Documentation

After starting the program*, first page to open is the Start – Source page.
This page contains a Source list on the left and a Preset list on the right.
Also accessible is the Tools tab in the toolbar, more info below.

Alternatively, certain operations are available for automation via the command-line as well, more info on that by running “ntlite.exe /?”.

Source list
Contains a list of images, which are either mounted, installed or just previously added.
To add an image to the list either use the toolbar – Image – Add button or drag and drop the folder or a file from the File Explorer directly.
Double-click, or select and choose Load from the toolbar, on the desired image edition to load it.
After an image is loaded, more pages will be available on the left, details in the sections below.

Mounted images
For an image to be editable, it first needs to be mounted. This is done automatically on loading the image.
It consists of temporary virtual extraction of the image in the temporary folder.
This will not take space on the disk as normal files, these are just links.
Only after changing or integrating something to the image, does this take more space accordingly.
To unmount the image and clean the temporary folder, either Apply changes (explained in the section at the end), or right-click the mounted image and choose Unload.

Live install
Tool can also edit the already installed Windows (C:\Windows). Same applies as with images, read the popup warnings carefully, as this applies directly to your currently installed operating system.

Extra info
The two image sizes right of images, for example 12000 | 8000, show the NTFS hard-linked on the left and disk/real size on the right.

Preset list
Contains a list of presets, XML files containing previous choices for a given session.
Last saved preset will be named “Auto-saved session” and usually on top of the list, copy in the root of the configured ISO/folder.
To use these files, first load an image. After loading an image, if there is a previously associated preset, it will be automatically loaded – this can be disabled in File – Settings.
To load a preset, same as with images, either double-click or select one and choose Load from the toolbar.

Load-Overwrite sets all the page choices to what is found on the loaded preset, while Load-Append loads one on top of another, without resetting to image defaults before loading a preset.
Multiple presets can also be loaded by selecting more than one preset at once using the CTRL+ method, then clicking on Load. This can be useful when combining multiple sessions at once.

Tools
Contained in the Source page toolbar, these are tool’s special case automations used to achieve a certain function faster. It is recommended to first get accustomed to the rest of the tool’s functionality.

Download Updates
More info.

Install Updates
This wizard helps you quickly install updates to your current installation, and just that in this mode. It uses the Updates page, described in the section below.

Host Refresh
This wizard helps you prepare and execute the Windows refresh feature, a migration to either the same or a different version of Windows.
It is useful when it comes to reinstalling Windows or feature upgrades, but don’t want to reinstall all your apps and reconfigure the settings, so Windows will on its own migrate your existing data.
For example this can be used to virtually return a removed component, fix broken installations, update lite OS without Windows Update, reapply lite OS with the latest tool fixes for a certain removal and so on.
In the wizard, make sure to provide the full, unedited ISO content of the targeted Windows version.
Optionally select your previous preset for auto-loading.
Once you press OK it will auto-load the selected image for editing.
Optionally add the latest updates and select changes as with any other image.
The Process button on the Apply page will be replaced with the Continue button, use that when ready to process and migrate.

More info on the introductory post.

Remove Reinstalls
Due to Windows 10 1903 changes, installing cumulative updates returns updated parts of removed components.
This wizard automates cleanup of those reinstalled component parts. Works only if the original component was removed by the build 6962 or newer.
Use Host Refresh to upgrade older lite installs to support this kind of cleanup.
Works with the free version as well, just run it on the machine you want to clean.
Cleanup can be started from the UI, or by using the tool parameter:
ntlite.exe /cleancu

*Windows 7 SP1 requires the SHA2 update (KB4474419) for NTLite to start.
Windows 8.1 and 10 do not need anything extra installed.

Components
This page contains a list of detected removable Windows components for the loaded image.
To queue a component for removal, uncheck the checkbox on the left.

Compatibility
Opened from the toolbar, these options help you protect the needed components from the removal, for a given feature set.
Enable those that you want protected, that will automatically lock the tied components from removal.

Features
This page contains a list of configurable Windows features for the loaded image, same as would be in the Optional Features of your current installation’s Settings or Control Panel.
Green titles are already enabled on the image, simplifying the pending state change overview. State of each feature can also be read on the right.

Settings
This page contains a list of various settings, tweaks and policies.
Change the option by either double-clicking it, or selecting the value from the drop-down on the right for a given row, or press the first letter of the value.

Services
This page contains a list of services, same as would be in Computer Management – Services.
Tied component for a selected service can be seen in the service description on the bottom.
If a tied component is queued for removal, or a service is known to break installation if misconfigured, the given service row will be disabled.

Extra Services
This page contains a list of driver and hidden services, these are not normally listed in Windows UI and should not be changed unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
It’s here mostly for completion and a general overview of driver payloads.

Updates
This page integrates updates to an image, or installs updates to the currently installed system, depending what was loaded as the target on the Source page.
On the right is a list of existing packages in the target, those can be Updates, Language packs and Features.
Make sure to use the Analyze option from the toolbar after queuing all the updates, for any known missing dependencies or compatibility issues.
For EXE installers like .NET Framework or C++, use the Automate – Post Setup page instead, Updates page is just for truly integrate-able packages, extensions like MSU or CAB. Some EXE exceptions are Win7 SP1, WUAgent and IE11, those are supported by the Updates page.

Add – Latest Online Updates
More info.

Clean update backup
An option in the toolbar, used to remove the obsolete files, replaced by their updated versions.
It can be useful to significantly reduce the size of the updated target, to fit an image to the FAT32 4GB limit or to simply reduce the size of the installation. It removes the ability to uninstall current updates.
There are 3 modes of operation:
– DISM (Compatible) – in this mode it is using the Windows built-in function to clean updates. While it is the maximum compatible method, in terms of it having the least chances of breaking a future package installation, it can be quite slow and picky on its environment. If it denies to work in your particular target, try the Custom mode (not as compatible with future updates). DISM modes do not support Windows 7.
– DISM (ResetBase) – same as above, plus removes a bit more, with a higher risk of breaking updatability and Windows Reset of Win10 1903 and newer.
– Custom (Complete) – uses the custom engine for cleaning the old versions, while retaining the update compatibility in almost all of the cases. Report any issues and update with Host Refresh tool if stuck.

Recovery: if a future package installation breaks for any reason, on Windows 10 see up about Start – Tools – Host Refresh, to repair without a full reinstall.

Feature upgrades:
Windows images are designed such that existing image upgrades are only possible in these combinations:
1903 (build 18362) -> 1909 (build 18363)
2004 (build 19041) -> 2009 (build 19042) -> 21H1 (build 19043) -> 21H2 (19044) – and any combination in-between
The entire image package structure is different in that base image build jump from 18362 to 19041.
The offline/image upgrade from 1903/9 to 20H2/21H1/21H2 is not possible with update packages alone as they have a different base version, what you need to do is get the 2004, 2009 or 21H1 ISO.
Latest ISOs can be downloaded from Microsoft here for end users, if you have MSDN subscription, use that to get the oldest 2004 (20H2), then update it with latest updates and feature upgrade of choice.
Already deployed online/live installations follow the same rule, it’s just Windows Update downloads a new ISO in the background for those bigger jumps.
You can also use Host Refresh in that case to upgrade with an already adapted ISO.
Note that packages update images, while images cannot update images, they replace them.

Drivers
This page integrates drivers to an image, and can be used to check if all the needed drivers are covered for the loaded target.
Supported drivers are in the INF format, with the accompanying files in the folder as they came originally in the package.
You can import drivers from the host, or download from the internet.
If the driver is only available in the EXE format, extract it first – the method depends on the driver, sometimes just a switch, if you cannot find how, contact us.

Hardware list
Contained in an XML file which can be exported from any machine running the tool and using the File – Export Hardware List option.
To add another machine’s hardware list, use the Import button on the toolbar of the Drivers page, then select that machine from the drop-down.
This machine list is also reflected on the Components page, Compatibility list, to easily protect needed drivers for the targeted machine if removing components.

Reuse driver cache
An option in the toolbar, used to reduce the effective Windows size, utilizing NTFS links between identical driver files in cache and where deployed (e.g. System32). Most space saved when used on Live deployments with installed drivers.

Registry
This page applies registry (.reg) file content directly to an image, and provides an easy way to manually edit registry hives on the image.
It will automatically translate registry key paths to an appropriate location, just use it as a normal reg file.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER subkeys will be applied to all users.

Common
Directory subscription
Each of these pages have the option to Add – Directory containing relevant files, or Subscribe to such a directory.
While adding a directory once adds the files from it, he Subscribe option adds the link to the folder itself instead.
Such subscription refreshes the file list in that directory on preset reload or pressing Refresh on the toolbar for that page.
This can be useful when maintaining your own list of update, drivers or tweaks in a directory structure, or using NTLite in a script to reduce the need to adapt presets to new integration steps.

To see the list of subscribed directories, position the mouse over the Refresh button to see the tooltip.

To unsubscribe from a directory, right-click on any file from the said directory and choose Remove directory.
Remove directory will also remove any other files from that directory.
You can also manually edit the preset file before loading it and remove or change the relevant Directory elements.

Unattended
This page automates setup choices for an image, so that the installation can be fully or partially automated.
First enable the page on the upper-left, check the extra options in the toolbar, then set the remaining options on the main list.
All options are queued to be executed on deployment of the loaded image.

Autofill
Set and overwrite available entries with the host machine data, where available, speeding up the process of setting up full automation.

All – fills the entire page and prompts for the first user creation

Windows PE – fills just the boot portion of the setup, leaving the OOBE prompts as set

Reset – resets the whole page back to defaults

Add local account
Create a local user account. Also has the option to enable the built-in Administrator account, and to auto-logon a user.

Join network
Join a network domain or a workgroup.

Configure disk
Easily setup disk partition layout with the recommended BIOS and UEFI presets, or setup individual disk partitions.
When wiping the entire disk, it is recommended to use the disk templates.
To format, or only automatically install to a particular partition without wiping the entire drive, it is possible with the ‘Individual partition’ option.
Make sure ‘Wipe disk’ is unchecked, set Partition mode to ‘Modify’ instead of ‘Create’.
Under ‘Format’ choose if you want to format it, and check ‘Install to this partition’ if you want to deploy to that one.
One partition has to be selected as the deployment target, or the setup will prompt for partition selection and automation will be lost.
Double check the main Unattended screen by typing in the filter ‘Wipe’, all of those should be set to ‘false’ already.

To restart the disk configuration, select the “Disk Configuration” element and choose Remove from the toolbar.

Be very careful when configuring formatting or wiping, that the disk and partition IDs are correct, maybe even pre-test in a virtual machine configured with the same disk layout.

OEM SetupComplete
When using an OEM product key in Windows 8 and newer, SetupComplete.cmd is normally not executed. Enable this option to include SetupComplete.cmd in the Unattended-RunSynchronous commands to be executed at the end of setup.
This cmd file is also used by the Post-Setup functionality, described below.

Copy to install image
Copy the answer file directly to the final image location (%WINDIR%\Panther\unattend.xml). Use only if directly deploying an image to a partition, without Windows setup.

Copy to boot image
Copy the answer file directly to the setup boot image. Can help machines which otherwise do not apply Unattended settings on booting up this image.

Dual architecture
If using a 64-bit image, this also saves the 32-bit automation entries, and vice-versa. This is helpful when building multiple-architecture, All-In-One images, otherwise not necessary.
This also enables prompting the list of all editions on the image during the setup boot-up, otherwise setup will automatically pick the last configured edition.

Computer Name
Type or select ‘[Prompt]’ to enable changing the computer name through a prompt during Windows setup. Note that this option needs to be applied to each edition on the image, in case you are not installing the loaded/configured one.

Post-Setup
This page automates execution of apps and scripts at the end of an image installation, or directly after processing if used live.
Use the Add drop-down in the toolbar to add files, commands or see existing templates.
A file can be an installer, or a passive file, type of each can be seen in the Type column.

Installers will be automatically copied and executed during deployment, then deleted from the temporary location.
Make sure all the installers have their correct silent switches set in the Parameters box, otherwise the installation will hang at the login screen.

Passive files will not be executed, just copied and deleted after all the installers are done.
You can use passive files in the installer parameters, syntax listed on the passive file’s Parameters box as read-only ready for copying.

Apply
This page contains the final image processing options, the full list of pending changes, and the Process button to start applying all the queued changes to the loaded target.
Before actually pressing the Process button, review the pending changes on the right, and do some final choices on this page.

Saving mode
Choose between:
– Save the image, just saves the changes to the loaded edition, keeps the other ones.
– Save the image and trim editions, saves the changes and deletes other editions on the image, this can save a lot of space on the actual image if you don’t need other editions.
– Stop before saving the image, this applies the changes to the mount directory only, changes will not be saved to the actual image until you unload and tick save changes, or reapply in another session.
This is useful when doing multiple sessions to not need to wait for saving and remounting each time.

Remove non-essential editions
Provides the ability to manually select which editions to remove. You can also manually remove editions on the Source page directly by right-clicking it and choosing Delete.

Image format
When saving an image, choose the format.

Image process queue
With this option, selected current tasks can be multiplied to the other editions on the loaded image, not needing to manually do so for each edition.
For example you can select to integrate a driver to install.wim and also to boot.wim, or the same updates for Home and Pro edition, in one session.

Options
Create ISO option automates ISO creation at the end of the process. By ticking the checkbox you will be asked for a file destination.