XPS15 L502 - Clean Install or Remove Apps?

Hi everyone,

I just rec'd my new XPS15 today - quite chuffed with it!

I'm trying to decide if I want to do a clean wipe/install of Windows, or if I just want to remove programs I probably won't need or that are useless junk.

If people do recommend removing stuff, is there a list anywhere from the current builds that indicates what can safely be removed?

I'm relatively techie for a non-tech person, but certainly no expert by any means. I just don't want to get in over my head with a clean install, so I wanted to see if people recommend one over the other for the average user vs. someone who's got a lot of technical knowledge.

Thanks!

 

Most new Dells don't have alot of bloatware on them. I only recommend a clean install if you have an SSD.

 

I am currently doing the clean install of Windows 7 on my dell xps 15 L502X never done this before and its pretty easy to do, just do not know if i should remove the recovery and OEM Partitions?

 

When I get mine I will just remove the programs I don't want from the CP. That's my initial idea anyway.

 

I always format, I also delete ALL partitions. Once windows is installed, I'll shink the volume to create a second partition for my junk. Uninstall leaves too much crap behind....

 

Why would you wipe out the recovery partition? Some people like the original software that came preinstalled. My E6410 and my L13 I never bothered to do a clean install because they had no bloatware whatsoever.

 

Theres nothing in recovery I want or need, thats why. I never suggested for everyone do as I do. Thats why I used "I" meaning me. I configure "my" pcs the way I want and use them. Why should I keep used HD space for something I don't want? Doesn't make sense to me.

 

There really wasn't all that much bloatware installed on my laptop. I'm usually pretty anal about doing clean installations but in this case, I just uninstalled the stuff that I didn't need. So I'm pretty happy overall - it's my first Dell laptop and I was fearing the worst.

 

When i will receive mine i am surely going to do clean install , i don't like pre installed windows on it

 

I wouldn't recommend fresh install unless you're going to use a different version of windows.

 

Why is that?

 

It's not too hard to remove most things you don't want from the stock windows, and it'd pretty much be a "fresh install" with drivers and softwares(that you want).

But if your system came with windows7 home and you want to use windows7 ultimate, you have no choice but to have a fresh install. Which isn't too complicated but quiet bothersome imo,

 

Now that's not true. You can do an easily do an upgrade installation.

 

Only when going from a 32 bit version of Windows 7, would you have to do a fresh install. This applies for all Windows 7 versions, except for starter and I'm not sure about it.

 

If you want clean - go clean.
If you want remove then remove.
As said, Dell has sooo much less bloat than before.
I'm lazy & deal with this stuff all day so I just removed what I didn't want, it works for me.
At work we do it differently for other reasons.

 

Personally I received my L502X yesterday (also ordered restore media for £5 just incase what I wanted to do didn't work), popped a blank DVD in and ran the backup software to create a set of recovery disks (again just incase I needed to get back to factory settings) and then slapped my own Windows Home Premium Retail disk in with SP1 slipstreamed into it.

Formatted the OS partition leaving the recovery partition intact and then told Win7 to install to the freshly formatted former OS partition, isntall went smoothly, I skipped putting a key in during the installer because I wasn't sure it'd be as forgiving as the activation in System properties once installed.

When booted I went into Control Panel > System and had Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with SP1 already on then just entered the dell key from the bottom of the laptop and activation went through a breeze

Heard a lot of stores about needing specific Dell OEM media to use their Win 7 key with so wasn't sure it'd work like it did but it seem retail disks are fine too! Installed all the drivers from the CD because I was too lazy to download them from the website and I had a nice clean system

 

Any particular order that the software has to be installed in. Coming from an ASUS ul30vt and on that system it had to be a specific order for it to work properly.

 

I didn't install any software apart from quickset for the pretty touch sensitive buttons

As far as driver installation goes, I put the CD in and it put ticks next to each driver that it detected the hardware for in my system and I just went down the list installing, went something along the lines of:

Chipset
Turbo boost stuff
Wifi/network
Nvidia Storage
Motion sensor
Trackpad
Intel Graphics
Nvidia Graphics

I didn't reboot when anything offered just carried on ploughing through, gave it a reboot or two after some post SP1 updates and its been fantastic.

Only issue i've encountered is that Heroes of Newerth won't run unless you force it to use the IGP because it obviously doesn't understand optimus very well - HoN seem to be pointing the finger at nvidia for this one but I am using the graphics drive straight off CD so may have luck if there are updated ones on the Dell site or when Nvidia release the universal 5xxM drivers.

 

these may be crazy words but i downloaded a version of windows 7 that is really fast and really faster than the one from dell,and even after i install all software i need,it still boot very fast.i like this copy.

 

You must have gotten the Windows 7 SS (super speed) version. I've been looking for a copy of it.

 

What excactly is Windows 7 SS?

 

Sweet Hes having you on unless hes on about Steady State

 

NoSlow5oh, I just saw this. That wasn't very nice. Go spank yourself.