I hate all the bloatware that came with my laptop

[George P Burdell]

On my Thinkpad, Lenovo needs around 7-8 background tasks running, or things like the volume keys, LCD brightness, Bluetooth, and a bunch of Fn + special keys won't work. There's also Rescue & Recovery, which I can't stop, disable, kill or uninstall.

I tried an Ubuntu live USB last week and found that Ubuntu recognized all the shortcut keys out of the box. Would a clean install of Windows Vista (without any Lenovo drivers or crapware) let me use the special keys on my laptop keyboard?

 

[Rottie]

Try this Fresh install with Vista install without bloatwares

or try PC Decrapifier

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: Rottie
Try this Fresh install with Vista install without bloatwares

or try PC Decrapifier

Another vote for PC -Decrapifier.
We use StinkPads here at work, and I can't stand the amount of shit that comes preloaded on them.
The person before me, just used the pre-loaded drive and added the software and made a ghost of it. No wonder the ghost files were almost 10GB. I wipe the drive clean and re-install from scratch.

 

[F1shF4t]

Thats the reason why I have a two step approach when getting a new laptop.
1. Check that it boots and all hardware works
2. Format the whole drive and do a fresh install

You'll need the drivers to use the function keys but installing them should be a lot less than all the crapware that comes with it originally. Not familiar with lenovo, but for my asus one I do a custom install from the driver disk provided and only select drivers and a couple of apps which I actually use (fingerprint scanner and power management tools).

 

[nordloewelabs]

Originally posted by: Dark Cupcake
Thats the reason why I have a two step approach when getting a new laptop.
1. Check that it boots and all hardware works
2. Format the whole drive and do a fresh install

i would recommend that for desktops as well. only exceptions, IMO, are the Vostro computers by Dell. they dont require much cleaning. simply using Ctrl Panel > Add/Remove Progs tends to suffice for Vostros.