New Toshiba Full of Pre-installed Programs

martindow

My new Satellite laptop has an unbelievable amount of unwanted programs and Toshiba branding on it. On add and remove programs there is a huge list, many starting with Toshiba, and I am seeking advice on what I should keep and what can be safely removed.

One of the attractions of a new computer was to start with something uncluttered and clean. A mass of pre-installed nonsense is very disappointing.

Coveredinbees!!!!

They do that, usually rubbish game demos.

gaming_guy

....................

alanjuk

Never used this http://www.pcdecrapifier.com but might be worth reading up on

jayme1

before you start uninstalling them be sure to burn the system restore discs just incase they are needed for future use, you dont want to accidently uninstall that program and be left high and dry in the future (if your hard drive breaks)
also if you need to burn a driver disc (depends if you need to)

then go through and uninstall the junkware, stuff like toolbars, preinstalled antivirus, or any other unwanted software.

poppy10_2

Yep, a full format and reinstall is a must, if you have the windows disk on DVD. The preinstalled bloatware makes your computer so slow. If they haven't provided you a Windows disk, then the PC Decrapifyer should automate the removal of the commonest crap.

martindow

gaming_guy wrote: »

If you can, download the drivers from the toshiba website and reinstall windows from a DVD. That way, you can be sure that you have no preinstalled rubbish left.

There is no Windows DVD supplied. If I ask Toshiba or John Lewis who supplied the laptop will they send one?

Thank you for all of your advice everyone.

Reggie_Rebel

There will be a restore section on the HDD.

Just google the programs to see what they are and get rid of what you don't want. Then run Eusing and Disc Cleaner, defrag the HDD and away you go.

Forget all this reinstall Windows nonsense

jayme1

I wasn't talking about the windows 7 install discs, I was talking about the system restore discs, these are either in the box or normally there is a utility that alows you to burn a single copy of it, I have never come across a computer that doesn't ask you to do it (custom/clean install PCs aside).

if it really doesnt have this utility then you can use windows 7s built in system image back up to take a full system image then if you were to upgrade or if your hard drive breaks dead you can always use either the system restore discs or the windows 7 image discs to reinstall windows exactly out the box/how it is now.

the HDD based recovery partition you would normally use but if your hard drive is dead then that won't help you.


the reinstalling windows from scratch from a windows install disc is a very good way to get a fully clean install but you would have to go through getting all the drivers, but I would still recommend that you burn the discs I said above first as a get out of jail free option, just incase there was one driver you forgot to back up from the HDD which cant be found through windows update or the website.

martindow

Thanks again. jayme1 - yes it does have something to burn a system restore disc. I'll do this and then have a go at removing more things.