WinReducer 8.1 (Old discussion)

@seiferflo Dude, I'm having the same issue you are having (regarding #1). The only difference is that, whether I update or not, I CAN'T GET PAST THE MOUNTING STEP  . It stucks with no activity being detected by the task manager, but the image is mounted. I have been deprived of further testing because of this issue, so I'm making Windows 7 images in the meantime, lol. Made a 530 MB install.wim  . I'll write that on my résumé.

BTW, I like your idea (regarding #5). Winter, I've always wondered, why in the name of God would someone like to keep the Action Center CPL files while having checked Action Center for removal?? Lol. Why aren't Action Center CPL files bundled within the Action Center component?  I mean, each CPL file is like 10 KB large. You should bundle them together.

Regards.

Hi billybully.
You mentioned that you had tweaked some services in an earlier post.
Have you tried installing a default, 100% vanilla Windows 8.1 to a brand new VM and then trying WinReducer again?

Because I have never experienced your issues.

I have Windows 8.1 Pro. 
For each version of Winreducer, I extract the files to a new directory and then copy the APPS folder over to the new WinReducer directory.

That has worked for me every time...

@billybully
I know, it also made me want to stop using it because of this, especially because the problem came after I finish the last updates.

I think I got the proper technique to make it work. Sorry I can't tell you how to fix the actual problem, I just use a clean Win8.1 (pro or not pro, doesn't matter).
I install it on a virtual machine. At the end of installation, make sure you untick "Use SmartScreen online services..." at the 2nd page of config, then select "do not install updates automatically".
Once installed, first thing I do, I install the 3.5 framework (didn't do it from winreducer), then I make sure Windows update is turned off.
I launch internet explorer and click "do not use recommended settings", then close it.
From there, I disable Windows Defender, I launch WinReducer, click yes on the UAC screen and it works.

Good luck mate.
I guess if you don't want to start from a new Windows, you can start by disabling SmartScreen, and removing the last updates.

@Winter @theKramer
I think this issue should be looked deeply as I am not the only having this problem. Having a debug option of WinReducer could tell us what's happening in this case and share you the log file (practically non-existent at the moment).

Hi flo.
I can confirm that I have "Use SmartScreen online services..." unticked as well, but I do update the VM that I use with Windows Update. Since I dont use IE, I untick all IE related stuff.

When I get home this evening, I will enable "Use SmartScreen online services..." and see if that has any effect on WinReducer for me...

Thanks for all your help. You make valid points, and Im not trying to say you do something wrong, just trying to provide an alternative view

Hello guys,

Just let me know the result ...  Thank you !

I think (  ), I've found the Windows Search bug : "Languages - English (en-GB)" ... It works now for me ... Hope it will work for you !  

I've also found that : cleaning "Windows\assembly" folder and "Windows\Net Framework" could really be a problem for Net Framework depending software (including WinReducer), so I moved all net framework cleanup folders in the new Component "Optimizations - Windows WinSXS Files Cleanup (EXTREME)", to avoid many software troubles ...

I will finish tonight all my tests and I will release v0.99.1 later today ....

@theKramer I don't use virtual machines because my computer is not powerful enough to hold one. But I do exactly what you say: I install a fresh untouched version of Windows 8.1 to a fresh new partition and start WinReducer from a D:\ drive without touching any of the Windows settings. It still fails. I use the express settings in the OOBE, but, if I have time, I will try to do what seiferflo said.

billybully wrote:

@theKramer I don't use virtual machines because my computer is not powerful enough to hold one. But I do exactly what you say: I install a fresh untouched version of Windows 8.1 to a fresh new partition and start WinReducer from a D:\ drive without touching any of the Windows settings. It still fails. I use the express settings in the OOBE, but, if I have time, I will try to do what seiferflo said.

I use a dual core amd 2.7ghz amd 4gb ram and sure that is not more powerful... Indeed I hope to canche it quickly because he can no longer...  .


Does its job but is very slow but I think that the disk is too slow. Anyway thank the saints that I have at least that.  

@zumoc Mine is a dual core Pentium (yes, Pentium) at 3.00 GHz and has 4GB of RAM. But this baby has done things like, recently, a fully functional 64 bit 697 MB Windows 7 SP1 ISO .

Here's a little rumor coming from WinSuperSite...

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/further-changes-coming-windows-threshold

Too bad it's one year from now.

billybully wrote:

I don't use virtual machines because my computer is not powerful enough to hold one.

How old Is your system?

Even If It's quite a few years of age, with mediocre specs, you should still be able to run Virtual PC 2007 & VirtualBox without Issues.

But virtualbox does not have the configurability of VMware...I had used for more time with xp...

Hey guys,

Sorry to interrupt your interesting conversation ... Just to tell you that I v0.99.1 is ready !

I've been quite silent from few days, because I've hardly worked on :

1. Improving the "Automatic Removing" preset .. if you select it, WinReducer will remove all associated components to remove (Ex: if you choose : "Accessories - Action Center", then "Accessories - Control Panel - Action Center" and "Presets - Protect Windows Activation GUI" will also removed).

2. To help you to know exactly which components you could use to automatically remove all depending components, I created a list, you could find in this post (LINK), once it will be available.

3. I've also improved all "Protect" presets.

4. I've fixed many bugs : Windows Search should be fixed and many troubles with ModernUI Apps.

5. But take care, I've also changed all "Optimizations" names to be much more readable.

6. Sticky Notes and Snipping tool are fixed

This time, v0.99.1 should be a great improvement and stable enough to be released. If you find a bug, do not hesitate to create a post on the "Bugs" section ...

See you in few hours ...   

thanks winter

You are welcome and WinReducer v0.99.1 will be available in less than 2 hours !  

winterstorm2050 wrote:

You are welcome and WinReducer v0.99.1 will be available in less than 2 hours !  

 

Zip package ready to upload my friends ! Only few minutes ....  

Hey guys,

Here we go, WinReducer 8.1 - v0.99.1 (pre-final) is available for all members, only available in the WinReducer website :

CHANGELOG :

* NEW
- “Multimedia - Windows Optical Character Recognition (OCR)”
- “Optimizations - Windows - WinSXS Cleanup (EXTREME)” : only for experienced power users
- “Optimizations - Windows - WinSXS Folder Compression” : only for experienced power users

* UPDATED
- English language file to v0.99.1
- “WinReducer GUI Themes” download link : Redirected to the website page
- “Database Information” link : Redirected to the website page
- “Optimizations” : All names have changed to improve readability
- “Protect ModernUI Apps” : Automatically protect all needed components
- “Protect Windows Search” : Automatically protect all needed components
- “Tweaks - Recycle Bin - Enable Confirmation Dialog “ : Rename to “Tweaks - Recycle Bin - Enable Confirmation Dialog” because in Windows 8.1, it’s disabled by default

* FIXED
- “Remover Tab” : Fix “Select all checked” for Tweaks and Optimizations
- “Accessories - Notepad” : Break text file Explorer preview panel
- “Accessories – Tablet PC (Engine)” : Break Snipping Tool and Sticky Notes
- “Accessories - Windows Mail” : Break Explorer preview panel
- “Accessories – Natural Languages” : Break Windows Search
- “Languages - United Kingdom” : Break Windows Search
- “Multimedia – Photo Viewer” : Improve Remove cleanup (completely remove the integrated image viewer)
- “Optimizations – Windows Unneeded Files Cleanup” : Break ModernUI Apps
- “Services – Windows Error Reporting Service” : Break “System Folders – Local Temporary Folder” and “System Folders – Windows Temporary Folder”
- “Themes - Lockscreen – Pictures” : Break ModernUI Apps (like News, Food and Drink, ...)
- “Themes – Sounds” : Break some ModernUI Apps (like Photos, ...)
- “Tweaks - Explorer - Remove Shortcut Arrow”
- “Tweaks - Explorer - Show Hidden Files and Folders” : Didn’t work properly
- “Tweaks - Explorer - Show Hidden System Files” : Didn’t work properly
- WinReducer GUI Themes support : Didn’t work properly

http://www.winreducer.net

* YOU NEED TO TAKE CARE ABOUT COMPONENTS WITH NAMES CHANGED (Optimizations), SO PREVIOUS WCCF PRESETS FILES ARE DEPRECATED. This is the last change, I promise my friends !  

So if you'll discover a bug, please let me know in this thread.

Enough talking, go test the latest WinReducer 8.1 build test before the FINAL ...

@winterstorm:

Sorry if it has been asked already, but could you tell me what exactly the optimization 'ISO - Boot - delete unneeded editions' does? The description says it deletes WinPE. I'm using an untouched MS ISO, so will there be any WinPE in it?

In my opinion, the descriptions for the optimizations needs to be a bit more detailed or descriptive.

Also, I have to bring to your notice that ticking 'ISO - Windows - unneeded files cleanup' rendered my reduced ISO unable to complete the setup process. Until the v0.99 anyway. I haven't tried v0.99.1. So what you call unneeded may not really be unneeded, for some systems. But it seems to reduce the size by several hundred MB, so I'm wondering if that option can be fixed - find out exactly which files are unneeded and which aren't.

Could somebody make a quick list of the biggest space hogs, the components which when deleted reduce the size the most, without affecting functionality?

Hi Winter,
This version looks very big with all the bug fixing, nice work. Little feedback as usual.

I'm waiting for WinReducer to finish, it will take an hour.
1- Clean launch, got a framework error because of theme conflict (it seems the default theme and blank one starts together), I launched a second time and it worked.
2- Right now, we have to put the mouse on top of a component to be able to see the tip, which is not very handy, so I usually use the keyboard arrow to jump from one to another, but the tips don't appear.
Will it be possible to make the tips appearing when using the keyboard?
3- Selecting Autoplay, anytime upgrade... doesn't automatically remove the associated control panel shortcut
4- Natural languages removed, Windows Search should work (awesome, looking forward for the final result). However, it would be nice to update the according tip.
5- Does USB Video still breaks webcam? I didn't want to test. If yes, it would be nice to update the tip.
6- Network / Wireless Virtual: is it a brand or does it mean it will break the network of a virtual machine? Please update according tip for more detail.
7- A note should be written on the raid drivers saying that if we remove them, we can't install Windows 8.1 if the HDD is in the according raid controller. 
8- Speech seems to be appearing twice.
9- I didn't touch the "Unneeded files" ISO & Windows. Too scared of having a problem   
10- Why DISM cleanup appears both in system & remover?

I'll let you know how it worked later.
Cheers
Flo

Hi,
Great feedback aymanalz. We were all in the same situation with 0.99 and I guess I feel like you now with 0.99.1
So far so good for me too. Search works perfectly, no framework error, no windows update problem, except again this 3min black screen at launch on my virtual machine.
It is probably a driver problem: Can someone confirm this with VirtualBox, guest addition installed first, then all windows updates?

I'm surprised you can get 3.5GB once installed. I had 6.1GB and 10GB after updates. I did not clean much in optimisations by fear of having a problem and also features.
I also agree with you regarding the description of Optmisations. What's happening if we tick one these? What will not be working? What will disfunction? If everything will work, better just remove it without telling us...

I'm raising a few stuff in the new database section. In the meantime, I'll keep running some tests as this will be my next product image.
Good job Winter, we're approaching 1.0

Hey guys,

Really interesting feedbacks, thank you very much ...   

So, this version leaves you a good impression ! I'm happy ...   

@seiferflo and aymanalz: I will take care of all your interesting comments ...
A. For you windows installation, you could reduce the size, by using "Tweaks - System - Disable Paging File" : it removes the paging file on your system partition, this file is approximatively equal to the amount of RAM size in your system ... So if you have 4Go of ram your paging file is equal to around 4Go. BUT take care, you need a minimum of 4go for a x64 system, and 6go is better especially if you launch software with a big need in ram (photos, videos, ...)
Another tips to reduce your Windows installation is to also disable "Tweaks - System - Disable Hibernation", it disable the hibernation file which could be a big one but you will loose the possibility to hibernate your system.
==> Only with these 2 tweaks, you could reduce windows installation by around 50% ! But you will need many more ram and loose hibernation features, so it's your choice !

B. And, if you want to reduce the Windows ISO size, you need to use "Optimizations - ISO - Windows - Delete Unneeded Editions", which remove all unneeded windows editions in your ISO. So, if you mount a core edition from a Windows 8.1 ISO in WinReducer, this option will remove the PRO editions and will reduce your ISO size by much. In fact, if you don't use it, all your Windows Edition will be available in your ISO and you will have a big ISO size.

C. For your 3min black screen at launch on the virtual machine, I'm using VMWare and never experienced that, I will try to do some tests with virtualbox to see. Did you integrated updates on it before launching the ISO ?

D. For the "Optimizations" components, you could use all of them except "Windows - WinSXS Cleanup (EXTREME)". I solved "Windows - Unneeded Files Cleanup" because I tried to clean the NET Framework folders and I didn't worked great, especially with software ... So I created "Windows - WinSXS Cleanup (EXTREME)" to be separated from others, so it's not a good idea to use this last one. But all others will not break your installation.

@aymanalz: Yes, there is a WinPE in the boot.wim. But I never used it ...   
Yes, I fix the components to cleanup iso files, it's now in separate components which is "Windows - WinSXS Cleanup (EXTREME)". So do not use this one if you don't know what you are doing !   

I also found a bug in the v0.99.1 which prevent mounting your ISO, in 2nd try if you previously slipstreamed Net Framework 3.5. The consequence will be an error message, during mount, and all tabs are deactivated. I will release v0.99.2 later today or tomorrow ...

And yes, flo, we are really close from v1.00 ...  

I was just about to comment that I am unable to mount ISOs - glad that you are aware of the issue, and will work on a fix. Unfortunately though, I cannot further test the program until you do, because I installed this reduced version on both my systems.

I can confirm that I am also getting the three minute black screen at startup. I did not integrate updates in the ISO, but I'm fairly certain that it started only after I installed updates. I was under the impression that this happens because of a certain update (KB2883200), and I skipped that update, but the issue still happens. It is a proper laptop, not a virtual machine. The graphics card is intel hd 3000, with the latest driver installed, in case you need to know. My other machine has first gen intel hd and nvidia geforce.

@seiferflo : I am using windows X64 core, and the only substantial removals I did to get an installed size of 3.5 GB was removing the pagefile and hibernation file, all languages, all printer and scanner drivers, and winsxs backup folder. I also compressed the winsxs folder, which may be the significant chage I made with this version - that reduces installed size by more than a GB.


A few others were reporting even smaller installations before.

Hey Guys windows search is working now but somehow the "pin to taskbar" is not working. Any idea what might be causing it?

I will try this version as soon as I can get my hands on a Windows 8.1 ISO. I accidentally deleted mine, lol.

lucaskent wrote:

Hey Guys windows search is working now but somehow the "pin to taskbar" is not working. Any idea what might be causing it?

It is working for me.

A tip to reduce the size of the winSXS directory is to run Disk Cleanup (Windows Key + R -> cleanmgr), the select "Clean System Files" and it will recalculate, and when it reappears, you will have the option to clean the "Installed Updates".

This can be anywhere from 100MB to over 1GB..

Thats assuming you have not removed it already ;-)

Another tip is that removing grahpics drivers with WinReducer and then reintegrating from a driver package actually saves space. (I dont think winter has re-implemented full graphics driver removal yet tho, but cant remember)

I can also confirm 3 minute Black screen after windows updates, using virtual box and normal installation otherwise seems fine so far.

Edit: by the way no integration of any kind just removals.

I'll keep testing when i get the time and thanks again winter nice program and just in time for xmas when i get my new SSD.

Ok guys, I will release v0.99.2 in few hours ... To fix that annoying mount trouble when Net Framework 3.5 is integrated  !

lucaskent wrote:

Hey Guys windows search is working now but somehow the "pin to taskbar" is not working. Any idea what might be causing it?

Did you use the "Tweaks - Explorer - Remove Shortcut Arrow" ? Because it could break the windows taskbar ...

lss7777 wrote:

I'll keep testing when i get the time and thanks again winter nice program and just in time for xmas when i get my new SSD.

  

@Winterstorm - Yes i selected that remove shortcut arrow. I will make another build right now without that, hope it works fine this time