Solved Removing crapware on new Sony VAIO laptop

Yeah it pretty much was the only option to include all three, whatever it all means I have no idea. As long as it doesn't matter then I'm happy, everything is working pretty well so far, hope it stays that way.

2 weeks on and all system still running smoothly, haven't experienced any problems whatsoever so far (touch wood) OTOH my macbook started lagging very early on after I installed some screen saver app, and has consistently been a pain in the arse ever since.

Is there any advise anyone has t keep it that way? I run CCleaner on the default setting regularly and occasionally check the registry through that and at command level, although I don't really understand what it is doing. I intend to defrag my drive again soon now that it's filled up with demo games from steam and stuff..

Still got lots of Bing files all over the place, but they aren't necessarily causing any problems. I might have a dig about and see if I can clean up my drive and get rid of files I don't need. How exactly do I do that?

You don't want to run CCleaner much more than monthly, unless it finds more than a gig of schmutz in which case you can run it more often.

I'd follow it with Puran Defrag Free Edition boot-time defrag after enabling Intelligent Optimizer on the Additional Operations tab.

What are these Bing files you're collecting? Do you have Bing crapware installed in Programs & Features - if so uninstall it ASAP. I would also choose Google for the stable browser search bar, and don't allow any other Search services or toolbars to install - ever!

Bing was some crapware i thought I had removed. There is still a load of stuff in program files (x86)/microsoft/ but nothing in Prog and features..

Also a lot of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 redistributable files have appeared in P&F, Steam keeps wanting to install these things and Direct X when it installs games, nothing I can do about it it seems. Have been assured it is nothing to worry about..

EDIT yeah not really having any serious problems with Steam but I really don't like the way it takes control of the installation and removal of programs. I installed a demo of Bioshock and then purchased the game, the Steam software appears to have automatically uninstalled the demo for me but left the shortcut on my desktop. Now when I try to delete it I get this warning -

This is no longer located in C:\users\owner\desktop

gives me the option to try again and then comes up with the same prompt, how annoying...

EDIT someone recommended this solution to me, is it any good?

http://www.emptyloop.com/unlocker/

EDIT EDIT- it appears to have gone on it's own accord after I shut the computer down for a while.

I have a Vaio and have removed stuff each time I've reset to factory settings (2 or 3 times now) and looked up most of the stuff. Basically you can remove everything that says Vaio on it except for

Sony Shared Library, Settings Utility Service, Vaio Event Manager - these are needed to make function buttons work.

I would also leave (for now) Vaio Control Centre, Vaio Update and Vaio Care and Smart Network.

Vaio control centre allows you turn off annoying battery popups and is no problem being left - it also displays your serial number and various other useful bits of information if you click on that setting, which could be useful. Vaio Update will update all the pre-installed drivers and is a good way of getting the latest bios installed. But once it has done its job you could uninstall it. Vaio Care is a total pain - it will update itself a few times and I don't think there is anything necessary in it - I have it uninstalled. Smart network is quite useful and can be left (if you have it) it gives an on screen option for turning wifi and bluetooth on and off easily).

Also leave anything that says Nvidia. Anything else Sony or Vaio can go (depending on your particular laptop - there may be other utilities you need to leave on - eg notebook utilities or spef) and any programs you don't want can go. Windows mesh stuff is obsolete and can all go. Windows Essentials can go (or you can keep the bits you want and uninstall the rest - I kept movie maker). Any dvd burning software can be useful, like Roxio or whatever.

I would leave all the Microsoft C+++ visual stuff - every time you install a program that needs them it adds them - best to leave all of them.

Bing - if it's uninstalled in programs, is it activated in Internet Explorer? You could turn it off in Internet Explorer.

Sorry if this is after the horse has bolted!

One thing I wish I had done was use something like Revo uninstaller to uninstall all the progams as I believe it cleanly uninstalls them, but it looked a bit too complicated to me when I tried it.

When I start cleaning out the things I create a restore date, so if I uninstall something important I can go back.