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Proprietary software crap

Marinski

Marinski

Golden Member
Is there an easy way to get rid of the proprietary software that comes with your computer or when you reinstall windows with recovery discs? I have an HP and it comes with a bunch of software that i dont want like norton security, ms money, quicken, some online game things and bunch of hp crap and trial versions. I'd rather use my own programs. How do i get rid of this crap so i just have the basic windows? Whenever i went into add/remove programs it wouldnt get rid of the stuff completely. Will deleting the folders in program files do it? Is there a way to recover the operating system without having all the crap on it?
 
I have an HP also and whatever is left after an uninstall I manually delete (although I'm sure my registry is full of crap still). Its a pain in the butt and HP absolutely will not send you an XP disc (even if you offer to pay). I'm debating buying a new retail copy of XP, wait for vista, or just go linux all the way.

The only possible way I can think of to load the system without the crap is to find an OEM copy of XP that matches your version (home, pro, or MCE). Just the disc and use your key.

Edit: added the bold part to say I don't mean pirate a copy.
 
Not particularly easy nor always possible, but if you can get a clean copy of the i386 folder you should be able to build up a clean install disk from there.
 
I will actually try that now and report back. If you don't here from me for 16 hours it means I had to use the recovery discs.

EDIT:

Well that was a waste of time. I burnt the i386 folder then used a Win98 cd to boot with cd support. Started setup waited till now then it said MS-Dos portion is done restart to continue and now I'm back at my normal desktop exactly like I left it.
 
Xp home came with the computer. I got a copy of Xp pro from a friend and installed it but i cant update it , you know how that goes. I tryed using the key from the home edition for pro but it obviously didnt work. I need to get a full version or an upgrade of pro. You think the prices will go down when vista comes out? I just dont wanna cough up the cash but it looks like i probably will have to or i'll just install ms 2000 or fedora. Hey clever are you talking about the i386 folder on the disks? Is there a way to just extract the files you need from recovery part of the hard drive, then burn it to disk and install minus the crap?
 
As mentioned before, if you can get a copy of a full i386 oem home folder, you can use your oem home key. It's legal and you will have to activate.

You could also clean out the original hp progs from the registry with a prog like regcleaner and end up pretty clean.
 
I've bought one of two of this kind of system for the kids; dirt cheap and loaded with marketware and other crap. I've usually been pretty successful just going through and surgically uninstalling stuff, but it takes awhile. They load them up, but they aren't typically jumping through hoops to make it hard to get rid of the stuff.
 
When I set up PC's for people, I generally get rid of all of the crap software and then make an image of the cleaned system. Restoring from the "clean" image is a lot easier than using the OEM disks.
 
you make i386 an iso? will it boot, partition, and format? Is this all thats needed? i know how to make boot disks but never a windows one. When it installs does it use the files on the recorvery part of the hard drive? will it recognize my key?
 
It's not that hard to remove default software installed by vendors like HP.

Obviously, start with the "Add/Remove programs" control panel applet and remove every program with which you aren't familiar.

Then download Autoruns from Sysinternals. Uncheck everything that was not installed by a company you trust (i.e., Microsoft, your antivirus provider, etc.) This little program is excellent, and it's a good idea to run it periodically after installing your own software. It's englightening to see what type of "auto-startup" crap gets installed by programs like Acrobat Reader.

Personally, I don't like Registry cleanup programs because they have the tendency to make an unnecessary mess of things. Leaving a few extra keys in the registry after software is uninstalled doesn't really harm things much. They're like benign tumors: they don't serve any useful function, but they don't harm anything and cutting them out is more trouble than it's worth sometimes.

The worst thing to have to fix, in my opinion, is that of improperly formatted hard drives. Some vendors ship system partitions formatted with FAT32. This is absolutely ridiculous in this day and age. Fat32 does not have file-level security (no access control lists), and the "convert" program doesn't do a perfect job of re-creating the necessary security tokens when you try to convert to NTFS. At least it's possible. But when faced with this type of system, I typically just wipe and reinstall everything with my own retail Windows CD.
 
If I had to do a few, I'd build a disk. Otherwise, it is fairly easy to go in there with a pitchfork and shovel all the crap out in a few reboots.
 
Originally posted by: kylef
The worst thing to have to fix, in my opinion, is that of improperly formatted hard drives. Some vendors ship system partitions formatted with FAT32. This is absolutely ridiculous in this day and age. Fat32 does not have file-level security (no access control lists), and the "convert" program doesn't do a perfect job of re-creating the necessary security tokens when you try to convert to NTFS. At least it's possible. But when faced with this type of system, I typically just wipe and reinstall everything with my own retail Windows CD.
Click to expand...

Compaq did this with my daughter's latest machine. It's a $500 wonder. They have a fat32 partition with all sorts of restore and recovery stuff in it. I wonder if it has ever helped a single person.
 
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