Remove Crapware Bloatware from Your Windows Computer

Sony made news by charging customers $50 for a bloatware-free computer. People were outraged and Sony rescinded the charge... and the service. After spending $1200 on a laptop, $50 to get it to work out of the box doesn't sound so bad. But for the majority of us, we still end up buying laptops that come Pre-Installed with dozens (yes like many 12s) of programs from companies that pay the laptop manufacturers to include trial or demo versions of their software. Now let's get all that "bloatware" off.

Steps

  1. Read the Warnings section below before doing anything. Download CCleaner [1]
  2. Install this, but make sure you don't let it install Yahoo toolbar... we're removing crapware, not adding more.
  3. Download Autoruns [2]
  4. Install this by extracting it to a new folder in your Program Files folder.
  5. Download Spybot Search & Destroy [3]
  6. Now start up CCleaner. There will be several icons on the left. You can use all the features, but what we want to do is remove programs, so click on Tools
  7. You will see a list of the programs installed on your computer. A great way to decide what to remove is to look for any branded software like Kodak or HP or VAIO. You can run these programs first to see if you like them, but for most of these there are shareware versions that you can get later if you really want that media program.
  8. Remove all Demo programs or Trial versions unless you plan on upgrading to the full version soon (like before the next version comes out in 4 months).
  9. Remove whatever commercial virus scanning program is running... yeah I know that's dumb. We'll put another one on soon. Norton and McAfee virus scans are HUGE programs that can use half your processing power and lumberjack sized bites of your RAM. AVG is free and much smaller and you won't have to pay yearly to keep it slowing your computer down.
  10. Remove anything else that looks suspicious. If you don't know what something is, don't remove it before you do an online search and read about it to find out if it's essential software.
  11. Lots of computers come with hobbled versions of burning software that also wants to take over all media and picture functioning of your computer. Sometimes these programs compete with other programs for control of your files. Keep this in mind: CHOOSE which program you use for each thing you do, don't let some company decide they are going to force you to use their recommended mp3 player or DVD player.
  12. Think about what you'll be doing with the computer. Music, DVDs, burning stuff, uploading video to youtube, storing pictures, running the internet. then figure out which programs you want doing this. Delete the competitors.
  13. After you have deleted what you are comfortable with deleting, restart the computer.
  14. Open CCleaner again and now click on the first option, cleaner. This will clean out a lot of now-dead references to the uninstalled programs along with other extraneous junk.
  15. You may not want to have it clean everything, but it should be safe. Run its registry cleaner, but this is optional and dangerous unless you are an expert who can deal with registry modifications that don't go according to plan.
  16. Next, run autoruns (remember where you extracted it to)
  17. After it finishes scanning, click on Options in the menu bar then click on Hide Microsoft Entries. Then hit F5.
  18. The list it finds is all the programs that start when your computer does... this is what's left that is slowing down your computer. Look for "helpers" or "Quick Launch" or other such words. Adobe, Quicktime and a few other companies have programs that start up when your computer does. These just require start up time and system resources to run.
  19. Theoretically you can deselect all of them, but I've found that this may make your mouse/trackpad quit as well as your sound and other functions. Deselect one item at a time and and then restart the computer to check nothing is messed up. If so turn the item back on again by re-selecting it (undoes the change you made).
  20. This might take a few tries and some troubleshooting, but the process is simple. Turn things off that you don't recognize and then restart the computer. If something isn't working right you can always start in safe mode and turn it back on. I turned off everything except known necessary drivers like Touchpad and sound and currently used printers.
  21. Now, Download and install the free version of AVG antivirus [4]. While it doesn't have all the colorful screens that McAfee has, it will protect your computer. It also runs on about 10% of the system resources.
  22. Install Spybot and have it monitor changes to the registry. You want to do this AFTER running your Autoruns experiment or else Spybot will complain about all the changes you are making.
  23. Now, after several days of working, you will have a computer (mostly) free of bloatware.

Tips

  1. Fix dinner or something while you are doing this. It will seem taxing if you try to do it all at once, but if you set the computer up and then read or do something else while programs are uninstalling, it should be less frustrating.

Warnings

  • This may make your computer useless and cost you tons of $$ in repairs. This is a guide not a walkthrough. Use at your own risk. If you have not used the computer at all (it is brand new out of the box) a very useful program is The PC Decrapifier. To remove Norton programs go to the Norton site and search for a de-installer that they created specifically to uninstall their software (best used). McAfee may also have a removal tool for their software.
  • This is not designed for someone who has no fundamental knowledge of Windows operation. If you do not feel comfortable with these steps, do not try any of them.
  • Check programs out before you uninstall them. A good way to do this is to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to run Windows Task Manager. Look at the Process Tab and then use Process Library [5] to check on what each process is. Then uninstall these or you may choose to keep them from starting up with Autoruns. If you want to completely remove programs a very good alternative to the built-into-Windows uninstaller is the free version of "Revo Uninstaller".
  • Use Safe Mode to turn back on anything critical you turned off with Autoruns.

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