Optimizing/Building Your Baseline Win XP Virtual PC Image
I am getting ready to check out all the neat tools in Scott Hanselman’s 2007 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows. It’s a nice and comprehensive list of tools that covers just about all the tools a developer or power user may ever need. There are quite a few tools I have not used before.
Since I don’t necessarily want to install all of these tools to my everyday Windows installation, I am preparing a baseline Virtual PC image to install these tools into. My experience with Windows has taught me to try to keep it as clean as possible.
I found a great guide to optimize your baseline Windows XP virtual image from Dan’s Archive. It took about 30 minutes for me to go through the guide to build my optimized XP image (that’s not counting the time needed to install Windows XP Pro). If anyone is listening out there, I think this would be a good candidate for another “tool”.
With by baseline image ready, now I can make a backup copy of it and install away!! I feel like a kid at Christmas. Notepad2, Notepad++, Lutz Reflector, SlickRun, FireBug, ZoomIt, WinSnap, CodeRush, Refactor, FolderShare… so many new toys to play with, so little time.
