The simplest and most thorough way of configuring your installation is to perform a customised installation. There are however ways of removing optional items after installation, which do not appear in the "Add/Remove Programs" section of the Control Panel.

Find and edit the file sysoc.inf, in your %SystemRoot%\Inf directory e.g. c:\winnt\inf

Locate the "old base components" line. To add a component to the add/remove programs tool, remove "hide" from each line e.g.

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,hide,7

becomes:

Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7

Remember to remove HIDE from the following line: this is the category heading for the additional components accessed by clicking on Details when Accessories and Utilities is highlighted in Add/Remove Windows Components.

AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,HIDE,7

Then remove the programme using the add/remove programs tool.

This procedure does not work with Microsoft Fax Service, COM+, and Distributed Transaction Coordinator. These are core components that are not removable.