Creating a slim Win 7 installer for VirtualBox

[avamk]

Hello,

I've got a complete backup of the Windows 7 installer, and I'm interested in creating a VirtualBox-specific minimal installer by removing programs, drivers, and services that I don't need. To be clear, the primary goal of slimming down the installer is to maximise Windows 7's performance in VirtualBox.

Main question: To that end, what's the minimal set of drivers and services that I need to keep in the Windows 7 installer to install it in VirtualBox 5 and make use of all of its features? Also, are there some drivers I should keep in the installer just to future proof it for future VirtualBox versions?

Secondary questions:
1. Is there a preferred program for slimming down the installer? The only one I'm aware of right now is nvlite.
2. Is there an ELI5 tutorial for doing all of the above?

Thank you very much.

[scottgus1]

Hmm, interesting idea! Not something I have ever considered trying, but am courious about how many GB can be saved.

I would suppose that after an install of Win7 using the default Virtualbox Win7 guest template but no Guest Additions yet, the guest's Device Manager will show what devices the guest sees and what drivers need to be preserved. I doubt they would change the template in new versions for a several-year-old OS. Keep in mind that the CPU of the host always makes its way into the guest, so all possible CPU "drivers" (I guess) would have to be preserved. I believe that the Virtualbox-specific drivers that new versions would use come in the Guest Additions, so only basic video keyboard & mouse drivers might be needed.

[avamk]

Hmm, interesting idea! Not something I have ever considered trying, but am courious about how many GB can be saved.

I would suppose that after an install of Win7 using the default Virtualbox Win7 guest template but no Guest Additions yet, the guest's Device Manager will show what devices the guest sees and what drivers need to be preserved. I doubt they would change the template in new versions for a several-year-old OS. Keep in mind that the CPU of the host always makes its way into the guest, so all possible CPU "drivers" (I guess) would have to be preserved. I believe that the Virtualbox-specific drivers that new versions would use come in the Guest Additions, so only basic video keyboard & mouse drivers might be needed.

Thank you scottgus1. Great point about looking at an installed Windows 7 guest for which drivers are needed, I'll do that.

I'm also considering disabling unnecessary services as listed by BlackViper here:

http://www.blackviper.com/service-confi ... gurations/

I hope doing this will result in a slimmed down and high performance Windows 7 guest. Please keep the suggestions coming on how to optimise the Windows 7 installer for maximum performance/speed in VirtualBox.

[mpack]

It should be mentioned that if you run into problems with the guest, and it becomes clear that you are using a non-standard install of that guest OS (one that none of us can replicate), then on purely practical grounds there's a greatly reduced chance that anyone will want to help you.

What is the purpose of this? To save a couple of GB of disk space in this day and age? I'd be interested to see if you can achieve even that - drivers etc tend to be tiny, as it's the user interface stuff that gobbles up mb, and drivers have no UI.