Abstract: An embodiment of the present invention is a system and method relating to shrinking, or optimizing, executable images resulting is a savings of storage space. In at least one embodiment, the present invention removes unnecessary fields, or information, from an executable image header before storing the image on a flash for a target platform. The removal of information that is irrelevant to the target platform allows the executable to take up less space on the flash memory. When loaded, the image is interpreted based on the optimized header information. In an embodiment, the image may be further compressed by known methods, to save additional space. Other embodiments are described and claimed.