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Free Tool Strips Vista to Bare Bones
A new tool released late last week lets you take as much of the "feature bloat" as you want out of Windows Vista -- and then some.
vLite, created by Dino Nuhagic, lets you pick and choose which of more than 150 Vista components -- like Windows Media Player, Welcome Center, Audio and Display Drivers, .NET and others -- to get rid of when installing the operating system. You can also choose to protect certain files or other features while getting rid of unnecessary parts of the components.
"vLite provides you with an easy removal of the unwanted components in order to make Vista run faster and to your liking," Nuhagic writes of his program. "This tool doesn't use any kind of hacking, all files and registry entries are protected as they would be if you installed the unedited version only with the changes you select."
vLlite works on all versions of Vista. Nuhagic notes that using vLite will prevent the installation of Vista SP1. Also, all removals are permanent (you'll have to re-install Vista to restore).
For more information and to download the vLite software, click here.
Nuchagic also offers a similar tool for Windows XP, nLite. To download this program, go here.
Both vLite and nLite are free, although Nuhagic accepts donations through PayPal.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is vice president of AI for 1105 Media, where she specializes in training internal and external customers on maximizing their business potential via a wide variety of generative AI technologies as well as developing cutting-edge AI content and events. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Uses," regularly leads research studies on generative AI business usage, and serves as the director of AI Boardroom, a new resource for C-level executives looking to excel in the AI era. Prior to her current position she was a technical leader for 1105 Media's Web, advertising and production teams as well as editorial director for a suite of enterprise technology publications, including serving as founding editor of PureAI.com. She has 20 years of enterprise technology journalism experience, and regularly speaks and writes about generative AI, AI, edge computing and other cutting-edge technologies. She can be reached at [email protected].