When you first install Windows, you should be offered three choices:

1. Standard Installation, which installs the commonly used components,

2. Compact Installation, which installs a minimal set of components,

3. Custom Installation, where you pick which components to install.

You get the same three choices with most versions of Office or individual Office Component Programs like Word, Excel, etc.

Once Windows is installed, if you go to Start|Programs|Accessories|System Tools|Disk Cleanup (WinXP: location should be similar on other Win versions) once Disk Cleanup has looked for trash, it should offer the option to "Remove Windows Components not being used." In WinXP it's on a "More Options" tab. In WinXP, you also are offered the option to remove "Installed Programs not being used" and "Remove all but one most recent System Backup."

Whether your Win version confirms what to remove, for each component it thinks might be expendable, or just has a mind of its own about what's good for you, may vary with different versions. If you choose to remove unneeded Windows components, it may or may not remove the CAB files for you. The usage made of these files varies with the version. If you don't need them, it should offer to remove them.

If you run the "Remove Windows components not being used" it should bring you fairly close to the "Compact Install" setup, unless you actually are using components not included in that setup.

With your clone system, you may need to run this procedure separately for each cloned version.

Especially with Win2K and WinXP leaving the CAB files on the drive is recommended, since both of these systems can be used for background cleanup and repair processes that are mostly invisible to the user, and the CAB files containing files that are patched can be updated on your hard drive at the time of security updates.

The CAB files on your installation/recovery CD of course will restore an unpatched version if used later, so any time you reinstall from your original CD you'll need to check for patches. Even for obsolete versions like WinME and/or Win98SE, there are a few critical patches that can probably still be obtained after a reinstall of Windows or Windows components.

As a side note, RealPlayer is NOT a "Windows component." It may or may not have come with your installation, but it's by an independent maker. It's also been buggy, obtrusive, obnoxious, and full of security holes, and they've been disgustingly slow about offering patches for known security breaches, so if you use it at all, updating it fairly frequently is recommended - just in case they get around to fixing it once in a while.

John