Would like to do a custom install of Windows 7 Premium

Hello, new to the forum. I like the way things here look, and the support here seems pretty awesome (from reading various posts)!!!

What I am wanting to do is a custom install of Windows 7 Premium. I'm really no expert on all things Windows, but I have felt for a long time that simply installing Windows from the cd / dvd is not really the most efficient and "power user" way of doing things. I feel that in doing an install from cd / dvd that lots of things are added that are not needed, and that I do not have the kind of control over my operating system (where things go, etc.) that I could have.

Does anyone here have a tutorial (for power users) that I can follow (accompanying screen shots would be great!) to accomplish this?

The reason I am asking all this is that in the past week or so suddenly I could no longer view shockwave files on the Internet (ie, youtube, games at Free Games Online, Free Online Games, Flash Games! - Agame.com), and that after doing a system restore back to the point of where I started noticing the above-mentioned problems, the system restore seemed to hang. Doing a cold boot of the machine brought up a window saying that the system restore did not complete and that nothing was changed. Yet ...... I am now able to view shockwave files. Just doesn't make sense to me!

Anyway ... I have long been jealous of the way Linux can be customized and wish I could have something like that in Windows. (by the way, I feel that Linux geeks tend to be snobbish).

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!!

I guess you want a customized dvd with components added and removed per choice. You wont find too many threads on that here, many of us feel win7 is lite enough as it is. in any case, post-install components can be turned off, services disabled, registry tweaked etc.

However, as of now RT7lite is the best tool around for customizing the iso. You can find a guide here (in the tutorials section) on slipstreaming SP1 but very little else. The RT7lite has its own page with guides and faqs.

RT Seven Lite - Guide and FAQ's

You guys obviously know better than me how this IT stuff works.

I think what is fueling a lot of my frustration is not really knowing why I wasn't able to get shockwave working again (after it mysteriously decided to stop working a week ago), and then it works again AFTER an attempt to restore the system gives me a box saying that the system restore didn't complete and that things weren't changed. (puzzled)

Maybe I'm going off topic, but did you try removing shockwave and reinstalling from Adobe.com?

Besides reinstalling Shockwave perhaps we can help you with any other issues. Here are some Win7 troubleshooting fundamentals. \

System Restore often runs better from System Recovery Options on the booted DVD/Repair CD.

Win7 needs no customizing beyond normal system settings - it is already as light as can be. Those of us who have spent two years with it through beta found out that the tweaks and service edits we had used to get better performance from XP and early Vista were gradually made unnecessary and will actually cause unintended problems.

If you have a bloated factory preinstall, in-place Upgrade, or have tweaked Win7 causing problems you can often get better performance with a fresh clean install to wiped HD. Here are tips to get a purrfect clean reinstall based on hundreds done here: re-install windows 7