Windows XLite

My project is rubbish when compared to a professionally-done bloatfree software like Windows X-Lite.

I recommend X-Lite Optimum 10 Classic.
X-Lite Micro is good too. They are simply brilliant.

There is no Edge. Bing, Copilot, OneDrive, OneNote, Windows Update, etc.

Perfect!

ultralight

It depends... What if any other app needs the removed features? Are there any known drawbacks/incompatibilities for removing them? Can you add them if you need them some time later? In the reply is no, then I would rather install the standard Windows 11 Pro version and make it lighter myself by DISABLING unused features, not removing them. So any time one of these is needed, I can just enable it back. How do you update Windows if you remove Windows Update?

If you install the Windows 11 version, you can turn Windows Update Service on or off under X-Lite Tools.

Holy cow! Using X-Lite Micro, I was able to shed more than 10 GB off the OS.

That’s insane!

pewa said:

Holy cow! Using X-Lite Micro, I was able to shed more than 10 GB off the OS.

That’s insane!

Click to expand...

That's great!

Now use it AS IS for about a month...no changes to your activity, just use the OS and do everything you normally do. If it still works great and regular maintenance and backups work fine, then your set. More power to you!

In my case, I have tried X-Lite and other slim and extra slim Windows versions and I was either running into issues that would normally work but needed additional software or other fixes, or I couldn't get them to work at all. In my case, I was having issues streaming and gaming at the same time under a couple of the slimmed down versions so in the end I went back to a regular Win11 install and either removed things I didn't need or (as in most cases) ensured that things didn't start up but were still installed due to other software dependencies.

It feels too skinny and that makes me nervous. Just my gut instinct. The photos in my album don’t look that good to me. And it will be a disaster if I cannot install my Linux distros on my VMware Workstation.

A couple of my commands I added to the registry did not work. I can’t stop ‘Suggested’ on the search menu.

I am going to try Win X-Lite Optimum 10 tomorrow. That one should be a better option. Even the word ‘Optimum’ sounds more re-assuring.

Anyway, no Windows Defender, Edge, Bing, Copilot, OneDrive and OneNote.
And no Windows Update.

That’s perfect! I never did like those features.

Nope, I am trying out the latest Windows X-Lite Optimum 10 Pro 6 instead of Classic. Will let you guys know how good it is later.
I don't use the recommended Rufus but my own PE USB disk which I created some time back for situations like this. I just need to extract the ISO to the disk.

Windows X-Lite Optimum 10 Pro 6 is just excellent. The sound quality is superb and the picture and video quality is not excellent but still very good. I highly recommend this version.

I use my own wallpaper for my desktop background. The original was blurry and was sort of a bokeh look. I also use my own lock screen. I specially created one for my personal use and so will not display it here to prevent theft.

As for the taskbar, I have made it more transparent, a sort of light blue tinge if you will. It is also evident on the start menu.


The setup has been highly configured. On my end, I also tweaked it a lot. I deleted all the application folders on my Start Menu and replaced them with short-cut application icons. I also chopped, changed and added several entries in the registry.


Not surprisingly, my SFC detected a lot of errors and corrected most of them. Then I used DISM to successfully repair the rest online. It took about 15 minutes.

Here's a heads-up. The StartIsBack v2.9.20 app which comes with the setup will prompt you for the registration key. If you don't have one, you can always uninstall it. The StartIsBack app displays the Windows 8 start menu.

When you start up, you will see a choice of of operating systems. If you don't know how to disable the boot options, let me know and I will tell you how.

The links to the Micro, Optimum Classic and Pro 6 versions are all on the devs' website.

There are also Windows 11 Build versions. Go check them out.

Have a nice day!

I've been using X-Lite for a few months now. Amazingly, no slowdown after updating to 24H2 26100.7019. All I had to do was remove smartscreen and then add a few tweaks of my own to stop windows from "repairing" itself, which invariably results in a lot of unwanted 'features' and settings reinstalling themselves.

I'll second @DJNelson, I've been using XLite Optimum 22621.1992 and I like the performance and look of it. Although I must confess I run it in a VHD and boot directly into it, using it that way it doesn't have any underlying virtualization software.

Funny how sandboxing the OS makes it run a lot faster...

DJNelson said:

Funny how sandboxing the OS makes it run a lot faster...

Click to expand...

Placebo effect - obviously.

For pure speed - just try any decent Linux up to date host running KVM/QEMU with a guest Windows system on a Virtio disk device with a virtio Nic adapter -- I've tested this on a decent i7 8 core laptop with 32GB RAM and a 512GB Nvme (SSD type) internal HDD -- a 100 GB Windows VM runs a lot better than the same OS on the physical machine with identical apps installed !!!





The VirtIO disk system and NIC also as virtio is infinitely more efficient than NTFS which is part of the Windows problems - it's an ageing file system -robust enough but not mega efficient).

Sandboxing also requires a whole underlying "Psuedo Virtual Machine" layer between the running OS and the sandboxed machine plus of course there's also the added problems with persistence and if you need to install / test software or make configuration changes that require a reboot then your changes are usually lost.

Sandboxing was a passable idea around 1990 to 2010 -- but on decent modern hardware -- just forget it !!!!.

Cheers
jimbo

If it were possible to play high end Windows games from a VM with a Linux host, that's how I would set up my machine.. I trust Linux not to steal my data. Can't say the same for Windows, at least until after it's been properly contained.. I don't have the patience and technical skills to get anything running in WINE.

@spapakons

You are right! This set up is dangerous. It worked just fine on my Dell Inspiron. But it screwed up big time on my HP EliteBook.

I had boot up problems and couldn’t use my backup tool. In the end, I solved the boot problem by using HP factory install online (an hour wasted solving the problem).

I am going to stick to my own solution (project). Install the basic Windows and de-bloat whatever I don’t need.

That's the best approach.

DJNelson said:

I've been using X-Lite for a few months now. Amazingly, no slowdown after updating to 24H2 26100.7019. All I had to do was remove smartscreen and then add a few tweaks of my own to stop windows from "repairing" itself, which invariably results in a lot of unwanted 'features' and settings reinstalling themselves.

Click to expand...

I think it depends on your pc.
My Dell Inspiron was fine with Windows X-Lite. But my HP EliteBook went totally nuts. The boot up system was all messed up.

After recommending it, I felt a little stupid condemning it. This setup is way too dangerous. It leaves you with a corrupted system.

So I decided to continue with my own project. The footprint is not as small as Win X-Lite. But is way smaller than the usual Win 10 Pro OS (about 5 GB smaller).

I couldn't uninstall Edge, Bing, OneDrive and OneNote without consequences as my laptops were not acquired from the EU region. They were made in Brazil and Japan respectively.

So the next best option is to disable them. And that I did successfully.

Here are some snapshots of my new project:





These are from Revo Uninstaller:




And my Task Scheduler:


Cheers! Have a nice day guys!