NVLiTE batch | reduce & compress Windows 2000 and XP nVIDIA drivers

[®®®]

UPDATES:

• 2007-10-09: added NVLiTE Logfile output of a test with 163.69 VISTA32 (no language files removed yet, still working on it)
  
• 2007-09-26: added NVIDIA Localisation Cleaner v1.0 (courtesy of Excessive-Software.eu.tt)
  
• 2007-09-11: v2.141
  - see Changelog
  - needs Password ( LaptopVideo2Go.com/NVLiTE ) as considered BETA and don't want it to be spreaded wildly without reading the website
  

Before you install a driver, you can run this batch file in order to reduce the size of the driver. You can select the language to keep (for the control panel) and delete all other. Also it searches and deletes other unnecessary files which usually come with OEM driver releases. Everything is menu-driven and nothing gets deleted automatically.

Just place the batch in the NVIDIA driver folder and run it.

More description and the changelog can be found on the project page for NVLiTE

LV2Go_NVLiTE_v2.116.zip

LV2Go_NVLiTE_v2.119.zip

LV2Go_NVLiTE_v2.141.7z

NVLCleaner.exe

NVLiTE_v163.69_processed.txt

[mobilenvidia]

A very handy program, seeing the drivers will always be International where ever possible to help the most people.

Good work ®®®, this will save quite a few MB per install of each driver.

I wonder if the .NET installer will only install the language that windows is using ?

[®®®]

To be true i don't know why there is a ".netinstaller.exe" in the engine32.cab. Fact is that all those files in the engine32.cab belong to the InstallShield Setup Program (setup.exe) and InstallShield is looking for the localization of windows. It starts the Setup Programm in the same language that windows uses and installs all files localized too, if they are present. If not present it installs english, thats what i figured, but i'm not 101% sure.

[®®®]

Update: done

Also i need to figure which english files are the STANDARD english files. There is UK english and the built in english. If it's built in...? maybe the driver also uses external language files.

There are 6 files in english (instead of 4 in other languages).

- nvcpeng.hlp

- nvcpl.hlp (?)

- nvrseng.dll

- nvwcpeng.hlp

- nvwcplen.hlp (?)

- nvwrseng.dll

What i can figure is that nvcpl.hlp and nvwcplen.hlp has to be treated with care. When in doubt keep those if you need english only. Maybe they are needed for the other language, too?

nvcpl.hlp and nvwcplen.hlp ALWAZS get installed, even on non-english OS (which i checked todaz see some posts down). Zou maz can not imagine how it is because the majoritz uses a English OS and therefore doesn*t need to care for all those other possibilities.

[®®®]

Our member big gie has also created an utility which rips out localisation files. See HERE.

The script made by "big gie" is able to rip out only the *.DL_ and *.HL_ localisation files (compressed files) while my batch is able to delete both compressed or uncompressed files plus the SETUP.exe files.

[®®®]

I'm about to implement a check which languages are available in the driver and therefore which is possible to really keep, since some language are NOT present even it's a MultiLanguage driver (like sometimes Polish, Turkish, Slovenian, Norwegian, Japan & Korean etc. are missing in some driver releases).

This will really make it even better idiot proof i hope.

[®®®]

I found a limitation, which only applies to people who want their driver to be installed in another language than English:

Sometimes the MultiLanguage drivers released by NVIDIA have international localisation files included, BUT NO REFERENCE in their INF.

So lets say you want DANISH as language to be installed (and the localisation files are present in the NVIDIA driver folder you extracted), the (original) INF itself must support localisation, means you need to open the INF and search for "localized". If you find a reference in the INF and also a reference to "*DA.*" files (DANISH), the only thing you need to do is delete the languages you don't need leaving yours untouched (DANISH) and then run the batch.

If there is no reference in the (original) INF you SHOULD NOT run the batch file except you want to have the driver to be ENGLISH only (menu selection 0).

Also consider that all mobile INFs made by Pieter, always base on the original provided INF from NVIDIA or some OEM, so if the Original INF doesn't support your language also Pieter's INF will not. Just to have that mentioned...

I'll work for that (with Pieter?) to be solved somehow.

//edit: problem gone, explanation later

Ok, NVIDIA changed their way of adding localizations:

- drivers before v53.xx used to have "localized" sections in the INF ("nv.help.localized" etc.). And this was my last conscious knowledge of how the localization was implemented in the INF. So i searched for "localized" in v66.81 (btw my testing driver for NVLiTE, because it includes ALL localization files). But i found no reference in the INF!!

- drivers beginning with v53.xx (i really have to wakeup, that could be a dozen months ago) have the localization file copy handled by the Coinstaller section in the INF. But hey, Pieter is the INF modder, not me :)

Since i own my GF 2 GTS 32 MB i used drivers before v52.23 and even on my Laptop i used v52.16 until i installed 66.32 a month ago. I thought it is still the same way. It would have been easy to look in the INF and check, but when you think you know how the localization is handled by NVIDIA you don't care, right? And last time i checked how nvidia installs localization files it was different. They got rid of those "localized" etc. parts in the INF and put it in the coinstaller section.

So my brain got a step farther and wanted to know what happens when i install a ripped (with nvlite) "DANISH-only-driver". I had fear that the driver update procedure (i did it with have disk method) would give me lots of (for every language 4 errors, cuz every language is represented by 4 files) "i can't find this and that localized file" -> "pls give me a path, where the file is located" errors, which would have been produced by the nv.help.localized etc. sections in the INF, but there was no error during install except it WANTED the english files, which i deleted with NVLiTE before (remember i wanted DANISH only!).

I rebooted and now the NVIDIA Control Panel was english (even though i deleted the files before), My OS was german, and i found the 2 DANISH .HLP in the %windir%\help and the 2 DANISH .DLL files the system32 directory.

So this confirmed that nvcpl.hlp and nvwcplen.hlp should never be deleted for the sake of avoiding XP installation error messages and because if the driver can't find the corresponding localization files to your Operating System setting it just want to use the english files !!

I just had a marathon of reboots to find out the registry value NVIDIA is looking for during installation to determine which language it installs. Probably i will include this check in NVLiTE, so that it can*t happen that a USER in Norwegia accidentically chooses THAI to keep.

The Nvidia driver is doing what i expected earlier if it chooses the localization. It always installs English .HLP and .DLL and ÂFTER the reboot it looks for the localization of your OS (at least in XP, which is what i tested) and uses the corresponding localized files which lie around in your system32 and help directory. If it doesn*t find the corresponding files (because you got rid of them with NVLiTE) it just uses English.

NVIDIA doesnt*t care of your preferred keyboard layout (could be lets say Chinese) nor your location (lets say ISRAEL) etc. There are a lot of references to localization in the registry, but only one is importsant:

NVIDIA checks your localization at HKCU.ControlPanel.International

the value is ".icountry"

49 is Deutschland

46 is Danish etc.

see attached pictures in the next post

[®®®]

Just in case you can't see the difference between german and danish :) :

red is all danish, even i'm on a german OS and everthing is in german

yellow is just this guy with a :) mullet i don't dare to meet in real live.

as seen at :P MulletsGalore.com :(

[®®®]

Now it's done. I added a nice feature of automatic recognition of the languages present in the driver. Pls. have a look and report, if NVLiTE is doing what it is supposed to do :)

[whitecap]

Hi,

Please bare with me here, I know proabaly just enough to get myself "jambed up" so these will be total newbie questions. I am replying here, as a new member because I couldn't start a new post of my own, it seemed.

I have installed, uninstalled, reinstalled several of the Laptop2Go dirvers with mobile .infs per the instructions you have so gratefully provided. I can manage all of that just fiine. I run ArchiCAD as my primary app, for a living, and the upgraded Nvidia adjustments are very welcome. I began to have freezing issues with this app when copying. After much hunt and peck, up to and including micro$oft tech help, HP tech help, and ultimately a reformatting of my hard drive I have concluded [after trying severalifferent drivers, settleing for now on 65.73 with the laptop .inf] that when I activate and adjusst the settings in the desktop dialog box [the one with zoom, hot keys, transperency etc.] this is the culprit. Un activated things run OK. Sorry to be long-winded, just thought yopu might need background......

Sinice I have done so many installs, uninstalls and reinstalls of different drivers I am very curious about this "idot proof" batch file you've created. It sounds like it will eradicate what must be a ton of extra files on my hard drive, is that correct? Is there any possibility that I can screw up my OS behaviour running it, and specifically in the most newbie terms how and what should I do to run it.

If you can't or don't want to take the time time to point me in the correct direction I understand and once again thank you guys for all of the great improvements that I am already benefitting from. :)

[®®®]

Hi and welcome to the forum :(

that when I activate and adjusst the settings in the desktop dialog box [the one with zoom, hot keys, transperency etc.]this is the culprit. Un activated things run OK.

You mean the activated nVIEW feature is responsible for your problems. That would be interesting and bad news. I personally know only one person so far who played around with it. It's our member BILL. Maybe he also experienced the things you described. I personally had never activated the nView feature, but this is only because i'm too lazy to learn all the shortcut stuff and besides that i don't need all these extra features provided by nView.

It sounds like it will eradicate what must be a ton of extra files on my hard drive, is that correct? Is there any possibility that I can screw up my OS behaviour running it, and specifically in the most newbie terms how and what should I do to run it.

Ja defenitely, but only BEFORE installation of a driver. Means you need to run that batch after downlodeding the dirver, extracting it to a folder and putting in Pieter's INF.

Just download the nvlite.zip, put the nvlite.bat and the XPcompress.exe (if you would like to archive the ripped down driver for future reference or whatever) IN the driver folder and doubleclick it. The rest is self-explanainble.

Press 0 (for keeping the english files).

You can just rip out everything without danger (so far i haven't had feedback yet, but i use it and it runs 100% correct). If you ripout setup , you need to install per "Have disk method /devicemanger". You will not have a setup.exe (and the corresponding files) anymore :)

:) feedback :P

[Bill]

Someone mentioned my name?

The only bugs I have ever had that I noticed with the nview desktop manager, which has to be the coolest part of the nvidia drivers, is that with some drivers it doesn't seem to stay activated correctly.

Like when I restart its not on the extra buttons I have are not there, and when I go into the menu it says it is activated so I try to deactivate and reactivate but it still does not work, on some drivers anyway.

The drivers I am on right now (67.50) are nice drivers and do not have any nview desktop manager bugs that I know of, have you tried those yet?

I am not sure but the desktop manager might have crashed some programs for me before when it was screwed up, but right now I do not have any problems.

Hope my long rant was usefull.

Bill

[whitecap]

Thanks for responding Gentlemen,

As I indicated right away, I am "green" at this. Probably this is what took me so long and a winding path to determine that the Nview was the culprit for me. I now believe that the competetion for system memory was causing the freezeing. Wrong or right I am functioning properly as of my current configuration.

Now much as I thought they were cool and all I need to make a living and if my main application freezes with these on I will have to forego using them. As well I am now quite behind after my reformatting etc., etc. I had previuously tried, 61.77, 66.81, 66.93, and 65.73 beyond what came as the factory install [which was listed as a stable and suggested driver on the main Laptop2Go page.] Most "straight up" and with Pieter's modified notebook drivers as well. [Not the Hi-Po versions] You shouldn't get the impression that I am a whiz, I managed my way through this but that doesn't mean I completely comprehend what I'm doing. :)

So for now I'll leave 65.73 with the Laptop2Go .inf for notebooks, mostly because it is and has worked well. When I get some more time I'll check back and see what the latest and greatest is and attempt some different configurations and see if I can't specifically isolate the offending menu option/s.

So back to the batch file question for me: To tell the truth I don't really understand, still, a little dense here I'm afraid, :) just exactly what I'm doing. Here's my guess/interpretation; I download the batch file .exe, drag it into eachand evey opened driver folder [folders that once navigated to display all of the files in a given driver's .exes, .infs, all the icnos, including setup .exes etc. Essentially the unpacked driver download.], run the .exe batch file and it deletes the excess language files [after I select 0 for english] and the setup files. Have I got it? Deleteing the setup files is fine for me because I install them via the "have disc / device manager" method anyway. But if I have the driver already installed already has installed the extra files I don't need/want already, thus requiring me to reinstall it?

I have archived the drivers, both "straght up" and modified [denoted with a +] and attached a view of this. [or tried] So I would be running this batch file on each of these folders individually, if i understand correctley. Once again thaks to you guys for taking time here with me. :P

[®®®]

:) it seems that you are the gentleman here :)

Some short clearings:

I download the batch file .exe

It's a .ZIP you will download (NVLITE.ZIP). In it you find three files.

• nvlite.bat (BATCH file)
  
• 2Kcompress.exe (for compressing with Windows 2000)
  
• XPcompress.exe (for compressing with Windows XP)
  

drag it into eachand evey opened driver folder [folders that once navigated to display all of the files in a given driver's .exes, .infs, all the icnos, including setup .exes etc. Essentially the unpacked driver download.]

After you download a driver (for example 6573.exe) from here, you need to unpack it with just hitting ENTER on that file. It will automatically extract in a folder named after the driver version (folder name 65.73). In it you will find alot of files which ARE the nvidia driver. Tthere are no ICON files in it, just an INF (maybe 2) lots of .DLLs, .HLPs, some .SYS and some .EXE and some other files (TVP, CAB, XML etc).

Then you need to copy/drag the nvlite.bat and XPcompress.exe in that folder.

But if I have the driver already installed already has installed the extra files I don't need/want already, thus requiring me to reinstall it?

Yes, you need to uninstall the driver if you want to take advantage of what NVLITE is made for. After the uninstalltion ALL thos language files in your %windir%\help and %windir%\system32 get deleted through some driver/inf internal deleting process.

I have archived the drivers, both "straght up" and modified [denoted with a +]

What is the meaning of "+" . Is this the folder where you want to process NVLITE. That's basically a good idea to have a backup of the original driver until you get familiarized with the nvlite.bat

Now basically you could start right now. Just click on nvlite.bat and after the processing install like you used to with HaveDisk method.

[whitecap]

hey ®®®,

One lesson from home was if you treat people with respect it comes back to you. If only I could impress our President with that!

Thanks for the detailed insrtuctions! I'll get to it as soon as I get past some looming deasdlines here........... The "+" is a notation for my reference pourposes to distinguish between the "stock" Nvidia drivers and the ones I have inserted/ overwritten the .inf files with the Laptop2go .inf files. Just keeping things straight for myself in a "visual" form, attempting to limit the possibility of installing an unintended version............... I was archiving several different drivers attempting to find the best functioning ones for my system.

I'll report back after......... :)

[®®®]

I implemented this Regional Settings check which was on my to do list. Also i made other small enhancements.

It took me quite some time to figure out the correct readout of the value in [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\International]

Here's a screenshot of the new version v1.410

[®®®]

Updated to version 1.420 (see first post or nvlite page for full explanation of changes)

The big thing is: NVLiTE is finally fully usable in Windows 2000 :)

There were 2 bugs due to some limitation of Windows 2000 (missing reg.exe in 2K; compress.exe from the Windows 2000 Resource Kit doesn't support the silent (-s) switch when compressing)

[®®®]

rewrote it, see here: http://laptopvideo2go.com/nvlite

[Guest Sven Bent]

would you consinder making a utility for other drivers ?

Like ATI catalyst or the nforce drivers from nvidia ?

It really helps in my drivres archieve cd

also what about a option to de compress the files. it helps compression when you are compression alot of driver into the same archieve with a third party utility (winrar/7-zip)

[®®®]

Hi, i don't have experience with the behaviour of the nForce dirvers, so it's unlikely i will make a tool for that. Though i had a quick first look at the latest nForce4 driver package v6.39, and i figured that the only thing to R.I.P out are the MultiLangugae files for the RAID driver in 2K and XP. The NAM (Network Access Manager) Setup.exe (35 MB, biggest file in this package) is messed up by NVIDIA somehow: when i extract it, it's only about 5,5 MB :)

Also i don't know about the difference between nForce 1-3 and the 4 package (different files?).

The advantage in NVIDIA drivers is the Unified driver Architecture for all ever released NVIDIA cards which makes it so easy to "nvliting" them. Since 1998 i use NVidia cards (never ever ATI) and therefore use their drivers and i know my way around pretty well concerning the files, behaviour etc. I cannot say this for nForce or ATI drivers.

ATI catalyst drivers could probably be the next candidate for NVLiTE or ATILiTE :) as they are oodles of MultiLanguage files in there, but like i said i have only limited experience with these drivers mainly when i had to install them at some customers of me.

Concerning adding an option to de-compress/compress with 7zip or the like:

When 'releasing' new drivers, we use a selfmade tool to treat & compress NV drivers to the smallest availabel size in the NET, so it will be also very unlikely to give out the code for that and implement it in NVLiTE. Sorry for that. Most drivers out therer are already uncompressed and if you download the drivers from LV2Go, they will always be uncompessed after extraction :( Treat them with NVLiTE, then 7-zip them and you can build up your driver archive on CD with a really small size :P

[sn0wl]

v2.002: added turkish answer possiblity for UserInput (Yes/No=Evet/Hayir)

Yay! Finally I'll get to use this nice piece of utility! I was stucked before when it asked something.

:)

:)

[Guest gdogg]

can we get nvidia unfied drivers support

for the nvidia chipset drivers

[Guest Sven Bent]

anything like this for ATI drivers ?

also the options to DECOMPRESS the files.

as they are more compressable by third party compressor if the files are uncompressed rather then compressed

[Guest Sven Bent]

###### i need to read before posting.

[Guest Guest]

Wie es aussieht bist du deutsch, deshalb schreib ich mal in deutsch:

Irgendwie ist da ein Bug in deinem Tool, wenn ich es über einen 44.71 Treiber laufen lasse kann ich ihn nicht installieren.

Es kommen Meldungen wie "der angegebene Ort enthält keine Hardwareinformationen" oder Meldungen über fehlende Dateien (die Installatio wird abgebrochen), wenn ich die inf-Datei auswähle.

Ich habe dann festsgestellt, dass alle Dateien, auch die entfernten immer noch in der inf-Datei des Treibers verzeichnet sind, was ja nicht sein darf. Habe sie jetzt manuell entfernt und allesläuft wunderbar.

PS: Kannst du eine Funktion einbauen den Media-Tray und nwiz zu entfernen ? Braucht sowieso niemand und es erspart das deaktivieren des Autostarts nach der Treiberinstallation....