How do you reduce windows 7 install size?

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Cheetoz

[H]ard|Gawd
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I want to reduce my windows 7 disk footprint to be as small as possible, 12gb is too much. I've googled, but I have not found any useful results. I'm willing to have upto 3gb of space being used by windows, but thats still too much. (i should of just installed windows xp, could of gotten it down to like 600mb, sigh!)

thanks.
 
I am not sure you can get Vista/7 down to 3Gb and still have it be functional. You may want to stick with 2K/Xp or one of the stripped down nix versions. You could also try Windows embedded if you really want to mess around with it.

I must admit I am curious about the why's of your 3GB limit.
 
If you are willing to experiment and have things possibly break, you can use RT7Lite to attempt to strip it down.

However, if you do have such requirements (3GB or less Windows install) you really shouldn't be considering Windows 7--it just doesn't fit.
 
Impossible. Better off sticking with XP then. You can have it fully functional for around 2.5 GB.
 
Install a 32 bit version instead of the 64 bit version. I know the tablets with Win 7 use about 8 gigs so that will be about as small as it will go.
 
Cheetoz said:
I want to reduce my windows 7 disk footprint to be as small as possible, 12gb is too much. I've googled, but I have not found any useful results. I'm willing to have upto 3gb of space being used by windows, but thats still too much. (i should of just installed windows xp, could of gotten it down to like 600mb, sigh!)
Click to expand...
You can only reduce the install size at the risk of breaking software. That's not a reasonable choice. Even if you do manage to reduce the install size and not run into any problems, the size of the OS will increase as software using shared components are installed. There's really no easy way around it.

This behavior wasn't supposed to cause problems because HDD space is cheap. SSDs are still a niche product for many desktop users, and that makes Windows 7 bloat more problematic on smaller drives.

If OS size is critical for whatever reason, XP is probably the better option. If it's just for the challenge or some magical quality a stripped down Windows OS supposedly gets... um, focus that energy elsewhere. ;)
 
Sovereign said:
If you are willing to experiment and have things possibly break, you can use RT7Lite to attempt to strip it down.

However, if you do have such requirements (3GB or less Windows install) you really shouldn't be considering Windows 7--it just doesn't fit.
Click to expand...

I looked at RT7lite, because when I was using XP, I used a tool called something like"nlite." But I have read many times in this forum that Win 7 is much better than XP for optimizing performance, etc, and that you should not try to trim down its size.

That said, if you need to integrate service packs or drivers, etc., then something like RT7lite may still be useful.
 
Windows 7 can run very well even on a 30GB SSD, without issues, and without trying to gut it "down to size". My system partition is 40GB (since I have 4GB of RAM and I do keep the hibernation file active, it's a laptop and I do move around so that's why it's not 30GB) and it's never been an issue. It's a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive but that's all that's required for the OS, really. Put the other stuff, the big apps, etc, on the rest of the drive if needed.

There's no 30GB SSD on the market today that I'd even dare recommend for a laptop; for desktops those Kingston ones aren't too bad but in a desktop you've got space for other actual hard drives; in a laptop space is tight with typically just one drive available. If that's the case, and it's a laptop with such a small SSD, Windows 7 ain't necessarily going to be the best choice for an OS if you are hard core serious about it - such a person would obviously require more space anyway.

Even so, IF this is the case - a small SSD - XP may still be the best option. You'd lose options for care of the SSD like Trim support (unless the SSD has it natively as a hardware aspect), etc.

But Windows 7? 3GB? Hell, the installation files are that large on average (on the install DVD) - it's simply not possible to be honest. Maybe get a license for Windows Thin PC and have at it. :D
 
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