Windows Ultimate x64 size

[Ukiii]

Hello Everyone,
I intend to buy Windows Ultimate Box however I have few concerns in relation to the size of the OS on my disk. I do have a 60GB SSD and I do realise it is enough for the said system to be installed. However, I would like to keep the whole OS as small as possible on the disk. Is there any way I can do it? I know there is VLITE to facilitate my needs but I was just wondering if there is anything I could do after the install or during the install of Windows on my PC to make the size of the whole OS smaller. Ideally I was hoping to get the whole installation below 20GB with updates. I'm going to install applications on a separate disk.
Any advice here would be much appreciated.
Thank you.
PS: hibernation off of course.

 

[logicearth]

Don't bother with vlite or anything of the nature. Windows 7 is well under 8 GBs on its own. What will take up space is all the stuff you add to it. Again do bother stripping any thing from the installation.

 

[Ukiii]

Does this relate to Win Ultimate x64 as well? I thought there was a serious issue of the size of this OS on the disk...

 

[logicearth]

I've used Ultimate since Vista and the size has been greatly exaggerated. Mostly by those that do not understand how hardlinks work. I have SP1 pre-integrated with all the latest patchs and .NET frameworks updated to version 4. My winsxs folder is well under 5 GB. This computer has been running for several months now with countless changes.

 

[Ukiii]

Logicearth - much obliged for advice - thank you.

 

[Ukiii]

Logicearth,
One more question if you don't mind - my USERS folder is over 10GB and my Windows folder is nearly 20GB size - is there something that I'm missing here? What can I do to keep all of these small size-wise with my next clean install??
Thank you.

 

[logicearth]

Limit what you install. You might also want to try Sandboxie when installing applications. It can keep them from throwing files all around your system and mucking things about.