Windows 8.1 Master Image

[aac]

Dear Readers

 

I am currently in the process of creating a master image of Windows 8.1 however I am having an issue that I hope someone may be able to shed some light on. I am finding that the size of the local profile is around 200mb when a user logs in and grows to around 800mb over time. How do I reduce the base profile size currently 200mb and stop it growing significantly. Windows 7 profiles were less then 40mb on initial login...

[aac]

Thankyou for your response DocHouse. I will experiment with UAC to see what effect it has on profile sizes...

[Michael]

I found disabling uac works to control profile size to a point with 8.1 but i still have issues with it now 6mths down the line, Don't really have a definitive answer as yet.

 

That's interesting - but I'm struggling to see how the two could be linked? UAC is a security implementation by Microsoft, unless it's logging everything you do and filling the profile?

 

I suppose you could exclude directories from Roaming Profiles (using a GPO) - something I've done for the likes of iTunes which quickly fills profiles.

[themightymrp]

Have you tried running WinDirStat on one of the large profiles and seeing what folder/application is taking up the chunk of the size?

 

I have Visio installed and the templates it downloaded for me take up near 70Mb of my profile

[aac]

Hi THEMIGHTYMRP, I have noticed that after launching Word 2013 alone it bloats the profile with about 80mb of templates etc. Does anyone know of any files/folders within the administrator profile that can be safely deleted before I run copyprofile and then sysprep...

[themightymrp]

It helps to use folder redirection for many things, which I do. Except for the Application Data folder (which I don't redirect). Unfortunately this is the one that usually bloats!!!!

 

You might have to make a list of the largest folders using the WinDirStat and then manually seeing what things you either a) deem to be safe to delete or b) go into the software and see if there are ways of changing where it stores files