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    New Dell laptop, needs to be cleaned

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Delman, Sep 10, 2006.

  1. Delman

    Delman Newbie

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    So I ordered a new laptop for my next year of college, and it got here this week. It's got 2 gigs of ram, core duo at 1.83, blah blah blah. However, as expected with Dell, it's got a whole lot of trialware and such on it. Everything runs on startup, as well. After doing a little cleaning myself, I believe it's down to about 49 running processes. I'm wondering what the easiest way to get all but the necessary things off of there is, besides a format. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
     
    Delman, Sep 10, 2006
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  2. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    not sure why you don't want to reformat, but that's the only way to get it clean. i reformatted my machine between every semester of law school to keep things clean and running lean and mean. if you're unwilling to reformat; i'd say you're good to go as you have it. i think a fresh install on my machine runs under 30 processes.

    good luck
     
    drumfu, Sep 10, 2006
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  3. pizza_joe

    pizza_joe Notebook Enthusiast

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    49 processes? s***.... my old desktop has like 4 antiviruses and spyware filters and I still only have 28 running at once...

    You should go into control panel, and delete everything thats useless (dont delete it if you dont know what it is :p, but then again windows wont let you...heh) happy cleaning
     
    pizza_joe, Sep 10, 2006
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  4. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

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    Yeh, I'm in the same boat as Delman.
    If I reformat with Dells CD won't I get the same crap back again? Is it possible to streamline their CD and remove the ****e?

    Also, I like the Symantec restore facility.

    What's the general concensus on sorting out a new Dell? Any disadvantages to a re-format?
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Sep 10, 2006
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  5. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    I'm not trying to sound mean, but please search our forums. This is a question that is asked weekly pratically.

    The Dell Disc does not contain the junkware. You are getting a clean OS disc.

    Even if you format, XP has several processes that are turned on by default. We have a guide that goes over how to optimize your laptop in the dummy section.
     
    Amber, Sep 10, 2006
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  6. mkg12

    mkg12 Newbie

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    Follow the Guide in her sig and you should be fine.
     
    mkg12, Sep 10, 2006
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  7. extra-ordinary_guy

    extra-ordinary_guy Notebook Consultant

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    Thanks S G
     
    extra-ordinary_guy, Sep 10, 2006
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  8. s4iscool

    s4iscool Notebook Deity

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    man thats noting :() my 1 month old m1210 has 65 running! I did not do reformat, and I do have a lot of programs installed on here.
     
    s4iscool, Sep 10, 2006
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  9. Leshii

    Leshii Notebook Evangelist

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    got new dell? reformat and install clean version of XP!
     
    Leshii, Sep 10, 2006
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  10. ScifiMike12

    ScifiMike12 Drinking the good stuff

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    Sorry for being off topic but for some reason that Recovery Disk provided by Dell also works on my other computers. I have an HP Media Center and I wanted to install MCE 2005 on it but it came with MCE. So, I thought why not the Dell recovery disk? AND IT WORKED! Did a clean install and now I have MCE 2005 on my HP computer. Awesome! :) :) :)
     
    ScifiMike12, Sep 10, 2006
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  11. DrJ

    DrJ Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well I just never let the av stuff finish installing on the first boot...then I went into safe mode and uninstalled all the av carp...then I booted normal again and got rid of most of the rest with Add or Remove Programs...that left a few of the Dell things that later bugged me, so then later I disabled and/or uninstalled them too...the whole process took just a few minutes, as I remember....

    I did the same on my other new notebooks...no google this, yahoo that, Office trials, etc. for me...I just blow them all away right at the start....
     
    DrJ, Sep 10, 2006
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