Ultra bare minimum for WindowsXP - Virtual Typewriter

[Laurent]

I would like to turn Windows XP into "virtual typewriter" with absolutely
NO other functions, that is:

Ultra bare minimum Windows XP + Word

Only that.

Open Windows, then only thing that works is Word. Type and save. That's it.

Nothing else.
No network
No Internet
No sound
No PnP
No Security
No printing
No help
No wizards
No scan
Nothing.
N-o-t-h-i-n-g.

This sounds strange, but I have my reasons.

This will work on dual-boot system. One boot with be with (normal) full
Windows XP features, but the other with only the ultra bare minimum and
Word working.

In my bare minimum setting, I already disabled all services (just one is
running now), all imaginable wizards and unwanted features, and deleted
many WindowsXP directories. It works with very low requirements now,
starting at 43RAM. But I want to go even lower now in terms of hard disk
requirements. I want the smallest hard disk footprint possible. What I can
possibly delete in Windows that I don't need in order to *type* ?

Anybody who tried to go so low and could share his/her experience ?

 

[Joseph Conway [MSFT]]

Disable all services that arent needed, during installation deselect all
possible installable options and that will be about as small as a footprint
as you can get. Also after servicepacking and hotfixes, delete the
uninstall directories for them.

 

[Laurent]

in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment

Disable all services that arent needed, during installation deselect
all possible installable options and that will be about as small as a
footprint as you can get. Also after servicepacking and hotfixes,
delete the uninstall directories for them.

Already did all that. Actually, I have only one service enable in the
Services panel, all others are disabled.

I also uninstall everything that was possible, and hand-deleted many
"useless" directories and programs that I don't need in this peculiar setup
(such as iexplore !).

I also ran XPlite.

Beyond that, it is still a 800 Meg installation (without counting swap
file). This is still too much for what I want.

I think the only way to go to the bare minimum is still to delete files and
directories one by one and see what's the files are for and what are the
effect of deleting them.

I can't go back to Win9x because the version of Word used is 2003. I'll
maybe try with Win2k which has a smaller footprint.

 

[Joseph Conway [MSFT]]

800MB sounds about right for a barebones install w/ Word installed. You
might find a few things that are deletable but not much else that I can
think of.

 

[Laurent]

in
microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment

800MB sounds about right for a barebones install w/ Word installed. You
might find a few things that are deletable but not much else that I can
think of.

Ok, thanks.

Going below this being impossible, I think the only solution I have left is
to buy a new hard disk.

 

[George Ellis]

The only way to really get it small is using the XP Embedded Tools. As a
casual user, it would be cheaper to buy 3 or 4 250GB+ drives. ;-)