NTUSER.DAT journals and logs are not cleaned offline

[AeonX]

.Net cache files are large, 300MB +

Yes, removing this from the ISO is worth it to reduce the size a little and it is safe since when at idle Windows will recreate them. Removing this with Windows installed doesn't make sense as Garlin said and will cause a loss of performance when opening applications in .NET aka C#.

cache and temp files

I don't know what this removes.

 

[AeonX]

For the record, you're not "compressing" the hive as much as "defragging" it.

The point is that even removing entries in the registry and components in Windows the size of the files only increases and never decreases, if you export the hives to a new file the size reduces considerably. This only makes sense in ISO because with Windows installed you are always adding and removing entries in the registry and there is not much advantage in doing this.

 

[AeonX]

For the record, you're not "compressing" the hive as much as "defragging" it.

But I agree that they are not the correct terms but it is what Microsoft uses lol

Compress large registry hives - Windows Server

Describes how to compress large registry hives.

learn.microsoft.com

The Reg.exe utility does not compress a registry key when the utility saves a registry key to a hive file - Microsoft Support

Fixes an issue in which the size of a hive file is larger than expected after you export a registry key by using the "reg save" command on a computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012.

support.microsoft.com

 

[garlin]

I found this forensics tool which supposedly does hive reconciliation:

Blue Team-System Live Analysis [Part 11]- Windows: User Account Forensics- NTUSER.DAT Rules, Tools, Structure, and Dirty Hives!
https://ericzimmerman.github.io/#!index.md