How-To: Get Rid of Bloatware on Your New Laptop
Posted 04/15/09 at 01:30:00 PM by Alex Castle
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Create a Recovery Disk Image
So now your new laptop finally looks like a new laptop. Fantastic. But what happens if, somewhere down the line, your system gets a nasty virus or gets bogged down with too much crapware and you want to restore your system to its initial state? Unfortunately, if you use the restore disc that comes with the laptop, you’ll just be reinstalling all of the stuff you worked so hard to get rid of. To give yourself a better option, take the time right now to create an image backup.
First, get your laptop into exactly the state you want it to restore to. Make sure you have every driver you need installed on your laptop, as well as the current Windows service pack. You can also include any apps you’re absolutely sure you’ll want when you restore your notebook. Don’t go crazy here, there’s no point in cluttering up your laptop before you restore it, and the more applications you have on your disk, the larger the restore image is going to be. Once you’ve got things the way you like, we’ll create the image.
Our disk imaging software of choice is Acronis True Image Home, which is available for $50 on their website. While we generally like to use free software whenever possible, Acronis does an excellent job and we think that disk imaging is such an important function that it’s well worth paying for.
Acronis True Image Home is a snap to use. Once it’s installed, you just install, and run. True Image includes several hard disk utilities, but the one we’re interested in is the Back Up option in the top left. From the next screen, select My Computer. Click the Target Archive button on the sidebar to determine where your image will be save (name it something that will remind you that this is a clean restore, CleanRestore.tib for instance). Finally, click the Scheduling tab and make sure the Do not schedule radial button is selected. This will keep Acronis from updating the backup as time goes on. Click the Next button a couple of times to get through the rest of the options, then click Proceed.
Now you have an image of your clean computer sitting on your hard drive. You can keep it there, if you want to allow for a fast restore whenever your system gets too cluttered, but you definitely copy the backup image to an external drive as well, in case things get really FUBARed and you can’t access your primary hard drive.
Acronis true Image includes a utility called Bootable Rescue Media Builder, which allows you to make a boot disc with Acronis True Image Home on it. In the event that your system data gets corrupted and you can’t boot to windows, you can boot from this disc, and use it to restore your clean backup from the external drive you saved it to. Bootable Rescue Media Builder is more of a wizard than a full-featured program, so just follow the steps on the screen to create your boot disc.
So there you have it! Keep your image backup file safe, and you can restore your laptop to a pristine state any time you want.
But the crapware is the FUN
Submitted by linux_dork on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 10:14am
But the crapware is the FUN stuff!
Oh wait, no it isn't.
Submitted by adeletwo6789 on Tue, 09/29/2009 - 11:17am
If you've already installed Windows, suddenly switching from IDE mode to AHCI will quickly muck things up.
yay! my iMesh woes are
Submitted by nsk chaos on Sun, 04/19/2009 - 6:52pm
yay! my iMesh woes are solved!!! thx to Revo =) once again MPC save my sanity
Submitted by thecliogeek on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 4:06pm
I have told people for years that the big companies have done this to make an extra buck; HP is very famous fo rthis because they even do it on desktops too. These companies do this to eek out another couple bucks hoping you will click on links so they can "get credit for the referral". I sell new computers WITHOUT this stuff, you're best bet is to get to know a local geek with a shop and have him build and load a system for you. And yes...technically it is illegal to "download a copy", so don't get caught. :)
while 'downloading a copy'
Submitted by nekollx on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 4:15pm
while 'downloading a copy' may be illeagle in the technical sense its unenforcable if you have a valid key as it is legal to borrow a friends CD (MS has even sugested this a couple times) and use your own key
Nice
Submitted by winmaster on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 3:37pm
I'll have to try Revo uninstaller sometime. One thing that buggs me is that apps often leave behind files and registry keys after they have been uninstalled.
Also, I hope Murphy comes to the rescue and offers a free alternative to the backup software. I really hate paying for software.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Submitted by Comb0Breaker on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 8:43am
This is why Apple can sell you a Shiny product, with less features, charge you more money, and you can feel it's easy to use. Although it is nice to boot a new system with out a dozen little things loading and asking for your attention.
I just
Submitted by Devo85x on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 2:49pm
I just do it the easy (if not quick) way and do a fresh install of an OS, then (if its mine) install linux through WUBI (if the main OS was windows)
Thank god!
Submitted by XoRn on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 1:52pm
I just picked up a new lappy for the fiancee last Friday. Since I've pretty much avoided Vista like the plague I had no idea how to get rid of most of the crap that came pre-installed. Great article MPC.
-XoRn
Submitted by thegamepro on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:28pm
If you had a retail copy of the OS it uses, then you can simply install that with the OEM's Key on the non-recovery partition. Or, if you are a super hardcore user, you could format the harddrive completly with the OS installer and then install the fresh copy with the OEM's key. But that trick will work only if you have a retail disc.
Best Buy also has a service where they charge an additional $30 to remove the crapware for you on the new laptop you just bought. It feels like you've paid twice for laptop.
I need a version that can
Submitted by Danduhman on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:03pm
I need a version that can decrapify my school work
Its legal to just burn a
Submitted by Pentium 0 on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 11:55am
Its legal to just burn a Vista disc off a torrent or something and use you own key to just start clean right?
Yes it is, it is what i do
Submitted by AntiHero on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:06pm
Yes it is (Because not all companies are as good as dell for providing an OEM disc), it's what i do on my Acer. However note that sometimes companies don't provide all drivers for download. (Like acer...) so they leave you lacking some of your features, or you have to hunt for them, if you really want it. Usually it's petty little things like fingerprint scanners, which is bullshit to a normal user, since if you get a cut on your finger, then if you can't use other fingers, you're up the creek. Mine registers all 10 digits of mine, but still, it's childsplay, a way to feel like James Bond. On a note, i love PC Decrapifier, been using it for a while. (except the VD and people trying to kill you.)
I don't like Microsoft, I associate with it.
Submitted by thegamepro on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 12:00pm
Technically not because when you download a torrent you are also uploading it to other people (who might be pirating it) as well.
Submitted by winmaster on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 3:39pm
That is true because it is not legal to distribute Windows, but I think your pretty safe if you kill the upload as soon as the download is done.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
My dad just bought a new
Submitted by Nuxes on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 10:20am
My dad just bought a new Compaq laptop last week, and I spend four hours getting rid of all the crap that came with it. The HP tools took about 15 min each to uninstall.
Submitted by mlee19 on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 10:02am
Or if you really want to clean out everything, start from scratch and reformatt with a fresh install of which ever OS you choose.
Submitted by norman on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 10:31am
wait one day. -- Norm
cool i realy needed a app
Submitted by killerxx7 on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 9:47am
cool i realy needed a app like decrapifier thank team nice artical :)
Submitted by jtimberman on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 9:19am
I think it's ironic that this article suggests installing new applications in order to remove other applications.
Submitted by winmaster on Thu, 04/16/2009 - 3:40pm
That is kind of ironic, but it is probably the best option if a Windows reinstall is inconvienent.
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The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Yeah, but Personally,
Submitted by Havok on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 4:21pm
I would rather have one USEFUL app running than someting like 15-20 USELESS apps CONSTANTLY running. My Toshiba has an add or remove programs list that is about 30-45 programs long, on a "clean" boot. My desktop which has a barren copy of windows XP home has only about 10ish programs installed.
OMGWTFBBQ
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 10:31am
sort of like installing a virus/root key to remove other virus and malware (Combot Fix in the malware guide sets off Windows Denfeders suspesious activity alark and Esat Nod 32's Virus watcher)
Submitted by bland on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 8:50am
I agree Acronis is a great company with a great software, but us computer people are very frugal when it comes to buying asoftware and would search to no end for a free solution. Also $50 for a program you will likely only use once for a backup is expensive enough, when you just scrimped and saved to finally get your new laptop.
I wish I had a example, but I don't have time to search and find a decent one to recomend, but I imagine there's a whole bunch of them that would work well enough to get the task done.
Submitted by neo1piv14 on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 8:39am
Probably one of the most useful guides/tools I've seen besides the malware removal guide. Articles like this really go a long way for helping users.
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 04/15/2009 - 8:08am
this is Win
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