Windows 7 Component Removal Files

Readme for Windows 7 Components remover 0.9.1


What is it?
It's a command line utility that removes Windows 7 components based on information stored in xml files. It is meant to be used on a mounted offline image. It does not work on an installed Windows 7. It should work on all editions and flavors of Windows 7 (but it was only tested on a Windows 7 Professional 64bit).


How do I use it?
1. Put the xml files for components you want to remove into the "xmls" folder and remove all the others. This tool comes with a bundle of xml files that will be extended and updated periodically. If you want to know what each xml file removes, use the -p option.
[You can also define your own xml folder with -d; use -h for help]

2. Mount a Windows 7 image into the mount folder (for example using Windows 7 Toolkit).
[You can also define another mount folder with -m; use -h for help]

3. Open an elevated command prompt at the folder where remove.exe is located and run it (e.g. type "remove" [without the quotes] and press enter). You can also right click remove.exe and select "Run as Administrator". This will open a console window with the progress and close it when it's done, but if something goes wrong, you might not catch the error message.

4. Lean back and watch the progress bars. This tool is much faster than 7Customizer or RT7lite, but it still takes quite some time for a lot of components. Maybe get a coffee?

5. Unmount, create an iso and test your new image in a virtual machine. You can automate this task by either creating a batch file or using Windows 7 Toolkit.


Some words of caution: This tool is still very beta! Always test the installation and frequently used applications in a virtual machine. There are most definitely bugs in there somewhere. This is especially true for the xml files.
Also, your success removing stuff from Windows depends very much on the quality of the xml files you feed this tool. Some components are mighty complex and need a lot of testing from different people before they get the job done correctly.

I will periodically release new or fixed xml files on the sourceforge.net project site in the files section.


Bugs and Feedback
If you find any bugs, please contact me either in the sourceforge.net project site's forums (https://sourceforge.net/p/w7cr/discussion/) or on the msfn.org thread for this utility (http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/155410-windows-7-component-remover/). This thingy won't get much better if you don't tell me what's wrong with it. I don't bite  ;)


System requirements
- Windows 7


Possible future features
- mount and unmount of Windows 7 image
- create iso


Changelog

version 0.9.1
- fix warning message and bug where components are not removed correctly (thanks to NateExMachina)

version 0.9
- note: Please delete all xml files if updating (xml format changed slightly); you can also delete libexpat_1.dll
- added dependency checking; can be skipped with -n option
- added option -b for benchmarking the removal process
- added: help documentation for -s option (skipping the removal process)
- updated and added xml files
- fix bug where custom mount dir was not found
- fix corrupt progress bar
- fix editing xml files to only remove lines that have a complete word as a string in them; the removal string must not be folowed by any alphanumeric characters in addition to '.' and '-'. Non-xml files are not affected.
- fix: if packages are removed, the "Turn windows featues on and off" windows is empty (ticket #15)
- upgraded perl runtime environment to 5.16.2; xml handling bug seems gone
- updated build process; libexpat is included in executable and it's much smaller now

version 0.8
- added support for scanning subfolders for xml files. You can organise your xml files your way now.
- added support for new xml format introduced in xml creator v0.9.96.
- changed internal data structures: files, folders and registry keys are only processed once now.
- changed the way xml files are edited (like manifest of package files). It takes a little longer but is safer.
- changed: downgraded to perl 5.10.1.5 because of a serious bug in newer versions of perl which crashed on some manifest files.
- added one xml file (UAC) and fixed actioncenter xml

version 0.7
- added support for resolving packages dynamically; only use xmls created with xml creator v0.9.94
- added option -d: print information on components
- added a few more xmls
- changed resolving of registry wildcards; subkeys are not added any more
- fixed crash with option -d

version 0.6
- added proper support for wildcards in registry keys and values
- added more xmls
- changed xml naming scheme; should make finding components easier; only use xmls created with xml creator v0.9.93

Version 0.5
- initial release


This software is provided as is and without warranty. It is licensed under the GNU GPL. You can read it here: https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
Licences of the bundled tools can be found on their respective homepages:
http://helgeklein.com/setacl/license/
www.7-zip.org

Copyright (C) 2012 Daniel Just