Love it or hate it – Windows is the dominant operating system in the world today. For all its flaws, Windows still rules the OS space for home users, probably because that is what they have been accustomed to use for a long time. This guide will show how to achieve a lean and mean Windows XP installation that runs smooth as a baby’s butt.
Pre-requisites
Before we create a custom XP install CD, the following are the pre-requisites:
- A system running any recent version of Windows. nLite is a Windows program. This guide will use it to create a slimmed down version of Windows that you can re-install.
- nLite – This is the tool that we use to create our custom XP install CD. Download it here
- Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 – This is required by nLite. Download it here
- Windows XP SP2 (for those who do not already have it) – Download it here
- RyanVM’s Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack – Contains many hotfixes after the release of SP2. We will integrate these hotfixes into our custom CD. Download it here. x64 users download it here. Thank you Ryan for the x64 pointer.
- The driver packs from here. Also get the 7zip utility from here and install it. Make a directory called drivers and extract the driver packs into this directory. The tree structure should be as follows:
- ——drivers
———-DP_Chipset_wnt5_x86-32_608
———-DP_CPU_wnt5_x86-32_608and so on.There is no need to download DriverPacks BASE.
- A good anti-virus package. There is an excellent, free one at Avast
- A good firewall. There is an excellent, free one at Zone Alarm
- An alternate browser such as Firefox, Opera or Avant Browser
Download the following and burn it to a CD:
Creating a custom install CD
Next, install the downloaded .NET Framework 2 if you do not have it already. Once this is installed, copy the contents of the entire Windows XP CD to a directory on your hard disk.
After the files are copied, install and start up nLite. The opening screen looks as shown. Click Next to proceed.
In the next screen, enter or navigate to the directory where you copied the files from your Windows XP CD. nLite will detect the version and the language of the installation. This is shown here. Click Next to proceed.
The presets screen is then displayed. If you have any presets to copy over from previous installations, then import them by clicking Import. I did not have any presets to copy over. Click Next to proceed.
The tasks selection screen is displayed next. Click All to select all tasks and then click Next. This is shown here.
Next select the service pack for integration. My CD already has SP2 but if you do not already have it, then click Select and select the Windows XP SP2 file that you downloaded. This is shown here. Wait till the integration process is complete and then click Next to proceed.
The hotfixes screen is then displayed. This allows you to integrate hotfixes into your CD. Click Insert and select the RyanVM’s Windows XP Post-SP2 Update Pack that you already downloaded. This is shown here. Click Next to proceed.
In the next screen, you can integrate the downloaded driver packs. Click Insert, select the drivers directory and then click Next to proceed. The drivers will be integrated later during processing.
Next nLite will display a function list as shown. Select the functions that you absolutely need. nLite will never show them on the remove components screen and hence they will not be removed. I selected DHCP, Prefetch, Windows Activation and Windows Update. Click OK to proceed.
Next, the remove components screen is displayed. Remove as per your desires and your hardware. nLite will display the help screen for the component on the right hand side, so read it before you remove the component. I removed the following as shown here, here, here (I removed the full set of keyboards. nLite auto detects the language of the installation and that particular language keyboard is NEVER shown nor deleted), here (I removed the full set of languages. nLite auto detects the language of the installation and that particular language is NEVER shown nor deleted), here, here and here. Click Next to proceed.
The next screen allows you to create an un-attended installation CD. The screen is shown here. Read the help for the options by clicking the icon next to each of them. I chose to set the Unattended Mode as Full Unattended. In this mode, the installer will install drivers only if they are signed. It is for this reason, that I chose not to integrate any drivers into the CD. I will rather install them later than have the installer display a GUI screen and wait for me to insert the proper driver. Go through all the tabs and enter the required information. The options are easy to understand and you should not have any problem deciding. Click Next to proceed.
The options screen that is displayed next allows you to further fine tune the installation. The screen and the options I chose are shown here. Remember to read through the help for each option at the bottom of the screen before modifying the option. One option worthy of note is Rename Administrator Account. Rename the administrator account for safety reasons. No one need know what you call the administrator login.
Leave the Services tab alone for the moment. Click Next to proceed.
The patches screen is displayed next. Select your patches as required. The patches I selected are shown here. Click Next to proceed.
Select the desired tweaks from the tweaks screen that is displayed next. Remember to read through the help for each tweak that is displayed at the bottom of the screen, before enabling the tweak. The tweaks I selected are shown here. Click Next to proceed.
nLite then does its work as shown here. Once it finishes, click Next to proceed.
From the next screen, click Make ISO and select the directory where you want to save the ISO. The ISO is then created. If you want to add additional files on to the CD, click Explore to open up Windows Explorer, add your files to the installation directory and then click Make ISO to create the ISO.
Click Next to exit nLite. Your un-attended installation CD is now created. Burn the ISO to a CD and you are ready to install your own customized version of Windows XP.
Boot from the freshly created CD and install your customized version of Windows XP.
Post installation tasks
Be sure NOT to connect to the net till after you install the anti-virus and the firewall.
After installation, the first thing I did was to disable all the unwanted network protocols. To do this, I opened Control Panel – Network Connections, then right-clicked on Local Area Connection and selected Properties. I removed all the protocols and kept only the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). This is shown here.
Then, I clicked Properties and set the properties as shown. This is because I use PPPoE and therefore I can set the LAN adapter to a private IP address.
Then, I clicked Advanced, navigated to the WINS tab and disabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP as shown.
Click OK-OK-Close to close the network connections screen.
Next, install the anti-virus and the firewall and configure them. The procedure for these vary based on what you use, so refer to the anti-virus and the firewall documentation for details.
Now you can connect to the internet, activate Windows XP and navigate to the Windows update site to update your Windows XP installation.
After updating Windows XP, download good anti-spyware programs: Spyware Blaster and Spybot.
Install Spybot, fire it up, update it, immunize your system, and check for spyware.
Next, install Spyware Blaster, load it up, update it and enable protection as shown here, here and here.
Keep updating both Spybot and Spyware Blaster regularly.
Next, download XP-antispy and install it. Start antispy, select your desired options (be sure to read the help for each option at the bottom of the screen) and click Apply Settings to apply them.
Next, download Safe XP, unzip it and run it. Select your desired options (be sure to read the help for each option at the bottom of the screen) and then click Apply.
Next download this hosts file, unzip it and run the included batch file to install it. This hosts file will prevent access to parasites and unwanted sites.
Next download the following registry file and double click it to import it into the registry. This registry file contains a vast number of tweaks to make your system run faster and better.
Next download socketlock and run it. Click Install SocketLock to install the socketlock driver. This will disable raw sockets on the system.
Next download izarc and install it. This is a very good and free archiving tool similar to winzip.
Then, download the K-lite Codec pack and install it. This will enable you to view the vast majority of the multimedia files on the net.
Then, download Startup CPL and run it. Disable all the programs that you do not want to start automatically when Windows starts.
Next, download the excellent ieSpell a freeware [for personal use] spell checker for users of IE and IE based browsers such as Avant Browser. Install it and check your spelling before you post any content. Select the content to be checked and right-click it, then select Check Spelling to activate ieSpell. Here is an example of ieSpell in action.
Disabling unwanted services
To disable unwanted services, click Start – Run and enter services.msc. The services screen is displayed. Follow this guide to disable unwanted services. The list of services running on my system is shown here.
Optimizing the internet connection
Windows by default does not optimize the internet connection speed. To do this, download Cablenut and install it.
Next, start the download of a HUGE file such as this one.
Then open up the command prompt (Start – Run and then enter cmd). Enter the command: tracert www.technichristian.net and note down the largest latency time. An example is shown here. Looking at this example, we can see that the largest latency time is 219 ms.
You can stop the download that you started now.
Next, navigate here, select your connection type (Mine is DSL with XP PPPoE) and enter the download, upload and latency values.
You should know your connection speed – for e.g. mine is 12 Mbps download / 1 Mbps upload. If you do not know, ask your ISP. To convert from Mbps to kbps, multiply by 1024. For e.g. my download speed is 12 Mbps = 12 * 1024 = 12288 kbps. The latency is the value you noted earlier.
Click Compute Settings to calculate the fields in the form.
Click CCS File Download to download the values as a CCS file and save it to your hard disk.
Next, start Cablenut, click File – Open settings file and open the CCS file that you just downloaded. Click Save to Registry to save the values in the registry. Reboot and your net connection should be much faster.
Alternatively, you can download Cybertweak and run it. Select the type of your internet connection and click Optimise to optimize your connection. Reboot your system to get the full effect of the optimization.
Conclusion
In closing, we say that Windows XP runs smoothly and without any issues after all these tweaks. Do create another account (a limited account) for everyday usage, keep your anti-spyware, firewall and anti-virus updated, keep your Windows installation updated (through Windows Updates), keep away from using IE and Outlook – use an alternate browser such as the one you downloaded earlier and use Thunderbird for email and happy, peaceful computing. You can check your setup using the following sites:
Security Checks:
Internet Speed Test:
- Bandwidth Place
- Speakeasy (Requires Flash)
Written by Michael R.M. David.
Hi,
I’m curious about your current nLite session.ini
Thanks for sharing this article. I think selecting the right host is important so that you won’t encounter any problems later on, maybe regarding disk space, data transfer limits or maybe even uptime issues. That is why I always research a host before choosing them.