u/ColonyActivist

Hey everyone!

I got tired of dealing with massive, bloated retail installation images just to test legacy configurations, experiment with old software, or play retro games in hypervisors and emulator setups.

I've been building an open-source automation framework to surgically slice out 90s web-integration bloat, corporate server features, and obsolete diagnostic background tracking streams.

Current milestones achieved:

⚡ Windows 95 OSR2 (Ultimate Profile): Shrunk from 592 MB to a 50.6 MB bootable ISO. Out-of-the-box C: Drive footprint is just 56.1 MB!

⚡ Windows 2000 Pro SP4 (Standard Profile): Shrunk the folder footprint by over 200 MB down to a 160 MB ISO. Final installation footprint sits at 349 MB while keeping Microsoft Paint, 3D Pinball Space Cadet, and MS Agent characters fully functional.

I've hosted the PowerShell debloat streams, nLite configuration matrices, and pre-built compressed .vmdk virtual hard drive templates entirely under the MIT license here:

👉 https://github.com/byteospro/barebone-windows

I'm currently working on building the pipeline for Windows XP Service Pack 3 next. Check out the project, download the templates, and let me know what components you think I should slice out or keep for the upcoming XP release!