Last Summer,I witnessed a thrilling experimental quest to reduce the size of an XP installation to under 500 mb.
I watched in awe as Maestro of deletion,Bold_Fortune dispatched superfluous file after cumbersome directory.He was a true force of nature.An inspiration.
How I raced to read the next installment of the adventure.Half expecting him to write:"The system crashed.Had to reinstall.",yet at the same time being utterly convinced Bold_Fortune was infallible.
No dismal admission of failure ever came.XP kept on shrinking.
Now,Bold_Fortune had his voiciferous critics,who condemned him for publishing his diaries on the Internet.They feared those less experienced than Bold_Fortune could follow his lead,cause system instability and ultimately destroy their Operating Systems.
If your XP was O.E.M with a silly recovery disk,I guess you really would be in lumber.
The point of this yarn being;a batch file was created to automate the removal process of files,folders,programmes and directories..
It was written ONLY for use on American systems.
I followed the instructions,week by week as they apeared on the net,deleting each file manually.I reached the final set of instructions...I rebooted.Windows failed to start because C_850.nls was missing or corrupted..
This is believe is a crucial language-related system file for English/U.K keyboard XPs.
On a fresh-install,I ran the batch file-because at the time,it seemed like the fastest means of confirming whether I'd misread something (Sounds stupid now,but,boy did I learn a lot..)
Same result:C_850.nls gone for a burton.
Now,I am itching to go for it again this weekend.I found the batch file this morning,and am well up for editing it slightly.
Shall I keep you posted?
Yes, please do...
My Windows directory is roughly 2.8 GIG!!! (Is that normal?)
I wouldn't mind messing around with chopping it down some on a "sidelined" computer (but admit no inclinations in doing so on my "main unit" until I see how it goes)...
O.K,mate.2.8 Gb sounds about average..XP is a bloater.I fondly call it the "Fat Bird of O.Ses"
No way would I endorse messing around with your primary operating system.Even if everything looks well on the surface,it could have unforseen consequences.
Nice to tinker about on a wet Sunday afternoon with an old banger,though.
There was no way of fitting the entire text of the American stage one .bat into one post.I've uploaded it as a text attachment-because I certainly don't want anyone running it unintentionally.
To expedite matters,I ran the American .bat.Prior to rebooting,I replaced C_850.nls into system 32.Windows started without a glitch.I guess that establishes one crucial variable when adapting the .bat to run on international versions of XP.
I'll do some Googling,and see if I can match the other .nls to their respective languages.
Reproduced by Kind Permission of Author,Bold_Fortune:
" I'm posting my latest system32 batch file here. I've been running without the files this batch file removes from my system32 folder for some months now, with the exception of another 30-odd files I've just included to it. These 30 or so files I have been testing for about three weeks now and everything seems aok.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
VERY IMPORTANT. IF YOU DO NOT READ THIS PART CAREFULLY...AND UNDERSTAND IT...STAY AWAY FROM THIS SYSTEM32 BAT FILE:
The two single file areas that YOU MUST BE MOST CAREFUL WITH are NLS Files = Multiple Language Resource Files. Character Translation; National Language Services driver (font or font map) ...and "KBD*.dll" files...which are for foreign language keyboard layouts.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
A WORD OF CAUTION about NLS files. Delete any one of these you're not supposed to and your system may not restart.
NLS Files = Multiple Language Resource Files. Character Translation; National Language Services driver (font or font map).
My system settings are for U.S.English. If you live outside of the U.S. using a foreign from U.S. computer you will need to check within your Layout.ini file within your Prefetch folder to see exactly which NLS files your system uses.
For my U.S.English settings, I remove all of these NLS files:
c_037.nls
c_10000.nls
c_10006.nls
c_10007.nls
c_10010.nls
c_10017.nls
c_10029.nls
c_10079.nls
c_10081.nls
c_10082.nls
c_1026.nls
c_1258.nls
c_20127.nls
c_20261.nls
c_20866.nls
c_20905.nls
c_21866.nls
c_28592.nls
c_28593.nls
C_28594.NLS
C_28595.NLS
C_28597.NLS
c_28598.nls
c_28599.nls
c_28603.nls
c_28605.nls
c_500.nls
c_737.nls
c_775.nls
c_850.nls
c_852.nls
c_855.nls
c_857.nls
c_860.nls
c_861.nls
c_863.nls
c_865.nls
c_866.nls
c_869.nls
c_874.nls
c_875.nls
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I delete ALL "kbd*.dll" files...which are for foreign language keyboard layouts, except for "kbdus.dll" which is the United States Keyboard layout, and the one I use.
A WORD OF CAUTION about kbd*.dlls. kbd*.dlls are Keyboard Layout files. My settings are for U.S. English, so I only need and keep the "kdbdus.dll". All others I remove from system32.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One final word... My system32 bat file removes and backups well over 700 individual files from the system32 directory. All systems are not the same. Removing these files works for my system and how I use it. It may not work for you.
My system32 bat file will "move" and "save" the files it removes from the System32 Directory to a folder it creates on C:\ simply named "BACKUP". Inside the BACKUP Folder will be a sub-folder named "WINDOWS". Inside the WINDOWS Folder will be another sub-folder named "system32".
I created the batch file this way for you, so you would always know exactly from where these files came from in case you decide you would like to replace some or all of them.
Now that I've scared the crap out of you with the proper warnings...enjoy!"
Jaded_Goth Wrote:Shall I keep you posted?
Please do
I can test it on my other computer, just to make sure I don't lose anything on this one...
That would mean hours of installing and configuring:
I'm glad to know that you use the chess image...
Did you know that Japanese immigration officials have detained Bobby Fischer this past Tuesday when he attempted to use an invalid passport to fly to the Philippines?
What are your opinions on Diskeeper versus PerfectDisk?
But to switch, I'd be giving up "set it and forget it"...
My disk is automatically defragged when excessive defragmentation is encountered - I don't need to do anything...
What program do you use? Or what hard-drive do you have?
(We're sort of going off-topic...LOL)
yeah, I guess I've been doing that a lot lately...
I think it's due to an overdose on UOP (hint: see browser title bar)...
The office uses Diskeeper - and it has a "set it and forget it" setting that runs in the background (very little resources)...
Once the hard drive accumulates so many fragmentations, it defrags them...
I don't EVER have to manually initiate a defrag...
I don't see that option in PerfectDisk...
With the size of todays hdd's is it really necessary to worry about the size of an OS?
I use a batch file to clean up and defrag my drives. One click won't hurt me.
ProxRocks: I see...pretty interesting
Besafe: Please post the Batch file?
besafe Wrote:With the size of todays hdd's is it really necessary to worry about the size of an OS?
I use a batch file to clean up and defrag my drives. One click won't hurt me.
I don't "worry" about the size of the O.S.
I just found the XP Lite Project appealing,and it taught me a great deal about the internal workings of the O.S.
Like I said,it's a pleasant way to pass dreary afternoons.
Batchrun 3.0
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\clean.bat
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents
0
X
Normal
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\DEFRAG_ALL.BAT
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents
0
Normal
I don't know much about writing scripts so I use Batchrun. I used sageset/sagerun and set it the way I wanted and made a little defrag all batch file to defrag my drives and then used Batchrun to run the two of them consecutively from a shortcut.
