Vista bloat-stripper released
vLite promises Windows Liposuction
FREE SOFTWARE which offers to strip down Vista to a pre-post modern, abstract impression of its lardy self, is being distributed like hot cakes on the Internet.
Many in the trade kindly refer to Vista as a bit portly, while others call it a fat bastid, so bloated it makes the drowned corpse of Robert Maxwell look like Mary-Kate Olsen.
To fix this problem vLite, which can be found here, automatically removes a number of non-essential Windows Vista components.
Designed by Dino Nuhagic it reduces the Vista footprint by nearly half. Gone are Windows Media Player, Windows Photo Viewer, MSN Installer, Wallpapers, SlideShow, Windows Mail and all those other utilities which seem like a good idea but probably aren't.
Nuhagic said that removing all the bloat increases the OS's responsiveness and you don't have to tolerate all kinds of things you don't use.
It is believed that the software has been downloaded about 50,000 times which indicates that there is probably a market for a cut down version of Vista.
As Information Week points out the Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Vista need 15 GBs of available disk space for installation. XP only needed 1.5GB for installation of the Professional version.
More here. µ
Comments
Another bloat-stripper
I've been using a couple of other bloat-strippers that work even better.The first one is calles MacOS X, works like a charm and comes with everything you could want. Looks better, works better, and is cheaper.
The second one is the cheaper bloatware-stripper, and is called any Linux live-cd/dvd. Gives a new lease of life to your old pc's and makes your new pc's into an absolute screamer! Cost is just $0.00.
Try them out. You'll never go back.
The other option is indeed to cripple an already cripples OS for which you paid through the nose in the first place. Why anyone would do that beats me. Microsoft stripped already most of the potentialy useful stuff in the design-phase, and now you would just finish the job.
Just don't bother.
Don't understand
Why are Photo Viewer, Mail and Media Player not good ideas?vista features
"Gone are Windows Media Player, Windows Photo Viewer, MSN Installer, Wallpapers, SlideShow, Windows Mail and all those other utilities which seem like a good idea but probably aren't." I would say that Photo Viewer, Media Player, Slide Show are the ones I like to have in Vista and am missing in XP. Common people, stop bitching about vista, get a normal PC, install it, tweak it (you would tweak xp anyway) and enjoy. Gamers!!! CoD4 and Crysis runs faster on my vista 64 bit than on XP, both 32 and 64bit.Be very, very sure...
...of what parts you choose to leave out of Vista with vLite. As I understand it, your choice is irreversible: you cannot go back and add on the parts you left out without doing a full reinstall.This is NOT like Linux systems with proper package management, where you can choose to install a stripped-down system to begin with, then add bits to it later. Dimdows developers haven't figured out how to do that kind of thing.
Go linux...
MacOS X could be cheaper, but you have to buy the MAC hardware, not so cheap in the end.I believe Linux will be a better alternative, you can choose the hardware and the software...
Misleading...
Those components are only "gone" if you choose to remove them, and there is a miriad of other components that you have the option to remove as well.This isn't about whether or not you find all these components useful or not, it's about giving you the choice over whether or not you want them installed in the first place, 'cos the Windows installer certainly doesn't ask you.
Every single application bundled with XP / Vista has been done better by a third party. Programs like this allow you to remove all that crap and install the software YOU want in a lean, efficient installation.
My hat is off to Dino. Both this and nLite are wonderful applications. Try it. You'll be amazed at how stripped down and minimal you can make Windows.
Riiiiight
" I've been using a couple of other bloat-strippers that work even better.The first one is calles MacOS X, works like a charm and comes with everything you could want. Looks better, works better, and is cheaper."
Yeah, good luck getting THAT working on your custom-built PC. I'll stick with operating systems with a bit more hardware flexibility.
Vista Lite still not lite enough.
I've been using XP Lite since the dawn of time, and it's been great. It boots to the desktop in under 25 seconds and is ready to be used. I see no reason for Vista... even if there is a lite version now available.@Hexx - I *have* a normal PC, and I see no benefit in slowing it down with Vista.
Macs suck
You can't do everything on a Mac, Chris.Your embarrassing proclamation assumes that you have some sort of compatibility workaround for DX10 on a G92 graphics card for OS X?
PC platform rules. Integrated Intel video is for children and grandparents.
Vista?
@Hexx Do you still keep XP systems for comparison?If Vista is so good just upgrade all your 'normal' systems.
That's a first...
That's the first time I've actually given a second thought to installing Vista. Usually I don't even let it get through the first thought.Now tell us, can you remove the DRM bloatware?
XP is still the best sollution
Do not waste your time with bloatware like Vistaand not until Vista Service Pack 1 comes around...
XP is still lighter and the best solution for games and for most software in the market
Linux is bloated too....
For something even smaller and faster than Linux, try Windows 2000... add on Google Picasa, Google Desktop Search, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Winamp, and you've got pretty much all the useful bits of Vista with a footprint that can't be matched.