Windows

Create a Lite Windows 10

Posted by Lynn on September 6, 2019

Since I usually use macOS, in some specific situations, such as using the full version of the Office, I need to temporarily use the Windows. My solution is to use a Windows virtual machine, but the image is one of the most simplified version.

Tools

We need an official Windows 10 image (you can find the official download URL from TechBench by WZT) and several other tools to rebuild that image.

Windows 10 image and other tools

Rebuild Windows 10 Image

Find a Windows PC to complete the following steps.

Remove Redundant Windows Versions

If the Windows image contains multiple versions, we can reduce the size of the image by removing the extra versions.

  1. Open the Windows ISO image from UltraISO using File -> Open...

  2. Extract install.win from sources folder using Extract To...

    Extract install image with UltraISO

  3. Open install.win from Dism++ using File -> Open Image File

  4. Extract the smallest image using Export image (Choose Max in Save as type)

    Extract install image with Dism++

  5. Replace the original install.win with the new extracted small installation image in UltraISO using Actions -> Add Files...
  6. Save the Windows image using File -> Save

The new image (the first) is a few hundred megabytes smaller than the original image.

Size comparison after removing redundant Windows versions

Remove Redundant Windows Components

Next, we need to remove the extra Windows components to further reduce the storage after the operating system is installed.

  1. Extract downloaded ToolKit archive file
  2. Copy your new Windows ISO image to ToolKit’s ISO folder
  3. Run Start.cmd as administrator
  4. Agree to ToolKit’s EULA by pressing A key
  5. Press Enter key to continue
  6. Extract the source image using Source -> Extract Source from DVD ISO Image menu
  7. Select the source image using Source -> Select Source from <DVD> Folder menu
  8. Cleanup the source image using Apply -> Cleanup Source Images menu
  9. Remove all required Windows components using Remove -> Remove Windows Components menu (This could take hours depends on how many components you want to remove)
  10. Cleanup the source image using Apply -> Cleanup Source Images menu
  11. Apply & save changes to source image using Apply -> Apply & Save Changes to Source Images menu
  12. Rebuild source image using Apply -> Rebuild Source Images menu
  13. Export source image to a ISO image Target -> Make a DVD ISO Image menu

You will find the new ISO image (the second) in ToolKit’s ISO folder which is much smaller than the original image (the third).

Size comparison after removing redundant Windows components

Test in VM

I create two virtual machines with the original image and the new lite image, then compare their resource usage. I choose Windows 10 Home N for the original version of Windows 10 virtual machine which is the same Windows version in the lite image.

Choose Windows version during installation

Result

We can see from the picture below that virtual machines created with the lite image take up less storage and use less memory at runtime.

Resource usage comparison between original Windows and lite Windows

This is mainly because the system only contains the necessary system applications.

Apps number comparison between original Windows and lite Windows

As you can see from the comparison, the lite virtual machine is indeed lighter and certainly faster.

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