get 2 win machines ,get ntlite,fetch all info bout what to wipe and what to integrate (luxury not a must)
make a custom iso ...

schneegans dont lite like true custom os tools like ntlite or the advanced one xupito mentioned and i tell you ntlite needs allready a lot of knowledge or to have proper lists of shit not needed
thats why all use oprekin,gs,x;ite or team os rls's from ppl know their shit...
fun fact no dedicated offline audio workstation iso was ever rls'ed on puplic places yet enough audio pros and nerds here said here on asex which iso they use and which is pretty proper for their uses

 

I love your enthusiasm and presence here @Radio, but sometimes I do wish you'd read and understand the questions/posts properly before replying in a bot-like manner to everything

 

I couldn't help but answer like that because what you wrote is very complicated and difficult.
The more complicated it is, the more fun you seem to have.

 

Last edited: Jan 20, 2025

yeah such fun to render site to sort of dmb google just because ive nothing bettter to do and craving for raiding on of my accounts
as good as no solid knowledgeable nerds talkin here anymore just mediocre first dmb search entry google vibes and pure ignorance

 

i mean not 1 entry whats to wipe or win handling pro and cons nor about useless services or beneficial nor inbetween stuff tf .

 

Dude, my friend from Germany already makes awesome build fine-tuned for DAW, gaming and streaming and running 3rd party softwares. For Music engineers, it's already readily available from his site



Here are the features in short:
- Uses very less Disk space (Approx: 6.00 GB) with Page File enabled;
- Highly Stable edition and Compact size of installation media;
- Integrated latest Cumulative Updates till January 2025;
- Page File / Virtual Memory present;
- WMP and media features are intact;
- Supports almost all Hardware;
- All software/apps compatibility;
- Some registry tweaks applied for Stability and Performance;
- Default Windows drivers and Keyboard Layouts remain. Nothing removed;
- .Net Framework 3.5, 4.8.1 and VC++ Runtimes pre-installed and updates integrated;

A new build has just been posted with all latest updated till January 2025 integrated.
Win11EntLTSC_24H2.2894_x64_Lite.iso (1.5GB)

He also has an awesome support unlike those other modders, he actually responds to requests and listen to his users

Get it from here:
https://kliteos.boards.net/thread/75/windows-enterprise-ltsc-24h2-2894

 

Last edited: Jan 21, 2025

This sounds very good and worth a try! I might try it on a spare laptop later today. Does it have any limitations or known issues in terms of things you cannot do with it, particularly if wanting the machine to be an online machine (as I use UAD Spark stuff etc)?

Just noticed it's not updateable or upgradeable at all from what I can see. Could be a blessing in terms of not having to deal with updates, but could also be a nightmare if a critical update is needed for something to work properly as I assume you have to then do an entire new fresh install?

If my machines have Windows 11 Pro licenses, will they run this, or does Windows Enterprise LTSC need a separate license (which I presume would overwrite my Windows 11 Pro license?) .

 

Last edited: Jan 22, 2025

It's 100% stable apart from some API function having a dependency which is removed, but that's very rare. I suggest you test the build based on your workflow and check if it has what you need to get going.

In a brief this is what is removed, - All Windows Bloatware; - Windows Backup; - Windows Update; - Smart Screen; - Hibernation; - Tablet PC; - Cortana; - Hyper-V; - Ease of Access; - Face Recognition; - Cache and Telemetry; - Bit Locker Drive Encryption, - Remote Assistance and Desktop features; Many more...

As for updates, since Windows 10, Microsoft wants you to use your device the way "they" want it. Updates break the customizations, undo the tweaks and restore the features (bloat ?) that were removed, so if somebody wants updates, they are better off using the MSDN image than custom build instead. Having updates on a custom build only makes the matter worse.

I don't suffer with the "latest updates" paranoia and update once every year or so to get new features and enhancement. But I only do it offline in my own custom builds and promptly remove the update feature therein. I don't like my machine talking to Microsoft behind my back. But I will not sway you to either opinion, you're on your own about this feature. Do as you like and please don't blame me for anything.

One more thing, it's difficult to test all the millions of softwares but pretty sure, you wouldn't trip in that arena. The developer knows the core functionality and removes only the stuff that Windows uses for it's own homekeeping.

Lastly, appx stuff is not working and won't work on this build. You however are provided with legacy apps notepad, paint, snipping tool, calculator. That may not align with Windows 11 design logic but works 1000x better than the UWP apps.

That is basically it. For any other functionality you gonna have to use 3rd party softwares like Video player, mail client etc. and they will work without issues unless they need some networking feature like SMB, TCP but I doube a music engineer, a gamer, a youtuber or a casual Internet browser who likes watching movies, streaming sports and listening music would ever need that. (The last one is me)

 

Last edited: Jan 21, 2025

Sorry, you asked about license, I missed that. Your "Pro" license won't work with this SKU. You need to purchase a separate license for this.

Oh, one more thing. This build has two editions, one with defender and one without. So you can install any one of these based on your choice. You will be offered that choice during installation.

 

Ghost Spectre has just dropped their latest Windows 11 Pro 24H2 Update 11 release with everything updated to January 2025. I'm gonna give this a go on my older Dell Latitude 7390 laptop that has a Core i7 8650U CPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB NVMe drive and Intel UHD 620 integrated graphics.

My only question before trying it, do I:

1. install the COMPACT version, which is more generic and has better compatibility; or
2. install the SUPERLITE version, which is more tweake for performance gains and aimed more at tinkerers.

Anyone with experiences of using the COMPACT versus the SUPERLITE versions, and whether there's any potential issues with the SUPERLITE for use with a DAW, a handful of plugins, and some music management kind of apps?

 

If you try the Superlite, check this potential problems the first:
- drivers, any missing must be manually installed: download them first
- absence of NET framework 3.5
- how limited is Windows Update, if t's even included

- possible absence of Edge/Edge Runtime. Not a biggie ATM

 

Generally, these builds (at least the GS builds do) will accept piecemeal patches and cumulative updates that can be had from the "microsoft catalog" and are applied locally, OFFLINE. Unless there are some extenuating mod's done to the ISO that makes it non-compliant. The "update tuesday" garbage is just that - garbage and can break more things than it will fix. I make certain that the autonomous updating is one of the first things to be disabled on a new build.

 

Cheers for that @Xupito

1. Drivers are fine as I always use SDI Omega to update my drivers anyway, plus I use Driver Store Explorer on a regular basis to do full driver export of all my devices so that I have the drivers locally if need be
2. Is it not possible to just install the relevant .NET frameworks needed? Or is there some dependencies missing that means you can't even install them?
3. I believe Windows Update is removed (or at least blocked) on the SUPERLITE version. This is one thing I am confused about with regard to how you update as Ghost Spectre seems to release updated ISO's fairly regularly. However, the Ghost Toolbox does appear to have options in there to install Windows Updates though, but no idea if that works or not in SUPERLITE?!
4. I remove Edge anyway as I use a portable version of Vivaldi as my browser and portable version of Firefox as a backup browser that I rarely use. Am yet to come across an instance where the Edge Runtime being absent caused an issue (I thnk I read it's specifically needed for Adobe software, which I don't use, but not sure about others?!)

 

This was something I was trying to research but couldn't find an answer on, i.e. whether I could manually search the KB updates in teh Microsoft catalogue and download to locally install if ever necessary.

To be honest, I've never paused to stopped my WIndows Updates and never came across any real issues. There was an issue with the latest 24H2 updates on my laptop where I needed to go into the Windows Features in Control Panel to turn on the .NET 3.5 feature for Windows Update to download and install it without an error, but other than that I've never really had issues. I have recently been using Chris Titus' Windows Utility or WinToys to select to only install security patches though and then applying feature updates manually myself if needed/desired.

 

Only the possible absence of the old .NET 3.5 could give you troubles

It's a bit confusing indeed in the GS homepage. Updates almost always are disabled, but sometimes removed. That's what you should look for.

Yep, as I said this is rarely a problem. Screw the problem. Screw Edge even more

 

On the GS build I just completed (22H2 w10), Edge was gone (yay! saved me the pita having to remove it forcibly) and updates were enabled. Defender A/V was gone, but the Defender FireWall was still there and turned ON. In Ghost Toolbox you have the OPTION to disable auto-updates and also re-engage Edge (no idea why anyone would want to...) among many other things.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2025

Was all of this using the COMPACT build? I just installed 24H2 Update 11 released a couple of days ago and chose SUPERLITE and it is all working perfectly on my laptop having used Snappy Driver Installer Origin to install the drivers, copied over all of the portable apps I have on a NEW INSTALL USB flash drive I have to restore stuff easily, and then UniGetUI to sideload in some apps like WinToys and Outlook. Everything working perfectly for me at the moment and contemplating installing it on my desktop now too.

I did have to have the Edge Runtimes reinstall though as I use an app called OneTagger, and upon opening it, it started downloading an installed the runtime as its a dependancy. Now it offers up Microsoft Edge as a method of opening browser pages, PDFs etc, so not sure if it's reinstalled Microsoft Edge fully or just the runtime, but the Edge app doesn't appear in Settings > Apps nor in Revo Uninstaller Pro, so I think it is just the runtimes that's installed, but annoyingly giving the impression the whole app is installed in some cases (potentially on purpose by Microsoft to try and lead me into reinstalling Edge fully?!).

PS my recent discovery of UniGetUI is an absolute game changer!

 

My only outstanding question with Ghost Spectre for now is what does rhw upgrade roadmap look like? It seems to have been around for years, so will hopefully continue to be, but when new versions come out is it easy to upgrade in place without losing nay apps or data?

And what happens if they stop release new ISOs of new Windows versions? I presume you're up a creek and need to fresh install another ISO and lose everything as I presume your can't upgrade from a GHOST Spectre to something else, be it vanilla Microsoft ISO or something else like one of the other slimmed down ISO makers?

 

I've just come across my first issue. Having installed everything on my laptop and everything working seamlessly, I just went to use R-Drive Image to create a backup image in it's clean state. However, in R-Drive Image, it shows the installed 1TB NVMe drive twice, once with the regular drive and partitions (system, recovery, C: etc) and then it shows the drive again with BitLocker. I checked the BitLocker settings, and it says "BitLocker is waiting to be activated".

This is a problem because when I go to try and create a backup image, it is trying to create an image using the entire drive's capacity, meaning it is trying to create an image that is 1TB and compressed own to a minimum of 450GB+ (up to 950GB depending on compression amount), instead of the normal image of the actual data that would be compressed to 10-20GB max.

Anybody know anything about this, or how to get around it, as it could be a show stopper if I needed several TB disks just to be able to create backup images, which isn't practical at all.

Here is what I see in R-Drive Image:



And as a result, here is the size of the backup image it's trying to create at max compression (and I only clock on the GPT drive to make a backup image of and ignore the BitLocker drive):



And here is the BitLocker setings:



And in Disk Management, it's sating the drive is BitLocker Encrypted:



And, confusing, if I right click on the drive the context menu offers up an option to "Turn BitLocker on", which clearly suggests it is off and not encrypted:

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2025