Getting rid of the pre-installed crap

Time to start cleaning house and getting rid of the gazillions of pre-installed stuff on the computer. I started this process using PC Decrapifier version 2.1.0, and created a restore point when prompted.

Here is what it found when I ran it, selecting "New Computer" when prompted:

I selected them all, except for the Sidebar (gadgets are fun!). After executing that, a second screen came up showing more installed software. Here are the ones I did not install on my own...

Pre-installed software on the HP G71-340us
* Adobe AIR and Flash Player 10 AX, Acrobat Reader (FoxIT Reader is much faster!)
* Cyberlink YouCam and DVD Suite
* PowerGo, LabelPrint, PowerDirector
* Norton Internet Security (GO AWAY BLOATWARE!), Online Backup
* HP Games, DVD Play, Support and Wireless Assistants, Smart Web Printing
* HP Setup, Advisor, User Guides, Customer Experience Enhancements
* Microsoft Silverlight, Works, Live crap (Essentials, Upload tool, Sign-in assistant)
* Microsoft LiveSync, Powerpoint viewer (2007), Compatibility Pack for Office (2007)
* Microsoft Live Search Toolbar, SQL Server 2005 compact edition
* muvee Reveal
* Lightscribe System software
* Realtek Ethernet driver, USB 2.0 reader
* IDT Audio

For now, I selected the immediate removal of the Norton Bloatware Crapware :) The rest will be revisited at a later time. I selected "Norton Complete Uninstall". The uninstall took about 2 minutes and then it required (yes, W7 is still Windows) a complete reboot.

Following the reboot, the list of running processes in Task Manager was smaller. Thank you PC Decrapifier. Just for good measure, I rerun it to see if anything else sneaked in or refused to go away. There were no surprises.

After doing one more "cleansing" reboot (remember, this is still Windows), the boot time was nicely improved, taking a short time (I did not measure it) from logging-on to getting control of the screen. Of course the hard disk light never stops blinking with today's bloperating systems, but that's a story for a different blog.

This is just the first stage of tweaking and cleaning house. More coming up :)

Comments

[Jim Fuller]

thanks for all the info...
I picked this laptop up a few weeks ago. It runs fine, but I look forward to running decrapifier on it.
I am using kensington countour shoulder bag that I picked up for my 15" a couple of years ago. turns out this fits snug as a bug in.
It does stick out of the inside pouch by about an inch and a half, but it has a velcro strap to secure it and the flap comes right over it and secures covers the exposed part just fine.
reasonable amount of storage and pockets.
After a couple of years of use it is still in good shape, plus it's "worn" look doesn't attract attention on the car seat when I'm running into the market for a minute.
Thanks for your notes.
Let me know if there is any other discoveries you've found on this unit.
Cheers,
Jimbo