Making Windows 8 as slim as possible

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Soldato
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I've just bought a macbook (boo, hiss!) and need to install windows using bootcamp.

Now, I will only need to use it once in a blue moon but none the less it needs to be there for when I do need it.

I have a windows 7 full license and a Windows 8 upgrade license (I want to install 8).

I will use windows for the tweaking my phone (rooting, custom roms etc) and the odd game.

As I will be using it rarely I don't want to lose 40gbs of space to something I will not be using very often.

Is there any ways of cutting out a lot of fat and how large can I expect the install to be?

Thanks a lot.
 
What I was thinking was some sort of third party app that can skim the fat off of the install. There used to be apps for xp that could do this. I have tried googling but its mostly just old articles relating to xp.
 
disabling hibernate is probably the quickest "win" in terms of HDD space for Windows 7/8/8.1.

System restore etc is another, although clearly that has risks.
 
Windows 8 onwards is designed with 32GB tablets in mind. They've already reduced the footprint in 8.1 and I wouldn't bet against them trimming more fat themselves in future updates.

I wouldn't really entertain 7 for this purpose.
 
a bare naked 8.1 install only takes around 18-19GB. that's with a fixed pagefile of 2GB, system restore turned off and hibernation disabled.

windows 7 uses pretty much the same IIRC but it'll soon balloon if you run windows update.
 
I always turn all hibernate and system restore (I back up everything I need externally).

Is there a way of installing windows 8 without having to install 7 first with an upgrade license?
 
linktoinsanity said:
Yes.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows-8/a/clean-install-windows-8-upgrade.htm
Click to expand...

Do you not have to have an OS already installed for the upgrade version to work?

I installed Win8 when I had Win7 on the drive, but with it being on an SSD I wanted to secure erase the drive first but wasn't sure the upgrade version would work if I removed the previous OS installation via secure erase first - it would definitely be better if I could secure erase the drive first.
 
KIA said:
Read the link. :)
Click to expand...

I have, especially this bit...

''Important: You can only install Windows 8 (clean install or upgrade install) using an upgrade license if you currently have a copy of Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP installed on the computer.''

I would like to be able to secure erase an SSD before I install the upgrade version of Win8, is that possible? :)
 
RT Se7en Lite and WinReducer 7 for Win7
WinReducer 8 for Win8
WinReducer 8.1 for Win 8.1

Not that I've used these myself. I would trust RT Se7en Lite more than the others seeing as it's Nlite.

Nlite for Win 8.x is coming soon.
 
Dr.Eddie said:
I have, especially this bit...

''Important: You can only install Windows 8 (clean install or upgrade install) using an upgrade license if you currently have a copy of Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP installed on the computer.''

I would like to be able to secure erase an SSD before I install the upgrade version of Win8, is that possible? :)
Click to expand...

It's probably legal info. You can do as you wish.
 
Winreducer will shrink the size of a windows iso, so you tick the boxes for what you want to keep, make the iso then install windows. A mate of mine managed to get win 8 x64 down to around 7 gig installed size with all games working, but he didn't include any network sharing, security centre, ease of access, help centre, hibernation, system restore and page file disabled and a few other useless windows programs were taken out, but it's the best way if you're real stingy with the space. Takes a lot of trial and error though, and you never really know if you'll need a vital file 6 months down the road, but your OS doesn't contain it.
 
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theheyes said:
Windows 8 onwards is designed with 32GB tablets in mind. They've already reduced the footprint in 8.1 and I wouldn't bet against them trimming more fat themselves in future updates.

I wouldn't really entertain 7 for this purpose.
Click to expand...

The problem I've found with Windows 8 is that it seems to like to do a lot of background tasks which isn't always ideal on a less-powerful system. I've had ti disable various Windows Defender background tasks because after just a few minutes of idle time, it'd be chewing CPU cycles and thrashing the HDD. Not an issue on a PC really but quite noticeable on a laptop when suddenly the fans are having to go full-blast.
 
Install windows 8.1 upgrade, disable hibernation, system restore and page file, disable unnecessary windows features (pretty much all of them).
 
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