Help me kill Dell DataSafe

Alright, this is getting annoying.

DataSafe keeps bringing up a window in the lower right corner of my screen telling me "Some of the factory-installed software on your system is also available from the My Dell Downloads website..."

Here's the problem. It comes up about once every 30-45 seconds regardless of what I click. What can I do to keep this freaking thing from coming up?

 

Forget it. I'm uninstalling the entire program. If I ever need it again, I'll get it from Dell's site.

 

If you didn't want to uninstall it just go stop and disable the service.

 

I did that, but it gets old having to stop the service every time I boot up.

Oh well.

 

Uninstall it is the way to go. Pretty bad software imo anyway. I do clean installs, not "Dell-clean" installs.

And for backups of data I use network drive + SyncBack. Nice little freeware program that does a nice job of syncing/backing up/restoring, or pretty much anything you want. Keeps the documents on my 2 systems synced nicely, couple with Hamachi and I can access it on the road if I need to

 

Matt, I should have you do a desktop share with me and have you clean all the junk out for me.

This is my first Dell, and I was surprised that it didn't have the amount of junk that my Gateway FX and HP had on it.

I hate uninstalling stuff without knowing what it is just because I don't want to get rid of something I might need.

 

If it's just a notification then you can turn it off. Go to 'Control Panel -> Notification Area Icons' and there you will find what you need.

 

Clean installs are the best.
Just download all the drivers off the site.
Then sit back while you do Windows Update.
I've reformatted and added all my applications (games, antivirus, productivity software...) in about 7 hours, with probably 6 1/2 hours letting it install and update by itself.

 

I clean out the junk by formatting I tried the uninstall stuff game once and while it helped, I gained a ton more performance by just doing a clean install. Then just reinstalled all drivers. No real secret True Dell isn't horrible on the junk, but there is still a surprising amount. Even when I uninstalled all Dell added things, I dropped an extra 15-20 processes off that total by doing a fresh format and installing all drivers...probably most of that Windows not cleaning up properly, but even with registry edits it just wasn't worth my time.

 

I should of installed a clean version from the get-go. If it wasn't a matter of having to backup all my music and pictures and some game files, I would order W7 tonight from newegg.

 

What is W7?

 

Probably he is talking about Windows 7? But since you got a valid 'Windows 7 Home Premium OEM' serial under your laptop there is no need to buy a new copy of Windows 7. You can just download an original and clean image of 'Windows 7 Home Premium OEM' and burn it to DVD, then install it and activate with your valid serial. That's all.

 

I sure was!

You always point me in the right direction! Thanks!

And btw, how are you enjoying your new system? I love mine, with the exception that my screen has gone bad!

 

My pleasure, Chase. Well I really like my system so far. Already played plenty different games (could not resist to buy them at 'steam summer camp sale' ), and I am very pleased with laptop performance. The only thing I don't like is hot palm rest, so I prefer to use gamepad while playing games Also I want to notice it was a pain when I decided to re-paste it. It took me about 2 hours of time and bunch of nerves. As the result temperature dropped by 2-5c, but I will measure it more accurately next week and post it here, and the palm rest started to squeak when you placing your hand on the left side of it. Once I repaired it my keyboard started to rattle while typing.. LOL So think twice before taking your system apart. It's actually a very delicate system.

BTW, check your pm.

 

Just a quick question...When you say you tried to disable it from startup and you have to do it every time,had you tried disable it under the startup in Msconfig?That should disable it until you re-enable it again.

 

make sure you download from digital river and not a torrent. I chose this site randomly, but there are other similar sites that tell you how to make an iso out of the download. I never trust torrents, used to do my fair share of downloading, but every now and then when running an AV on some archived stuff a virus will pop up, leading me to believe some of them are using rootkits or new untraceable viruses. Maybe I'm a little paranoid.

Windows 7 Digital River direct links: English, Spanish, German, French; X86 & X64

 

Checked my message, thanks for the link!

On site tech just left after about 20 minutes and replaced my faulty screen. Every time he would pop a clip that holds the bezel and lid together, I could feel my stomach twist. Anyways, he had nothing but positive things to say about the XPS.

As far as your keyboard goes, don't you have to remove it when you re-paste? If so, my only advice is to take it apart again and make sure everything is tight. My XPS stays on a Kensington Laptop Riser when it's at home. I have only taken it off about 3 times since I've had it so unfortunately I don't use that keyboard hardly ever.

I will say this though, it is the best feeling board I have ever typed on!

I did disable it through msconfig and the tricky sucker still ran at each start up. I kept disabling it, and it would re-enable itself. Weird?

Thanks for the link! I should have done a clean install when I first got it. Now I have to decide whether I want to deal with backing everything up or loosing it if I decide do a clean install.

 

My luck, the rattling sound gone by itself. Thanks God I missed the disassembly process.

 

Haha it wasn't too comforting.

 

It is the same to disable the process of DataSafe, here is the solution.

Open control panel
Double click on the ‘Administrative Tools’
Double click on the ‘Services’
Scroll down and find the ‘SoftThinks Agent Service’, double click on it. In the pop-up window, change the startup type to ‘Disabled’, and then click ‘OK’.
Restart your computer, problem solved .

Source: Night Walker: Small top margin/gap on Windows 7 desktop, Dell computer