrateable updates, clean your registry, etc.

Then to remove all re-arms of Windows (makes your base image have same number of re-arms as original image) I use the following trick. Make a little .bat file called something like 'delwpa.bat'. In the .bat file put the following lines:


OK, place the delwpa.bat on the root of your install in the VM (C:\). Then, mount your Win7 .iso which you installed from in the VM (just go to the VM windows and go to 'Devices->CD/DVD Devices and navigate to where you have your .iso). Then, reboot, and press a key to enter setup from your iso. Instead of installing, choose the Repair option. Then a little window will load that lists your Win7 install, OK that, and then choose the Command Prompt option. When that comes up, run the delwpa.bat from your VM install. Even though the VM install (inside the install) thinks it's drive C:\, when you actually address it in the command prompt in the repair option, it will have become drive D:\ instead. So in the command prompt run D:\delwpa.bat. With a second this will wipe the previous arms. Then, restart (don't press key) and let it boot back into Windows.

Now any grace period or trial activation data will be deleted so you have to give a command from within your VM install to feed it the key to your Windows version again (in the mean time you may get the message on your right bottom desktop corner that Windows isn't activated, just ignore). Each version (Pro, Ultimate, etc.) will have its own key. So open the command prompt as Administrator and run the following line:



This above example is for Win7 Pro, so use the appropriate key for your version of Win7. The keys are as follows:

Ultimate:
D4F6K-QK3RD-TMVMJ-BBMRX-3MBMV

Professional:
HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487

Home Premium:
RHPQ2-RMFJH-74XYM-BH4JX-XM76F

Home Basic:
YGFVB-QTFXQ-3H233-PTWTJ-YRYRV

Starter:
7Q28W-FT9PC-CMMYT-WHMY2-89M6G

So after feeding the key command to Windows, it will take a few seconds and then your key will be installed. If you want to check your trial activation and re-arm count, you can enter the following line in command prompt to check: C:\Windows\System32\slmgr.vbs /dlv


Now, make sure any mounted .iso is ejected from the VM CD drive and delete the delwpa.bat from C:\ and reboot. As usual, the sysprep window will come up again. This time, don't exit it, but choose the following options:

"Enter System Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE)" -> Select "Generalize" box -> "Shutdown". Click OK.

Now sysprep will run for 30 seconds or less and the VM will shut down. In your VM folder (usually: C:\Users\{username}\VirtualBox VMs) you will now have a big .VHD file containing your sysprep'd VM install.

OK, since you created the VM as a VHD, you can use Disk Management directly to 'attach' (mount) it. Open Disk Management, go to 'Action->Attach VHD' and navigate to your VHD file. The VHD will now mount to a drive letter. You can then capture that drive via Imagex.exe. Personally I always do it manually with a script that calls a sort of portable version of WAIK I install on my installs. So inside the script I have:


In this example, I'm using a Win7 Pro image and the mounted VHD is drive M, and I want to save the captured image/install.wim to drive H:\ on my computer. Or you can just use some tool (probably Gimagex can do this?). Then the image will get captured from the VHD and saved into an install.wim. You then have your delicious base image

Let me know if you have any questions.

Torrentus wrote:

Edit: I have installed my slimmed down Windows 7 SP1 x64 Micro Edition and made a full registry backup. The reg file is 129 MB big. After using CCleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner and Glary Utilities they removed over 4000 faulty registry entries. After that I once again made a full registry backup and the size was only 79,4 MB big. That's nearly 50 MB smaller, totally insane if you ask me...

I know, right? I had the same problem. I would often have 1500 reg errors after installing a Win7 image. After I started using sysprep I would make both base images and fully updated images with it, and so I would run CCleaner and other registry cleaners, do some tweaking (certain things settings will carry over after sysprep, some don't) and then when I would install those images lives I would have very few reg errors, if any

The sysprep thing may seem a bit complicated when you read it like that, but really it's very simple and if you try it a couple of times it is so easy and has some great benefits, even if you only use it to make your base images.

Thanks for the tutorial parapher! I have watched a video tutorial before you wrote it. It's basically really simple but I can't get sysprep to work. I am using my slimmed down Micro edition in VirtualBox, first of all I need the WinPE in order to boot. This means I temporarily using the original boot.wim because I removed WinPE to make my boot.wim as small as possible. Next I need to find out which files are needed in order to get sysprep to work. There are some files I've removed that sysprep needs. Then I will install my Micro edition in VirtualBox, clean my registry with CCleaner, Wise Registry Cleaner and Glary Utilities and then capture it via sysprep. Replace the new install.wim and old slimmed boot.wim, make the ISO and see if it worked.

Torrentus wrote:

Edit: In Winreducer there is an option to protect important files for sysprep. Winterstorm could you please post these files? I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!!

No problem :
- "Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\Ink\IpsMigrationPlugin.dll"
- "Windows\System32\ReAgent.dll"

  

Thanks!! I found it just now on your website

 

From a past test I think I couldn't get sysprep to work with the WinReduced images, even when protecting sysprep. But I need to test this again, maybe it works now. If not, I'm sure you could figure out what is needed because it would be great to be able to use sysprep regardless of it being a lite OS or not