I just started building with the new 3.13 package and after adding just a few plugins the size of the created ISO was 708MB. I would like to keep the size down to CD size in case I'm working on systems without DVD drives. I was able to delete out some language files and locale directories as well as some uninstall files and such from several of the included plugins (Free Commander, 7-Zip, IZarc, Opera, Filezilla, etc.) and managed to cut down the size by close to 20MB. IZarc requires the German.lng for the plugin if not the program itself to be included. All the programs appear to be still working correctly but haven't done extensive testing to make sure.

I found a couple posts on reducing the size of the image such as DigiWiz's post on removing un-needed Fonts from the output directory prior to building the ISO but I'm not sure what Fonts can be safely deleted. The Fonts directory under I386 is around 16MB so that seems like a good place to trim a bit of the size.

Also several programs have language files included that aren't clear cut as to what ones can be removed like - CCleaner, Recuva, RocetDock and Windirstat...

I also read a post on using UPX to reduce the size of some of the DLLs and EXEs but after reading that post, I'm not really considering that at this time.

My question is, what can safely be removed from Fonts, and any other areas that will not adversely affect the build or individual programs/plugins?

This is not an easy question to answer and will depend on what you are trying to do.
Removing excess files form the default pebuilder file copy process has never proven to be worth the amount of time it would involve to make sure nothing gets broken in the process. The only real way to determine this would be to run procmon on a full build, then use every option in every program and devise a used file list from procmon's output, then compare the used files to the output directory, so like I said its not really worth the effort.

You can save...
12mb by using SP1 verses SP2
1mb in desktop backgrounds
15-20mb by removing Firefox or Opera, or 35mb by removing both.
60mb worth of NIC drivers are installed, do you need them?
12mb for dial-up access, not many users need this option.

... and the list continues depending on what your real needs are.
Some of the plugin may have a few extra files to support other languages and this is not really a bad thing.
We do what we can, but in the end you are going to have to choose what you really need verses what you would like to do.

Sounds like you've made a good start - here's my 2¢, for what it's worth, which may only be that

My fonts folder, after cleaning out, is 1.83MB so you can save yourself about 14MB right there. Also, a little trick to save numerous MB in your fonts folder (can't remember how much - something like 2-4MB as I recall) is to use TTF from Windows 98. WinXP uses unicode fonts, which are MUCH larger, and serve no purpose in PE. So most of my TTF are ~60kb-80kb range, while equivalent XP unicode fonts are ~200kb-400kb range... so I substitute Win98 fonts for XP fonts via a tiny plugin. Everything works fine here. I'll gather up a list of minimal fonts you need and post later.

Another way to save many MB from UBCD4Win is to do a search for things like *.chm, *.hlp, *.txt, *.doc, *.rtf, *.pdf, *.wav, *.htm, *.html, *.log and on and on as you think of unnecessary things. Getting rid of chm and hlp files alone will save you roughly 14.5MB. Of course, you'll have to decide what you want to keep and what to get rid of. Some things I'm sure were necessary to remain in compliance with distribution of an application, but of course, since you are at home, you can do as you damned well please!

A few other options would be to use a few different plugins. The UBCD4Win Opera plugin is ~8.2MB, mine is 4.4MB. The UBCD4Win Firefox plugin is ~25.2MB, mine is 6.7MB. The UBCD4Win Filezilla plugin is 12.1MB, mine is 1.2MB (yes 1.2MB!)

By a quick very approximate count of my tips above, you can save at least 61MB - and that's just the beginning! I have a little script which also deletes unnecessary dll's, exe's etc. from system32 folder as well as lots of language files (.nls files).

So since it sounds like you're diving in to completely customize your build, make sure your mask fits snuggly, and you have plenty of air in your tanks

Once you put all that work into customizing your UBCD4Win, leave it the hell alone! As you can imagine, downloading the newest, latest, greatest version will destroy all the hard work you put into customizing your "personal version."

So here is some constructive critcism (though honestly, it seems sometimes any criticism here is frowned upon and folks get jumped on for it. Oops - I ended a sentence with a preposition - my bad ) Honestly though, no disrespect intended. Here's my idea for a perfect UBCD4Win world:

There would be the full, neophyte/newbie version, which is what... over 200MB now? Can't remember... this utilizes an installer, which, though I might disagree on it's implementation as it gyrates through decompressing files and innumerable hash checks... anyways - this would be geared toward to first-time user and/or inexperienced computer user, who doesn't know, or doesn't want to know anything about plugins - they just want something that works.

Then there the thousands of the rest of us, who like to tinker... there would be a separate "updates only" version, which, as you can imagine, would be tiny in comparison. It would be a rar or zip file, containing ONLY the changes from the last version, which, as you can imagine, would be plugin updates, and maybe other little tweaks here and there. Since this would be aimed solely at the experienced user, there'd be no "official" support - since the assumption is made, and would be explicitly advertised with the caveat: FOR THE EXPERIENCED USER ONLY. With an "updates only" package, an experienced user such as yourself, could pick and choose what, and how, you decide to implement these minor changes.

Well, there you have my small post on how to prune your UBCD4Win build

Thanks for the input!!!

I already disabled the FF plugin and use the Opera since that should do what I need. I'll try disabling the "Dial Up access" also since I usually update the AV/AS defs prior to troubleshooting systems and most that I do work on have broadband anymore.

Most of what I have done so far has just been within the plugins themselves - removing the language/locale files/folders. A while ago I decided to move some of the multiboot plugins such as DOS and Win9x boot disks and Linux Live Distros to UBCD (DOS) to save space on this project/build. I also have updated DBaN to 1.0.7 on the UBCD (DOS) disk as well as several others that are also included in UBCD4Win so they are disabled too.

@ DigiWiz - I look forward to your post on the font info. Also, if the FF, Opera and Filezilla are updated to current versions please post links. I take it they are the zipped versions that go to the Ramdisk? I have some of them but they are older versions.. I'd also be interested in seeing the script or list of un-needed DLLs, EXEs, etc files. What I gather from your post is these are removed from the BARTPE folder so if anything gets screwed up I can just do a complete rebuild and problem will be fixed. I would probably keep a customized I386/Font folder and just replace after doing any updates to the build.

I don't want to strip down the build too much so I'll keep the NIC drivers and most of the other stuff.

Thanks again for any input guys..

Duplicates Once is maybe a helper, sometimes

That appears to be enabled by default. But if I customize the output (BartPE) folder and hit F5 to rebuild the ISO, will that still enable the Duplicates Once feature?

yes

This is what we've been doing with winbuilder for years now.

From the download center you grab the latest updates or simply fetch new scripts with added features or programs that you like.

XP or Vista projects are built in a flexible manner right from the start of the building process that anyone can modify as needed.

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Some years ago I also tried to reduce as much as possible from a bartPE only to come to the conclusion that at some point on your boot disk it's simply more effective to build everything from scratch without requiring bartPE for anything.

Look at some experiments here: http://nunobrito.eu/download.php?view.2


After this new perspective on how things were done, we started making much smaller (14Mb~50Mb ISO filesize) XP boot disks and feature-wise efficient results where each component can be selected and added automatically.

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UBCD4win can also be made to work this way nearly without changes as the next version of wb will feature full native support for bartPE plugins under any windows platform (Win9x included) and this opens the door to support ubcd4win builds with NT6 / NT7 and future sources.

I would like to help because I also enjoy this project a lot.


No limits to your imagination, you can make these things possible and share them with others.

Well, somewhat related to this, I'd like to see us use the patching ability that we have so that every month everyone doesn't need to download another 250MB file, but just a small patch file. Anyway, just a thought.

How is your Filezilla plugin only 1MB, when the program itself is 6MB?
I think some of your size comparisons are WAY off base anyways. You are comparing your zipped up plugins to our UNzipped plugins! Your plugins do not have language files where we like to keep them in there for our foreign users. You are comparing apples to oranges, it's not right or fair. I think you should switch to Mac computers because you would make one great Mac zealot!! Ignoring facts and making unfair comparisons.

I just used *restricted project name, please email Ben for support* last night and ran UBCD4Win on the result. I got lots of errors of course, but I cut them down one by one in the source of the UBCD files. After about an hour, I still got errors but was at a comfortable place so I made an ISO manually (thankfully the software completes the build process despite errors, even if it doesn't ask if I would like to proceed making an ISO anyway).

In any case, I saved a lot of space, about 100mb, so it's worth a shot if you're patient. I didn't keep the build as it had an unrelated problem which I am about to post.