Windows 8.1

[Clanger]

I will not allow any links to or discussions about activation tools, home brewed iso's, warez or download links to LTSB and LTSC or other restricted editions or sharing of an Microsoft files however small they may be, in this thread or any other thread of mine.

I would ask users to help moderate my topics, be polite and ask posters to remove any offending material. If they will not remove any such material please use the Report link, Nuhi has the final say.

Please help to keep ntlite/community Takedown Notice free, Thank You.
==============================================

I am new to windows 8.1 and using an iso that includes November 2014 update roll up.
I need to install .net3.5. Enabling it in Features on a running system it downloads the file, where is it downloaded to, Software Distribution, and what type of file is it, an executable, cab file or other?
I need to update the image, do i need a Servicing Stack and the latest CU only or do i need to add all the updates in the updates downloader tool.
What would be the install order on a running system, install .net 3.5 then the SS and CU as per usual?
==================================================================

I am using this post as a temporary location for 8.1 related uploads. Before running any file check them through as they may disable things you need to use, i run them as they are but users can cherry pick bits that suit them.

Download from Here

 

[Clanger]

8.1 may work on Ryzen but Ryzen Master is windows 10 only. ThrottleStop for Insmell works on 8.1

If you want 8.1 then intel may be your best bet but its more expensive when you look at ryzen 2000 and upcoming 3000 series starting from 99usd for 6c/12t(leaks). Want 8.1 then its gonna cost yas mucho shekels. Bad amd

 

[Clanger]

The only thing about 8.1 that bugs me is the programs startup delay even with a reg tweak on an ssd.

 

[pmikep]

I'm not noticing a delay. Spinning rust.

 

[Clanger]

Hmm, gotta do a reinstall, might tidy it up a bit.

 

[Saaglem]

Clanger....try this first

 

[Clanger]

Already got them. Aint used a pagefile in years and on 4gb ram. Apart from that delay 8.1 was a good choice.

 

[Kasual]

Already got them. Aint used a pagefile in years and on 4gb ram. Apart from that delay 8.1 was a good choice.

4 GB RAM
- Pagefile.sys
= slow performance nowadays

Try cleaning hidden cache folders if there are any or the prefetch folder.

 

[Saaglem]

Clanger. try this. Might help speedup your machine. You need to take control of the reg key's first. Include it in NTLite

 

[Clanger]

Got that too and i use OverDrive to stop the cpu throttling, set the multiplier to 39, save, then back to 40 and save, all 4 piledriver cores at 4ghz.
Everything Always On custom power plan, fast menu show delay, x-mouse, pagefile/swap/hibbernation, scheduled tasks, services, prefetch/superfetch, uneeded startup entries disabled, crucial ssd. Cold startup is Fast. Power Run to set everything. Thanks for trying Saaglem

Unless i use a stopwatch to time things the difference between my 880K and i3 8300 isnt noticable.

Kasual Firefox(+ plugins) gets grumpy but usable, Vortual Box slows things down so i run that on its own. I can Lite, do video work with Vegas, multitrck audio work with vsti's, Virtual Box at a stretch. More cores, 6, 8gb would be nice but they add a lot to the cost. Most of the time the 880 and 4gb are scratching themselves, when they get a damn good thrashing they cope very well.

People have been fooled by know nothing salesmen in your average tesco/walmart/pc world by being told you need this and that and its total bullcrap. Get advice from a geek. Even with a tight budget, if you tweak to buggery you get good results. Limitations are good sometimes and necessity is the mother of invention.

 

[PhsMu]

If you guys don't mind sharing that, which updates should I integrate in my images and which ones shouldn't I?

I have two Dell notebooks of 6th gen and two of 7th gen here at home, most of their drivers being the same, in a total of 2gb of drivers. Yet, when I integrate everything into a win 8.1 U3 image, it grows from 13227/7755 to absurds 49583/45268! That's before I put things like Office and Corel into them!

 

[Clanger]

Bloody hell . Could be a bug or you made a mistake somewhere. I'll have to leave that to a someone who knows more.

NTLite has its own update download tool. People use different tools for updates, NTLites own or other 3rd party tools, its all down to preference which you use. If you are worried about telemetry updates then NTLite can remove telemetry components. abbodi86 has an excellent batch file to disable telemetry on 7 and 8/8.1 and according to him he says its easy to stop on them. Use whatever NTLite update downloader suggests and they are good to use.

guide on how to use NTLite's Updates Dowload feature

With so many Dell(and others) used pc's and laptops on the market people will be looking for decent 7 and 8.1 laptops for internet work so would you mind listing the models you use? Many will have w10 installed now but if they came with 7/8/8.1 then it will be easy to install them because they will have drivers availible.

 

[PhsMu]

I too think it must be a bug. My windows folder can't be this bloated!

Anyways, I have four Inspiron Notebooks: two 5378 2in1, one 7568 2in1 (older, but more powerful, and active pen enabled), and one 7559 Gaming. All are around 2 years older, but still great to use.

Also, here's my presets (both for 8.1 and 10) Haven't managed to try Miracast (I know some people consider it superfluous, but that's because they have more than one external HDMI port!) on them yet, because my test machine (an old Inspiron 1545 dual core 1.6 with half the hardware components missing XD) complains about graphic drivers in w10.

 

[Clanger]

Inspiron Notebooks: two 5378 2in1, one 7568 2in1, great, thanks . If they all came with 8.1 then stick with that, its a damn decent os and more so once its been lited and tweaked. Ive got light presets for 8.1 and 10(all build numbers since 1607).

 

[PhsMu]

All came with w10 save for the 7559 (which was bought with Linux). 5378's need modding for the video drivers to work in W8.1 (nothing extreme, just forcefully adding 8.1 into the supported OS list then force installing the .inf), but otherwise no issues with OS. I pretty sure the 7568 is cheap on US Amazon, thanks to the most requested version (FHD) being out of sales. The 4k screen doesn't support pen input and it's honestly, overkill in a 15" notebook.

 

[Clanger]

pmikep has a preset in this topic(prolly) that may suit ya, might need modding but give it a try.

 

[Clanger]

Ive got 8.1 working on desktop i3 8300 coffee lake, display driver is w10 1709 upwards so chipset prolly wont be a worry, just any mouse pad etc drivers but if it works for you stick with 8.1, its worth the effort.

 

[PhsMu]

another question: Do I need updates for the components I remove?

And if I update first, then remove, the updates won't make a difference either way, right?

 

[Clanger]

You could filter out updates for components you are going to remove but sometimes nuhi may have to keep a/some files from component X because they may be needed for component Y so as to not break it. Having updated versions of those files he keeps is a good idea. I put all the updates in and let ntlite do its evil work, hehe.

 

[PhsMu]

I see. Well, then I'm going to run a update only session, save the result the go trim the hell out of windows - both versions - to see what gives me the best result.

 

[PhsMu]

Ok, here's the first result:

One run to activate Net3.5 which I didn't take screenshots.

Then downloading MS puck-dates and setting 136 packages on my OS with a 'complete' cleanup:





...now windows is 4gb fatter.

Edit: Slimmed down somewhat aggressively (as much as I did on that preset posted above, and also took the unused windows versions from the ISO):



And it's still fatter than the initial size, if only for a gb or so.

...Now processing the drivers and software (which I didn't do in that above preset). This I expect to hurt space wise. All drivers except for Audio and Graphics fit under 100mb, but Intel and Nvidia Graphics are 500mb each, with Realtek and Conexant and MAxxAudio eating other 500mb together.

Office 2013 is another monster at 3gb with all the updates. I barely install any of it, only the basic three (Word, Excel, and Powerpoint), but I do not know if I can delete the files from the installer and still have it run.

The rest of the software I use (except for Corel, which I didn't manage to automate yet), is barely over another gb, with Chrome, Drive, Dropbox, VLC, Transmission, Java, Klite Codecs, Notepad++, Ccleaner, 7Gif, and the runtimes for windows (Visual C AIO and DirectX)...

Which brings this monster to...



Ok, not THAT is weird. I did not get the absurdly sized end up partition from before, which is great, but I'm thinking that the post install packs aren't inside that WIM, unless it manageds to pack 4gbs in virtual hammer space somewhere...

Time to test it.

Edit #2:

Seems to have installed successfully as of now, still need to check a few things before I mark it as an absolute success.

Also, for comparisson's sake, here's win10 1809 sizes:

Before Updates:

After Updates:


So nearly as large as Windows 8.1. It becomes a matter of how much can be taken off before the system unravels then.

Slimmed down...:



and with Drivers and softwares:



Except the really big drivers need to be repackaged in windows 10, so they aren't integrated there. :/ I need to run an install on either machine and capture the drivers with NTLite, then add them there. Still I estimate 1.5gb for them, windows 10 is still smaller which is a surprise.