I've found the methods I linked to in that post really only help to establish a good foundation on the available hardware. For example, getting a Windows XP install down to about 80 MB of RAM used, or a Vista install down to the low 200 MB range. However, vLite can help get the hard drive requirements for Vista down to something a little more respectable. I think my functional Vista install is around 2.5 GB without a page file. In many cases, a clean install of the operating system with very little additional software installed (read, just Warcraft) can accomplish the same goal of a cruftless computer.

At the time, I was using those pieces of software to store many operating systems on a very small array of very small compact flash cards - where every megabyte counted. With the presence of Western Digital's Velociraptor and the decreasing costs of solid state disks, I'm not to sure those efforts are really worth it any more.

In terms of turning off services, I'll give you the method that has worked best for me - scorched earth.

Take a thread like this one from the MSFN forum, http://www.msfn.org/board/What-Not-T...ms-t66361.html, that talks about what not to remove in Windows XP, and this random collection of Tips and tricks for Vista at http://www.msfn.org/board/Vista-Tips...ks-t57697.html and then figure out what you want your machine to do. The http://www.speedyvista.com/ site may help too.

Develop a couple test for that functionality, and then you get to the fun part. Disable services one by one until something breaks, then turn it back on and make sure it works again.

But to be honest, these time consuming steps won't take a slow system and suddenly turn it into a speed daemon - you still need high performance hardware for that.