Solved Removing crapware on new Sony VAIO laptop

[STU9000]

Hi, I just bought an ex display Sony VAIO and I'm just having a play about with it, familiarising myself and ideally looking at removing any possible crapware before I create a recovery disk.

First up, do I need to use Sony's Vaio care/care rescue software to do this? I just want a bare bond machine with windows 7 on it and would rather do without all this unnecessary software.

I also had a look at uninstalling some programs manually and noticed there are some strange stuff on there relating to AxtivX. Weird stuff i wouldn't even know how to type on this keyboard in all manner of foreign languages- Windows Live Mesh AxtivX and some foreign words, there's quite a few of them and they all appear to have been installed on the same date. It's got an NVidia Geforce with Cuda graphics cards. Is this normal? I hope it's not malware..

Any tips on how I should proceed with optimising my computer, ridding it off unnecessary crapware?

 

[AddRAM]

Just go into control panel and remove whatever you don`t want.

 

[STU9000]

That's the question, or one of them, what can I remove?

EDIT I'm getting weird news updates on this VAIO help centre thing, even though I'm not even connected to the internet yet! What's that all about? I want rid. Can I rid my computer of all vaio software and do the recovery from there?

 

[C-11]

What's the full make & model number of the PC?

You have a link for that PC.

How to perform a custom recovery using the VAIO Care version 6 software.

 

[gregrocker]

I'd take my time deciding what you don't want since it may be irretrievable after uninstall without running factory Recovery.

What you can do now is turn off all of the crapware starting up with Windows and freeloading on its CPU cycles, RAM, Startup time and spying on you. This is the biggest piece.

All of the steps are here to Clean up factory bloatware.

Remember that at any time if you want to experience Win7 in its native lightweight instantaneous state you can clean reinstall with the Product Key on COA sticker following these steps to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM

 

[STU9000]

What's the full make & model number of the PC?

You have a link for that PC.

How to perform a custom recovery using the VAIO Care version 6 software.

Yeah I'm kinda trying to find that out as well!

Written on the bottom-

SONY VAIO PCG-81312M

Neat machine like, picked it up for £475 ex display!

 

[jc836]

Anything Activ X should stay. Live Mesh can stay too. The Sony recovery stuff should also stay for now. nVidia and Sony collaborate on the drivers and other video elements-so leave that alone.

What is crapware: It is anything in the Add-Remove programs group that you have put on the machine or that is "Trialware" (demo's etc). There are programs to help you with uninstalling things that will NEVER be used by you and that you have purchased; example is a trial of MS Word versus your bought copy of the 2010 version. By all means remove ANY anti-virus trial and use one like AVast (it is Free) and is not a system hog. Others here will suggest additional protection software but I find that Avast and Malwarebytes (both free) are sufficient.

Technical items to think about are various processes that do NOT need to run when you start up the computer. Again, I'll let someone else guide you on this.

My laptop runs great using Windows 7. The OS was installed along with the factory drivers and nothing else. Then and only when I was satisfied that the machine was stable di I install my programs. This is how I also build systems. If you elect to do this type of setup-make sure you have every driver that the machine came with-I cannot stress this enough. Also, burn the recovery discs NOW even tho there may be "crapware" on them.

Good luck

 

[STU9000]

I'd take my time deciding what you don't want since it may be irretrievable after uninstall without running factory Recovery.

What you can do now is turn off all of the crapware starting up with Windows and freeloading on its CPU cycles, RAM, Startup time and spying on you. This is the biggest piece.

All of the steps are here to Clean up factory bloatware.

Remember that at any time if you want to experience Win7 in its native lightweight instantaneous state you can clean reinstall with the Product Key on COA sticker following these steps to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM

Thanks, sounds like good advice and a lot to take in. Not sure where to start! I miss Mac OS X and take back everything I ever said about it!:sarc:

Not sure if uninstall or block the Vaio upside down Mac-esque dock then some of the features on the body of the computer might stop working, such as skipping tracks... maybe they only work with their own software.

Is this CCleaner safe then? I mean of course I will make a system recovery disk using windows 7 and not VAIO just in case it messes something up.

Oh and sadly I don't have the installation disk for windows 7... this would make matters a whole lot easier. Maybe I can find one on ebay or something..

 

[motc7]

Do you have the installation media? DVD?

If you do, format and reinstall the OS and then put on what you want.

 

[gigagiggles]

"STU9000 That's the question, or one of them, what can I remove?

EDIT I'm getting weird news updates on this VAIO help centre thing, even though I'm not even connected to the internet yet! What's that all about? I want rid. Can I rid my computer of all vaio software and do the recovery from there"


The first and only time that happened was shocking. The PC's WiFi was turned on out-of-the-box. Somehow, the PC and the software were able to access the internet for updates and I had barely finished with the OS settings.

Like you, I wanted to get rid of the vaio software. But a few are NECESSARY, which I found out in hindsight. In particular, a few hardware components and devices like Bluetooth require Sony software to access.

In order to know what to remove, one must know what will replace it, if any.

Security. What is there now? Trialware? When does it expire? What are the alternatives?

Media (video, pics, music) handling. Does what Sony offer better or worse than Windows? Are there alternatives to these two?

Office productivity. Trialware? Alternatives?

Start with security! Then you can go search the "foreign" stuff at your leisure.

 

[gregrocker]

Since you're eager for a clean reinstall, I would save externally a Win7 backup image and make your Recovery disks so you have two paths back to the original install.

Sometimes an important piece of software from the manufacturer's Support Downloads webpage like webcam features (not the cam itself) will not work correctly with the clean reinstall so it might take some detective work with google to get it all smoothed out once you get the superior clean reinstall.

When you're ready here is the latest official Win7 installer iSO download with SP1: Win7 Home Premium x64 SP1 English Official ISO download

Burn to DVD or write to flash stick using Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool

Then follow these steps based on thousands of clean reinstalls we've helped with here: Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM.

If your Factory Recovery is run from boot via F10 then it may still run after clean reinstall. If you prefer to keep it as another backup method you can test cueing it up after reinstall to see if it works then delete it and recover the space then if it doesn't.

CCleaner is perhaps the most highly respected little genius app in the entire tech field, used by everyone from grandma to programmers. Some experts here worry about its Registry cleaner but in hundreds of installs representing thousands of uses I've never had a single complaint nor have I seen a documented case of it causing problems. That said, when offered back up the Registry choices before cleanup.

 

[SIW2]

native lightweight instantaneous state

You could do well as an advertising copywriter

 

[gregrocker]

lightweight instantaneous

It's cumbersome but allows me to describe in two words what to expect from Win7.

Settle for no less.

Si: off to MVP Global Summit in Seattle Monday with Win7 backup imaging at the top of my list for MS. Adds?

 

[STU9000]

Thanks guys for all your advice, I need it! I'm just creating 4 recovery disks using VAIO care, then I'm going to look into this further. So a clean installation disks requires on 3.1GB but I need 4 DVDs to create a recovery, what's that all about?

Anyway I uninstalled a few things first, BING and something else. Will proceeed with caution before uninstalling anything else, and might just settle for blocking programs from starting up.

 

[gregrocker]

So a clean installation disks requires on 3.1GB but I need 4 DVDs to create a recovery, what's that all about?

It's about a lot of bloatware and useless factory utilities which have much better versions built into Win7.

 

[STU9000]

So a clean installation disks requires on 3.1GB but I need 4 DVDs to create a recovery, what's that all about?

It's about a lot of bloatware and useless factory utilities which have much better versions built into Win7.

there's some nice features that come with this machine, such as a light sensor that detects ambient light and adjusts your screen brightness accordingly. Do I risk losing some of these features if I do a clean install? I'm trying to decide what the best course of action is here, ultimately I just want my machine to run optimally, I could tell you a story or two about Vista and letting mum's lose on computers..

 

[gregrocker]

Look for the software for the features you like on the Vaio Support Downloads webpage for your model. If it's there then you can try it, if not you may not want to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM but instead try running it for awhile while Cleaning up factory bloatware.

You can also find out the name of the features you like and google everything you can read about them to find out how others have fared with a clean reinstall. The ones which have problems like the webcam and touchpad software features on some Samsung laptops often have been thoroughly hashed out in various forums including ours.

 

[STU9000]

Look for the software for the features you like on the Vaio Support Downloads webpage for your model. If it's there then you can try it, if not you may not want to Clean Reinstall Windows 7 Factory OEM but instead try running it for awhile while Cleaning up factory bloatware.

You can also find out the name of the features you like and google everything you can read about them to find out how others have fared with a clean reinstall. The ones which have problems like the webcam and touchpad software features on some Samsung laptops often have been thoroughly hashed out in various forums including ours.

I think I'm going to stick with the factory settings and familiarise myself with all the features, zap bloatware before going for a clean install. I've downloaded that Win7 and noted all your advice so might go for that in the future when (and fingers crossed it wont end up that way) my computer grinds to a halt and I feel like throwing it out the window etc..

Once you start installing third party software though usually something stops working properly.

It just starting chundering there while I was burning a recovery disk, playing an mp3 and removing some unwanted items from the inverted dock at the top of the screen, the one that keeps making me open explorer to read some news article. 'Work smart from home' it's just telling me now.. Going to get on that and get it zapped ASAP

Thanks for the time taken to give me some advice everyone, I guess I'll probably be back with more question though.

 

[STU9000]

Actually I think I quite like this drop down dock feature, it reminds me of mac os. Is it a windows 7 feature or sony though?

Just turned off the RSS feed which is where the random news bulletins were coming from, that feature might come in handy though if I can configure it right.

 

[gregrocker]

A dock would be as Sony feature. You should be able to find it in All Programs.

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